It’s rare to find a book whose title sums it up so perfectly, and perhaps rarer still that the exceptionality of this title was preserved in the process of translating it from French to English. The title “Disoriental” can be interpreted in a myriad of ways, yet it would be difficult to find a meaning… Continue reading Disoriental
Tag: Translated Fiction
The Discomfort of Evening
The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld (they, them, theirs) is a timely novel, fitting in perfectly with current-day discussions regarding the maturation and sexuality of pre-adolescents. Having received the coveted 2020 International Booker Prize in the wake of the ludicrous Cuties controversy and amid the release of the second, and equally cringey, season… Continue reading The Discomfort of Evening
A Man Called Ove
During a book launch event for Anxious People hosted by Left Bank Books in St. Louis, author Fredrik Backman said something along the lines of: I’m not a good writer. I’m a good storyteller. While Mr. Backman was certainly being modest, I understand the sentiment of his statement. His debut novel A Man Called Ove… Continue reading A Man Called Ove
Stella
Sometimes historical fiction is faithful to the last details, and other times it relies on a kernel of truth to blossom into an enticing, though largely fabricated, narrative. Stella is solidly in the second camp. Based on the real-life Stella Kübler, a German Jewish woman who famously collaborated with the Gestapo during WWII to expose… Continue reading Stella
The Memory Police
How does the loss of semantic memory affect our identities, our understanding of the world, and even our ability to live? This is the question at the center of Yoko Ogawa’s The Memory Police, originally published in Japan in 1994 and translated into English in 2019. This ethereal sci-fi exploration of memory follows an unnamed… Continue reading The Memory Police