I can't think of any book that I've read before that felt so compelling and so long at the same time. This one took me a while to get through and it wasn't all easy but I desperately wanted to find out what would happen. Our protagonist is a soldier who has lost his memory.… Continue reading Book Review: The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje
Tag: translation
Book Review: The Wax Child by Olga Ravn
The Wax Child - Olga Ravn (Book*hug Press, 2025) This is a book that I would describe as more style over substance. And I don't mean that to be a bad thing but it is making it hard for me to write a solid book review. The basic plot of the book is based on… Continue reading Book Review: The Wax Child by Olga Ravn
Book Review: The Cursed Friend by Beatrice Salvioni
The Cursed Friend - Beatrice Salvioni (HarperVia, 2024) This ARC had been languishing in a pile for a couple of years now (the book came out in May 2024). It had sounded interesting enough for me to grab a copy in the first place but somehow it never came to the top of my pile… Continue reading Book Review: The Cursed Friend by Beatrice Salvioni
Book Review: Horsefly by Mireille Gagnon
Horsefly - Mireille Gagnon (Coach House Books, 2025) (translated from the French by Pablo Strauss) I've read enough Quebecois literature in translation by now to know that it's all a little bit weird. But always in a very fascinating way. Horsefly is a story told in two timelines with two different men. Thomas is a… Continue reading Book Review: Horsefly by Mireille Gagnon
Book Review: Heart Lamp: Selected Stories by Banu Mushtaq
Heart Lamp - Banu Mushtaq (And Other Stories, 2025) When I heard that Heart Lamp was the winner of this year's International Booker Prize, I'll admit that my first reaction was disappointment in that cover. I had my bookseller eyes on in this circumstance, where short story collections don't generally sell that well and covers… Continue reading Book Review: Heart Lamp: Selected Stories by Banu Mushtaq
Book Review: Present Tense Machine by Gunnhild Oyehaug
Present Tense Machine - Gunnhild Oyehaug (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022) (translated from Norwegian by Kari Dickson) This is a book more about a concept than a story. Which isn't to say it's not an interesting book, it's just a book where it's more about the idea than the plot or the characters. Anna and… Continue reading Book Review: Present Tense Machine by Gunnhild Oyehaug
Book Review: Hard Copy by Fien Veldman
Hard Copy - Fien Veldman (Head of Zeus, 2024) (translated by Hester Velmans) This is such a weird book. Which isn't to say I didn't like it. I just don't know quite what to say about it. The basic premise is that a young woman, the unnamed narrator, falls in love with a printer. She… Continue reading Book Review: Hard Copy by Fien Veldman
Book Review: Abigail by Magda Szabo
Abigail - Magda Szabo (New York Review Books, 2020) This book was translated from the Hungarian by Len Rix. I think we can all be guilty sometimes of assuming that people who lived a long time ago (and by extension, books written by and about people who lived a long time ago), aren't going to… Continue reading Book Review: Abigail by Magda Szabo
Book Review: Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann
Tyll - Daniel Kehlmann (Pantheon Books, 2022) (translated from the German by Ross Benjamin) I had never heard of Tyll Ulenspiegel before picking up this novel but I gather that he's a well-known German folk figure. A classic trickster type, given to bawdy jokes. Here Kehlmann brings him into the context of the Thirty Years… Continue reading Book Review: Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann
Book Review: The Stolen Bicycle by Wu Ming-Yi
The Stolen Bicycle - Wu Ming-Yi (translated from Mandarin by Darryl Sterk) (Text Publishing, 2017) This was such an unexpected, playful, thoughtful, and informative book. It reads more like a non-fiction story rather than a novel, perhaps because it’s hard to tell at times how much is based on the author’s actual life. And perhaps… Continue reading Book Review: The Stolen Bicycle by Wu Ming-Yi
Karissa Reads Books 