Review: One suitcase, eight stories – each representing the bizarre events behind a certain item belonging to a Soviet émigré as well as depicting life in the USSR from the 1960s to 1980s.
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Andrés Neuman: The Things We Don’t Do
In so few words, Andrés Neuman made me laugh, sigh, frown and marvel with the multiple universes that he created in The Things We Don’t Do. The 35 stories are short with a new one appearing every few pages, sometimes even just one. While they all start on a clean slate, the emotional baggage, astute observation, or wry…
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From print to screen
Would you read a book if you’ve already seen the film that was based on it, and vice versa?
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Soji Shimada: The Tokyo Zodiac Murders
The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Soji Shimada is an entertaining and brilliant example of the Honkaku genre in Japanese crime fiction where the mystery is solved using logical reasoning.
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Junichi Saga: Confessions of a Yakuza
Confessions of a Yakuza offers a brutally vivid and candid insight into the life of a former yakuza boss.
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Ivan Repila: The boy who stole Attila’s horse
Review: Why are Big and Small left to die in a well? Is this heartrending novella an allegory of the world we live in today?
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Yasunari Kawabata: House of the Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories
Review: This trio of short stories packs a heady dose of surrealism and desire. Life and death is often contemplated alongside memories of women once loved or desired.
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Stammered Songbook: A Mother’s Book of Hours by Erwin Mortier
Review: Erwin Mortier remembers his Alzheimer-stricken mother with this heartbreakingly beautiful tribute. Don’t expect to breeze through Stammered Songbook for it is hard to not be touched by Mortier’s vivid and sensitive prose.
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Amara Lakhous: Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio
Review: Clash of Civilisations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio is a delightful mix of social commentary, mystery and satire.
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