I Refuse by Per Petterson (transl. Don Bartlett): Best read when cheerful
You don’t read Per Petterson for his cheeriness but I Refuse seemed even more sombre than usual to me. In it two men, close friends when they were young, meet briefly one morning by coincidence....
View ArticlePaperbacks to Look Out for in October 2015
Sad to say I’ve not found many titles that appeal in the October paperback lists. Lots of commercial big names but the more literary variety seem to be even further in the back seat than usual. I’ve...
View ArticleBooks to Look Out for in October 2016
Back from my travels in central Europe – more of that later in the week – with a look at what’s on offer in October’s publishing schedules. Robert Seethaler’s A Whole Life was one of my books of last...
View ArticlePaperbacks to Look Out for in October 2017
There’s a nicely varied bunch of paperbacks in the offing for October. I’ll start off with a book that’s been popular in my neck of the Twitter woods for quite some months. ‘What if I don’t want to...
View ArticleBooks to Look Out for in December 2017
As ever, there’s very little in the way of new titles to trouble your credit card with in December. Probably a relief given the wear and tear of Christmas shopping. Elisa Lodato’s An Unremarkable Body...
View ArticleBooks to Look Out for in October 2019: Part One
This October sees a nicely varied selection of tempting new titles on offer including one by an author whose name I’ve been hoping to spot in the publishing schedules for some time. I loved Mary...
View ArticleEchoes of the City by Lars Saabye Christensen (transl. Don Bartlett): ‘This...
Norway is the one Scandinavian country I’ve yet to visit, slightly put off by reports of ruinous expense and rain, although I’m sure I’ll go at some stage. It’s part of the reason I was attracted to...
View ArticleBooks of the Year 2019: Part Four
We’re on the home stretch, now, heading towards the end of 2019, and already anticipating the shiny and new in 2020. September, which I like to call late summer stretching that in to October weather...
View ArticlePandemic Travels From My Sofa: Scandinavia
If 2020 had gone according to plan I’d have posted about our four-day break in the lovely city of Ghent in March and we’d be enjoying ourselves in Northern Italy right now. So strange are the times...
View ArticleFive Norwegian Novels I’ve Read
If your only acquaintance with Scandinavian novels is a cursory glance at the British bestseller lists, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the entire region turns out nothing but crime fiction. I’m...
View Article
More Pages to Explore .....