I Served the King of England

This month’s book for Savidge Reads’ and Kimbofo’s book group was I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal. This Czech book in translation was my choice. I first came across Hrabal six years ago when I took a Slavonic literature course as an elective at University and read his novella Closely Observed Trains; [...]

African Literature

Recently I have been contemplating gaps in my reading or areas of literature where I would like to be more knowledgeable. I am a relatively diverse reader and do read a number of books in translation. Primarily any reading in translation that I’ve done this year has been French; there has also been a handful [...]

Voice Over

They have known each other for a long time. She has never quite been able to recall the moment when they met, the place, the precise day, whether she shook his hand or they kissed on the cheek. Nor has she ever thought to ask him. She does have a first memory, though. As she [...]

Belated Birthday Gift

On Friday evening I received a welcome and wonderful surprise in my e-mail inbox. An exceptionally generous friend had sent me an Amazon gift voucher as a belated birthday gift with apologies for forgetting. I jumped up and down in glee. Large Amazon purchases of books used to be a regular feature in my life [...]

The Summer Book

I liked The Summer Book by Tove Jansson (translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal) but I didn’t love it. I enjoyed its gentle simplicity and its understated beauty. I also enjoyed the fact that each chapter was a vignette and that the book had no actual plot – the events of each section take [...]

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