International book thread

10 watchers
Aug 2023
9:10pm, 15 Aug 2023
108,587 posts
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Hanneke
Top 5 South Africa ☝️

Tomorrow is another day. Decided to start by top 5s, it gets too overwhelming otherwise and I'd rather you read the very best ☺️
Aug 2023
1:39pm, 16 Aug 2023
43,346 posts
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Night-owl
Oh yes Hann

If you need help locating a translator for a named book I can check that out.
Aug 2023
10:26am, 19 Aug 2023
43,372 posts
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Night-owl
An update finished

Elena knows by Claudia Piñeiro, translated by Frances Riddle. (Argentina)

A book that unfolds over a day a woman with Parkinsons Disease very personal to me as my dad had that so knew it wouldn't be joyous reading. I found it very sad.

Her daughter is found dead but Elena refuses to believe she killed herself and goes in search of a woman she believes can help her.

Argentina a very Catholic country covers subjects such as suicide and abortion which isn't allowed in the Catholic faith.

I'll blog in more detail later. I liked the writing and will read other books

Book nicely divided into 3 parts with the sub titles when she takes her 2nd 3rd and 4th pills
Aug 2023
1:25pm, 19 Aug 2023
63,463 posts
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LindsD
Thanks Owlie
Aug 2023
5:48pm, 19 Aug 2023
53,093 posts
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McGoohan
This is my next read:

Edogawa Rampo was actually a pen name of top Japanese thriller author Taro Hirai. This one is trans. by Ian Hughes.
Aug 2023
11:47am, 20 Aug 2023
43,381 posts
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Night-owl
Looks interesting McGoohan the few Japanese I've read have been quite good
Aug 2023
1:00pm, 20 Aug 2023
53,098 posts
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McGoohan
I'm halfway through. It's quite... odd
Aug 2023
10:56am, 22 Aug 2023
53,106 posts
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McGoohan
I finished it and rather enjoyed it by the end. There were some oddities:

1. Penguin are rather coy about it being actually written in 1928, instead the copyright page points to the 2008 translation.

2. As such, I was never sure whether some of the oddities in the text were due:
- a cultural difference
- a time difference

- both
- an odd translation
- an odd author

To illustrate, there's a bit where he is describing one of the characters in a room and "she heard a very faint sound above her head that seemed almost like the noise made by a grub."

Eh? A grub? Like a maggot or woodworm? Do grubs make a sound? I feel like there's a cultural context missing there. And I felt like that a few times in the book.

However, within its 97 pages it does manahe to wrongfoot the reader several times and for its time it does end in a satisfyingly open-ended way.
Aug 2023
1:16pm, 22 Aug 2023
108,909 posts
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Hanneke
I got this yesterday:

It will trigger a list of Japanese works.
Aug 2023
2:59pm, 22 Aug 2023
43,392 posts
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Night-owl
That's a great cover Hann.
In my limited knowledge of Japanese literature a lot of books seem to involve cats

About This Thread

Maintained by Night-owl
Do we really need another book thread?

Well I'm starting one anyway. It may be a solo thread...

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