Alafair Burke’s The Wife Pushes Readers To Ask Themselves “Where Do You Draw The Line?”

  “…Alafair Burke has the intuitive ability to up-cycle genre trends, cherry-picking the best elements from an abundance of novels and current events, and then transforming them into something that still manages to feel wholly original. She is a master of her craft…” I know this is not the usual type of book (i.e. – not a translation) you expect to see reviewed here, but … Continue reading Alafair Burke’s The Wife Pushes Readers To Ask Themselves “Where Do You Draw The Line?”

The Case of Lisandra P. by Hélène Grémillon, translated by Alison Anderson – #WITMonth 2016

Title:  The Case of Lisandra P. Author:  Hélène Grémillon Translator:  Alison Anderson Publisher:  Penguin Books, New York (2016) ISBN:  978 0 14 312658 4   When writing #WITMonth posts, my first instinct is to spotlight only amazing books. And while those books definitely exist, it started to seem unfair to hold a writer to a ridiculously high standard because of her gender. It is perfectly … Continue reading The Case of Lisandra P. by Hélène Grémillon, translated by Alison Anderson – #WITMonth 2016

The Brotherhood of Book Hunters by Raphaël Jerusalmy, tr. Howard Curtis

Title: The Brotherhood of Book Hunters Author:   Raphaël Jerusalmy Translator:   Howard Curtis Publisher: Europa Editions, New York (2014) ISBN: 978 1 60945 230 8 The eighteenth century romance novel tradition with its lush descriptions of landscapes and settings is  just one of  the many threads Raphaël Jerusalmy weaves into a novel which features the 15th century French poet and rogue Francois Villon, a … Continue reading The Brotherhood of Book Hunters by Raphaël Jerusalmy, tr. Howard Curtis

The Genius of Georges Simenon – continued

2 The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien, translated by Linda Coverdale and published by Penguin Books, features Simenon’s Inspector Maigret.  A Parisian detective who starred in an impressive seventy-five novels & twenty-eight short stories. Of the three Simenon books I’m reviewing The Hanged Man… is the most conventional – being a fairly straight forward detective novel.  In it the off-duty Inspector Maigret spots a suspicious looking man at the train station … Continue reading The Genius of Georges Simenon – continued

The Genius of Georges Simenon – Part 1

Title:  The Strangers In the House Translator:  Geoffrey Sainsbury, with revisions by David Watson & others Publisher:  New York Review Books, New York ISBN:  978 1 59017 194 3   Title:  The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien Translator:  Linda Coverdale Publisher:  Penguin Books, London ISBN:  978 0 141 39345 2   Title:  The President Translator:  Daphne Woodward Publisher:  Melville House Publishing, Brooklyn ISBN:  978 1 935554 … Continue reading The Genius of Georges Simenon – Part 1