Category: European Literature

Book Review, European Literature, Fantasy, featured, Fiction, Italian Literature, Novel, Thriller, Translation

The Twenty Days of Turin by Giorgio De Maria, translated from the Italian by Ramon Glazov

This is the second Lovecraftesque book I’ve read this year. (The first was The House on the Borderland, see review here.) Both The Twenty Days of Turin and William Hope Hodgson’s The House on the Borderland share a narrator’s P.O.V. and a godlike evil force that remains unexplained by the novel’s end. In both books the narrator is basically reconstructing historical events long separated from … Continue reading The Twenty Days of Turin by Giorgio De Maria, translated from the Italian by Ramon Glazov

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Book Review, European Literature, featured, Fiction, Film, French, French Literature, Noir, Novel, Thriller, Translation

Syndrome E by Franck Thilliez – translated from the French by Mark Poliotti

The detective in Syndrome E is a paranoid schizophrenic. While solving cases he is constantly accompanied by his hallucinations of his deceased six-year-old daughter. She is not giving him hints to help solve the case but acting like a six-year-old: crying out for attention; becoming sick at the sight of bloody crime scenes; complaining that she wants her father to play with her, feed her … Continue reading Syndrome E by Franck Thilliez – translated from the French by Mark Poliotti

james b chester
Book Review, European Literature, Fantasy, Fiction, German Literature, Novel, Translation

The End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky

A child is born during a very cold winter in early 20th century Germany. Her parents, a Catholic father and a Jewish mother, are not in the best of marriages. He is unable to rise above the 11th salary rank at work due to prejudice against his Jewish wife. She has been declared dead by her monied grandfather who actually sat shiva for her because … Continue reading The End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky

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Book Review, Classic, European Literature, featured, Fiction, Film, French, French Literature, Noir, Novella

Nazis in the Metro by Didier Daeninckx, translated from the French by Anna Moschovakis

On May 8, 1945, the day Nazi Germany surrendered, the French government began a massacre of Muslim nationalists in Algeria that ended with the deaths of 15,000 to 20,000 civilians. There were soldiers who fought for France in Germany who returned to Algeria only to find the families dead, and their homes destroyed. Not something I expected to learn in a gritty, noir detective novel … Continue reading Nazis in the Metro by Didier Daeninckx, translated from the French by Anna Moschovakis

james b chester
Book Review, Classic, English Literature, European Literature, Novella

Best Party Ever!! The Vampyre by John Polidori

In 1816 Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, Claire Clairmont and John Polidori spend a stormy week together in a villa near Lake Geneva, a party for the ages as they say. Stuck inside due to unseasonal rains and they pass their time together by telling each other scary stories. There was probably some drug-taking involved and everybody was basically lusting after everybody else but … Continue reading Best Party Ever!! The Vampyre by John Polidori

james b chester
Book Review, European Literature, Fiction, Italian Literature, Noir, Novel

Murder and Glass in Medieval Venice. “The Eye Stone” by Roberto Tiraboschi, Translated by Katherine Gregor

First an admission. This book opens with the life of a 12th century cleric who spends his days copying the books in the monastery’s library reading them in his spare time. This is something of an escapist fantasy for me. That’s my confession. I’m betting that I’m not alone. It’s not something I would want to do for life, but for a long weekend… Sounds … Continue reading Murder and Glass in Medieval Venice. “The Eye Stone” by Roberto Tiraboschi, Translated by Katherine Gregor

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Book Review, Classic, European Literature, Fiction, Novel, Translation

The Land of Green Plums by Herta Muller

How true is this opening line? When we don’t speak, we become unbearable, and when we do, we make fools of ourselves. Ms. Muller opens and closes her novel, The Land of Green Plums, with this line so she must thinks it’s important.  It must be the key her novel’s theme. What meaning can we find in it?  How different is the thought behind it … Continue reading The Land of Green Plums by Herta Muller

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Book Review, European Literature, Fiction, LGBT, Novel

Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman

This is the most romantic book I have read in a long time. Maybe ever. It’s also the sexiest. Hubba, hubba. I’m a little embarrassed to admit just how much it all held my attention. I found myself both anxious to turn the page to find out what happened next and reluctant to move on because what was written was so intense I didn’t want … Continue reading Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman

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Book Review, Classic, European Literature, Fantasy, Fiction, French, German Literature, Graphic Novel, History, Non-fiction

Two with Pictures: The Singing Bones and Yvain, the Knight of the Lion

I’ve been doing some reading for work. Since I teach 7th grade history and English reading for work takes me places it might not take other grown men. Not that I mind. Two strong contenders for actual classroom use this time around. The first is M.T. Anderson’s graphic novel (illustrations by Andrea Offermann) Yvain, The Night of the Lion based on the 12th century French epic … Continue reading Two with Pictures: The Singing Bones and Yvain, the Knight of the Lion

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Book Review, European Literature, Fantasy, Fiction, German Literature, Novel, Translation

Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yoko Tawada

A colleague at work asked me what I was reading last week. “I’m reading a novel about Russian polar bears written by a Japanese woman who lives in Berlin and writes in German.” “Oh.” You’ve probably never heard of this book, either. I found Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yoko Tawada, translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky, on the German shelves of the translated literature … Continue reading Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yoko Tawada

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Book Review, Classic, European Literature, Fiction, Novel, Russian Literature, Translation

The Letter Killers Club by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsk

Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsk’s novel, The Letter Killers Club, opens when an un-named narrator informs us he has been invited to attend  the weekly meeting of seven well-respected authors.  The author’s have come to the conclusion, most of them late in their careers, that by writing down their ideas they  prevent others from having them.  So instead of writing, they now meet once a week to tell … Continue reading The Letter Killers Club by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsk

james b chester
Book Review, English Literature, European Literature, Fiction, Novel, Uncategorized

Autumn by Ali Smith

This is a troublesome book. Ultimately, I enjoyed it, I was moved by it, I came to see its excellence. But it was a bumpy road getting there. I’ve been reading the Booker Long List blind for the most part.  I got as many of the books as my local library allows without reading anything about them, or much about them. (There are a few … Continue reading Autumn by Ali Smith

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