world-literatures

[world-literatures]

just read: Beartown by Fredrik Backman

genres: contemporary

translator:  Neil Smith

rating: 2.5 star

themes: rape and sexual assault, community, parents and children,

#beartown #fredrik backman #translated #world fiction #sweden #europe #sorry I know everyone loves this book but I hated the writing so much

[world-literatures]

just read: Search History by Amy Taylor

A funny and timely novel about a woman who becomes obsessed with stalking the dormant social medias of her new boyfriends ex, who passed away. Described as "Rebecca" meets "Fleabag" which I would say is generally accurate, though without the finesse of either of those comps.

The first section of this I thought was great - funny, relatable, fast paced and zeitgeisty. The second half, I thought it dropped off a lot. I don't feel the author knew exactly what she wanted to say and brought all the threads together very clumsily. I felt she tried to 'redeem' the main character in a way that felt undeserved, and I wished she had leaned into it a little more. It's almost like she got too scared to 'go there' with the character and story and it made the ending unsatisfying. This is where the Rebecca and Fleabag comparisons really undermined the quality of the story.

It's a debut novel and I thought that really showed in some of the writing. I listened to the audiobook and liked the narrator. I would give this author another chance in the future.

genres: contemporary, romance

translator:  nil

rating: 2 star

themes: romance and dating in the modern era, social media, contemporary australia, identity, obsession

After fleeing to Melbourne in the wake of a breakup, all Ana has to show for herself is an unfulfilling job at an overly enthusiastic tech start-up and one particularly questionable dating app experience. Then she meets Evan. Charming, kind and financially responsible, Evan is a complete aberration from her usual type, and Ana feels like she has finally awoken from a long dating nightmare.

As much as she tries to let their burgeoning relationship unfold IRL, Ana can't resist the urge to find Evan online. When she discovers that his previous girlfriend, Emily, died unexpectedly in a hit-and-run less than a year ago, Ana begins to worry she's living in the shadow of his lost love. Soon she's obsessively comparing herself to Emily, trawling through her dormant social media accounts in the hope of understanding her better. Online, Evan and Emily's life together looked perfect, but just how perfect was it? And why won't he talk about it?

Search History is a sharply funny debut novel about identity, obsession and desire in the internet age from one of the most perceptive and original new voices in Australian fiction.

#search history #amy taylor #world fiction #auslit #australia #oceania #i really respected how coo coo bananas this girl acted until the author decided no none of that anymore #idk was a little ... #and then to say it's modern rebecca!

[world-literatures]

non-fiction around the world → books about various countries that I have enjoyed. included where the book gives some insight into the country itself, or it's history, culture or politics rather than books by people from that place in general

australia

my story by julia gillard - australia's first female prime minister's memoir

crossing the line: australia's secret history in the timor sea by kim mcgrath - an expose on australia's activities in the timor sea

dark emu by bruce pascoe - reexamination of Indigenous Australian cultures to argue against the common belief Indigenous peoples were a hunter-gatherer society

deep time dreaming: uncovering ancient australia by billy griffiths - ancient archeology in australia, and how learnings taken inform more about the ten thousand year old Indigenous cultures on the continent, in turn altering the idea of ownership, place and history in a colonised country

canberra by paul daley - a history on the capital city of australia, how it came to be, and it's unique character

mirror sydney: an atlas of reflections by vanessa berry - a book memorialising sydney through the authors various memories of specific places in the city

france

how paris became paris: the invention of the modern city by joan dejean - history of paris and the projects which developed it and ultimately defined the modern city

india

among tigers: fighting to bring back asia's big cats by ullas karanth - tiger conservation in india, with a focus on the the political and cultural landscape around the issue

italy

SPQR: a history of ancient rome by mary beard - detailed history of ancient rome & how it informed modern italy

palestine

the ethnic cleansing of palestine by ilan pappe - details history of israel/palestine with a focus on the ethnic cleansing during the nakba

south africa

black bull, ancestors and me: My life as a lesbian sangoma by nkunzi zandile nkabinde - a memoir which outlines the history of gayness in south africa

united states of america

stamped from the beginning: the definitive history of racist ideas in america by ibram x. kendi - traces the origins/roots of racism specifically in america to current day, to show how today's society is impacted and informed by history. by far the most illuminating book on the topic I have read

stonewall by martin duberman - a definitive history of the stonewall riots told through the lives of six prominent figures at the time. my favourite piece of media on the topic

vietnam

the penguin history of modern vietnam by Christopher E. Goscha - a history of vietnam from ancient times through to post-vietnam war

#non fiction #books around the world #non fiction botw #i have a ridic amount on my tbr

[world-literatures]

endless australian novels  → search history by amy taylor Predictably, I had found myself grappling with the post-breakup allure of transformation; the familiar sense that the conclusion of one chapter presented the opportunity to reemerge into the next as someone different, better; the elusive version of myself who was perfect and therefore successful and loved unconditionally and never hurt

#search history #amy taylor #australia

[world-literatures]

just read: Lady Joker by Kaoru Takamura

This is a complex crime fiction novel loosely based upon the Monster with 21 Faces case. It's also quite lengthy, to me possibly slightly overlong, but still very well plotted and paced.

I'd describe this book as challenging, but rewarding. It's detailed and complex, with a large cast of characters which weave in and out of the narrative. An expansive look at modern Japan, capitalism, greed and crime this novel is thematically rich and immersive.

Some parts were more entertaining then others and yet, I never felt my interest waning. I did find some of the cultural touchpoints and references eluded me - a Japanese person I think would feel more connected to this. And yet I was happy to come along for the ride anyway.

One highlight is the translation - it's excellently done. Meticulous prose that never feels clunky or confusing.

genres: crime

translator:  Marie Iida and Allison Markin Powell

rating: no rating

themes: capitalism and greed, corporate corruption, crime and justice, post-war Japan

One of Japan’s great modern masters, Kaoru Takamura, makes her English-language debut with this two-volume publication of her magnum opus.

Tokyo, 1995. Five men meet at the racetrack every Sunday to bet on horses. They have little in common except a deep disaffection with their lives, but together they represent the social struggles and griefs of post-War Japan: a poorly socialized genius stuck working as a welder; a demoted detective with a chip on his shoulder; a Zainichi Korean banker sick of being ostracized for his race; a struggling single dad of a teenage girl with Down syndrome. The fifth man bringing them all together is an elderly drugstore owner grieving his grandson, who has died suspiciously after the revelation of a family connection with the segregated buraku community, historically subjected to severe discrimination.

Intent on revenge against a society that values corporate behemoths more than human life, the five conspirators decide to carry out a heist: kidnap the CEO of Japan’s largest beer conglomerate and extract blood money from the company’s corrupt financiers.

Inspired by the unsolved true-crime kidnapping case perpetrated by "the Monster with 21 Faces", Lady Joker has become a cultural touchstone since its 1997 publication, acknowledged as the magnum opus by one of Japan’s literary masters, twice adapted for film and TV and often taught in high school and college classrooms.

#lady joker #kaoru takamura #world fiction #translated fiction #women in translation #east asian lit #asia #japan

[world-literatures]

books read in 2024 - no. 10

lady joker by kaoru takamura (trnsl.  marie lida &  allison markin powell )

#japan #lady joker #kaoru takamura

[world-literatures]

books read in 2024 - no. 8

we'll meet again in san francisco by duong thuy. (trnsl. elbert bloom)

#vietnam #we'll meet again in san francisco #duong thuy

[world-literatures]

just read: We'll Meet Again in San Francisco by Duong Thuy

This is a contemporary fiction, almost an anti-romance. It explores the tension the main character experiences between western and traditional Vietnamese living and expectations of women, especially in romance.

I thought the exploration of this tension was really well done, especially in the way this book used the 'love triangle' to tease that out. I also thought it had an interesting ending. Where it fell down for me a bit is that it was a little clunky, and I'm not sure if it was the writer or translator. But some scenes didn't really come together. I also thought it felt like the last third became very basic and rushed, whereas the first half had more descriptive and emotive writing.

I bought this book in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City when I was visiting in 2023. I thought the descriptions of Vietnam, particularly Saigon, were really nice. I felt like I was back there.

genres: contemporary

translator:  Elbert Bloom

rating: ★★★.5

themes: roles of women in society, romance and love, the Vietnam war and the Vietnamese diaspora

#we'll meet again in san francisco #duong thuy #world fiction #translated fiction #women in translation #southeast asian lit #asia #vietnam

[world-literatures]

have not been posting non-fic here as this really is a place for me to talk about novels BUT, I think I may create some sort of one off list of non fiction books abt certain countries I add to periodically just so it’s on here. But I won’t post that content actively on the dash

#just thought of it as I’m currently rly reading #a book about tiger conservation in India #and I plan to read a few books about Paris and London this year

[world-literatures]

just read: It Would Be Night in Caracas by Karina Sainz Borgo

I feel very mixed on this book. On one hand, I liked the writing in the line by line sense - it had some nice passages and a rhythmic, poetic style I enjoyed. I also liked the dual timelines.

On the other hand, I found this writing style a little nebulous and distant. I found it difficult to feel 'grounded' in this book, to find myself really immersed in the story and place.

I did think the last 30 or so pages were excellent though, and really brought me back into it when my interest was starting to wane. The author stuck the landing completely.

genres: contemporary, border fiction

translator:  Elizabeth Bryer

rating: ★★★

themes: grief and death, politics and revolution, immigration and refugees, war and violence

Told with gripping intensity, It Would be Night in Caracas chronicles one woman’s desperate battle to survive amid the dangerous, sometimes deadly, turbulence of modern Venezuela and the lengths she must go to secure her future. In Caracas, Venezuela, Adelaida Falcon stands over an open grave. Alone, except for harried undertakers, she buries her mother–the only family Adelaida has ever known.

Numb with grief, Adelaida returns to the apartment they shared. Outside the window that she tapes shut every night—to prevent the tear gas raining down on protesters in the streets from seeping in. When looters masquerading as revolutionaries take over her apartment, Adelaida resists and is beaten up. It is the beginning of a fight for survival in a country that has disintegrated into violence and anarchy, where citizens are increasingly pitted against each other. But as fate would have it, Adelaida is given a gruesome choice that could secure her escape.

Filled with riveting twists and turns, and told in a powerful, urgent voice, It Would Be Night in Caracas is a chilling reminder of how quickly the world we know can crumble.

#it would be night in caracas #karina sainz borgo #world fiction #translated fiction #women in translation #south american lit #south america #venezuela

[world-literatures]

Halfway through it would be night in Caracas and I’m not totally sold on it. I don’t think it’s very grounded idk how to explain it but it hasn’t really Put Me into the book and world

#just kinda words on a page but no feeling and atmosphere #but I’m gonna keep reading it

[world-literatures]

I started it would be nice in Caracas! I only read two chapters before I got eepy but I liked that the prose is really rhythmic

#but I’m also reading my physical tbr books since that my other goal so #will prob finish that book first

[world-literatures]

just read: The Vagrants by Yiyun Li

I've read some of Yiyun Li's short stories (the whole collection of "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" and some selected stories from "Gold Boy, Emerald Girl") but never one of her novels. I've owned this one for quite a while so it was nice to finally pick it up.

One thing about this book - it's not really what the jacket says. The premise is that a woman named Gu Shan is executed after the cultural revolution for being a counterrevolutionary which sparks a protest in the town of Muddy River. While this event does happen, it isn't until part 2 of the novel.

This is more of a character study about how these characters lives are informed and impacted by the cultural revolution. It is a study of the time period itself, narrowing in on the death of Mao Zedong and democratic protests in Beijing impact this small, rural town in China.

It's very well written but it's also very bleak. It's sort of a book you have to stay with - don't expect to rush through it. Sometimes it really was a "30 pages and I'm done for tonight" kind of book. That said, I like the way the author lingers on the details, sits in the characters heads to where it's actually uncomfortable. It really felt placed in this exact moment in time with these exact characters. I really like that instead of her, observing them, it's like she lets us see how they observe the world, think and feel.

Yiyun Li is a great writer and I would really like to read her entire catalog.

genres: historical fiction

translator:  nil

rating: ★★★★

themes: politics and revolution, love and sex, power and ambition

Brilliant and illuminating, this astonishing debut novel by the award-winning writer Yiyun Li is set in China in the late 1970s, when Beijing was rocked by the Democratic Wall Movement, an anti-Communist groundswell designed to move China beyond the dark shadow of the Cultural Revolution toward a more enlightened and open society. In this powerful and beautiful story, we follow a group of people in a small town during this dramatic and harrowing time, the era that was a forebear of the Tiananmen Square uprising.

Morning dawns on the provincial city of Muddy River. A young woman, Gu Shan, a bold spirit and a follower of Chairman Mao, has renounced her faith in Communism. Now a political prisoner, she is to be executed for her dissent. Her distraught mother, determined to follow the custom of burning her only child’s clothing to ease her journey into the next world, is about to make another bold decision. Shan’s father, Teacher Gu, who has already, in his heart and mind, buried his rebellious daughter, begins to retreat into memories. Neither of them imagines that their daughter’s death will have profound and far-reaching effects, in Muddy River and beyond.

In luminous prose, Yiyun Li weaves together the lives of these and other unforgettable characters, including a serious seven-year-old boy, Tong; a crippled girl named Nini; the sinister idler Bashi; and Kai, a beautiful radio news announcer who is married to a man from a powerful family. Life in a world of oppression and pain is portrayed through stories of resilience, sacrifice, perversion, courage, and belief. We read of delicate moments and acts of violence by mothers, sons, husbands, neighbors, wives, lovers, and more, as Gu Shan’s execution spurs a brutal government reaction.

Writing with profound emotion, and in the superb tradition of fiction by such writers as Orhan Pamuk and J. M. Coetzee, Yiyun Li gives us a stunning novel that is at once a picture of life in a special part of the world during a historic period, a universal portrait of human frailty and courage, and a mesmerizing work of art.

#the vagrants #yiyun li #world fiction #asian lit #china #asia

[world-literatures]

some 2024 world lit books on my TBR

These are books I actually immediately want to read, not just ones vaguely on my TBR for the future

We'll Meet Again in San Francisco by Duong Thuy (translated, Vietnam)

It Would Be Night in Caracas by Karina Sainz Borgo (translated, Venezuela)

Ruse by Cindy Pon (Taiwan)

Youth by Tove Ditlevsen (translated, Denmark)

The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano (translated, Mexico)

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (New Zealand)

The Living and the Rest by José Eduardo Agualusa (translated, Mozambique)

and Australian lit with it's own section as I have quite a bit as per usual

The Modern by Anna Kate Blair

Sad Girl Novel by Pip Finkemeyer

Grace Beside Me by Sue McPherson

In Moonland by Miles Allinson

Late, a novel by Michael Fitzgerald

Dropbear by Evelyn Araluen

#I have a lot more but realistically... I cannot get to all of them in a year #I need to check the storygraph read around the world challenge for 2024 as I might try to focus on the countries in that list #anyways !

[world-literatures]

I've been in Vietnam for a few weeks and I came home with two Vietnamese translated novels (Ru by Kim Thúy and We'll Meet Again in San Francisco by Duong Thuy) so looking forward to starting those

#I think I'll read one in Jan #atm reading nothing cos I'm too busy and not in the mood lol

[world-literatures]

just read: The Dry by Jane Harper

Suspenseful and gripping - I sped through this book. One of the highlights was definitely the setting in the remote Australian bush. Having lived in the wheatbelt of Australia, I definitely recognised these people and this oppressive feeling which lingers over the towns and its residents. There is two mysteries in this novel, one from the present and one from the past and I felt the author did a great job weaving the various storylines and timelines together.

However, the final third of this book fell flat for me. First, I thought it began to drag around the 50-75% mark. I also did not like the way in which the author chose to end this. Without giving too much away - my preference in mysteries is always that the clues given come together in a surprising and interesting way, not that a third unforeseen option comes to light to solve the mystery.

That said, this was an entertaining novel and I would consider picking up the sequels.

genres: mystery, thriller

translator:  nil

rating: ★★★

themes: rural living, abuse, childhood friendship, love and family

A small town hides big secrets in this atmospheric, page-turning debut mystery by award-winning author Jane Harper.

In the grip of the worst drought in a century, the farming community of Kiewarra is facing life and death choices daily when three members of a local family are found brutally slain. Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk reluctantly returns to his hometown for the funeral of his childhood friend, loath to face the townsfolk who turned their backs on him twenty years earlier. But as questions mount, Falk is forced to probe deeper into the deaths of the Hadler family. Because Falk and Luke Hadler shared a secret. A secret Falk thought was long buried. A secret Luke's death now threatens

#the dry #jane harper #world fiction #auslit #australia #oceania

[world-literatures]

endless australian novels → duck à l'orange for breakfast by karina may

Life is going to throw you some curveballs, but don't you dare let anyone dull that sparkle. You owe it to the world to share your gifts, but more than that - you owe it to yourself.

#duck a l'orange for breakfast