For The Book Obsessed
[ad_1] The protagonist of Vengeance is Mine, (translated by Jordan Stump from La Vengeance m’appartient), Marie NDiaye’s twelfth novel, is known to the reader only by her title and surname. A French lawyer, she is Maître Susane, and at the novel’s opening, she has recently opened a struggling law practice. She drives an ancient car … Read more
[ad_1] Perhaps there are no more famous witches than Shakespeare’s three “weyward” wenches. The crookedness of the Bard’s (and Britain’s) witches represented a cultural fear of an empty womb—the childless, the menopausal. Women were to be coupled and birthing. If they were not, they were witchy. Evil. Monstrously magical. But, for the reader, the witches … Read more
[ad_1] The world of Joma West’s debut novel, Face, is one where people can design an unborn baby that someone else delivers. Physical touch has been rendered obsolete. Individuals called menials are “programmed” to serve other people without question. Romantic relationships have evolved into transactional partnerships between people based on personal gain. What’s most compelling … Read more
[ad_1] Toño the Infallible, a novel by the Colombian writer Evelio Rosero, translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean and Victor Meadowcroft, is a shockingly twisted character study of one man’s malice towards society. Rosero explores the depths of remorseless hatred and how it grows when there is no balancing opposition to stop it. Set … Read more
[ad_1] Brenda Lozano’s Witches, translated from the Spanish by Heather Cleary, tells the story of the lives of two Mexican women: Feliciana, an aging curandera, or folk healer, living in a small rural village in Oaxaca who has gained an international reputation, and Zoe, a young journalist from Mexico City. Zoe is dispatched to interview … Read more
[ad_1] Blanche DuBois. Hamlet. Scarlett O’Hara. Heathcliffe. Has any celebrity couple created more memorable characterizations that linger in the public imagination than Vivien Leigh and Sir Laurence Olivier? In addition to their prolific work on stage and screen, modern audiences may not be aware they were also two of the first global celebrities. Obsession with … Read more
[ad_1] Irene Solà is an award-winning Catalan poet, novelist, and visual artist who won the 2020 European Union Prize for Literature for her second novel, When I Sing, Mountains Dance. Translated by Mara Faye Lethem, When I Sing, Mountains Dance depicts the griefs and joys of one human family against the vibrant backdrop of the … Read more
[ad_1] It’s always challenging to sum up a short story collection: each story can be as idea-rich as a novel, and good collections show off an author’s range at least as much as they gesture towards recurring themes. Charlie Jane Anders is an inventive writer with a dazzling skill for short stories, and her new … Read more
[ad_1] Fantasy worlds with magical power systems often include the idea of inherited magical ability, with magic handed down from one generation to the next or manifesting in a particular “chosen one” invested with special importance. But is that a good way to hand down power? What if those inheriting the power don’t want it? … Read more
[ad_1] In an early chapter from Karen Tucker’s debut novel Bewilderness, the narrator, Irene, and her friend Luce come upon a stash of opioids. “I peered down at the jumbled blue tablets,” Irene tells us. “They really did look about as harmless as breath mints, and yet even I knew I was at the edge … Read more