This lovely book took us just a little bit east of the border; but what a delightful journey!
SHORTLISTED FOR: 2020 PEN TRANSLATION PRIZE 2020 BEST TRANSLATED BOOK AWARD 2020 NATIONAL TRANSLATION AWARD 2020 ITALIAN PROSE IN TRANSLATION AWARD An epic for an era of migrants, border-crossings, and traumatic conflicts, Beyond Babylon takes us deep into the lives of people swept up in history. Telling the engrossing stories of two half- sisters who meet coincidentally in Tunisia, their mothers, and the elusive father who ties them all together, Igiaba Scego’s virtuosic novel spreads thickly over Argentina’s horrific Dirty War, the chaotic final years of Siad Barre’s brutal dictatorship in Somalia—which ended in catastrophic civil war—and the modern-day excesses of Italy’s right-wing politics.
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Image of author Christine Angot Just this week in Paris, the jury of the 2021 Prix Médicis literary prize announced its winners in the three recognized categories, with awards given to two French female writers and a Swedish author.
In the French novel category, the winner was Christine Angot for “Le Voyage dans l’Est”, a heart wrenching story that addresses domestic sexual abuse suffered by the author. French writer Jakuta Alikavazovic won the 2021 The Prix Médicis essay prize for “Like a Sky in Us”, and Sweden's Jonas Hassen Khemiri received the foreign novel prize for “La Claus Paternel”. The Prix Médicis is a French literary award given each year in November. It was founded in 1958 by Gala Barbisan and Jean-Pierre Giradoux. It is awarded to an author whose "fame does not yet match his talent." The award goes to a work of fiction in the French language. As the summer unfolds and we continue to emerge from the pandemic, shall we take a moment to celebrate the beauty of the garden? Now showing at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City are the early 20th century designs of French brothers André and Paul Vera who -- in their time --sought to develop a new style of gardens. The Vera brothers developed striking Art Deco drawings for gardens that paired a modern geometric order with elements of prized 17th-century landscape traditions. The exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt unites over 20 of the brothers’ drawings for gardens with their 1912 published treatise Le nouveau jardin (The New Garden).
In their transformative treatise, the brothers argued that garden design was an artistic and architectural exercise. They believed the same straight lines, right angles, and fashionable color palette that had recently come to define modernity in architecture and design should extend to domestic outdoor spaces. The Veras thought that gardens should “embrace cultural evolution and progress,” rejecting the naturalistic turn that had characterized 19th-century French landscape design. Instead, they returned to the formalism of style régulier (regular style), the French garden tradition which had achieved popularity in the 17th and 18th centuries. Although the Veras’ theories redefined the modern French garden, only a handful of their landscape designs were ever realized. To this day, these radical concepts are best understood through the drawings of fantasy gardens the Veras conceived to illustrate their philosophies. If the opportunity presents to explore their work, the illustrations are on exhibit through January 2, 2022. CHARM The noise that unfolds disputes the sky with the barking of dogs Charm words launched and then resumed goldsmith bits of hope gold thread broachers on the silk of waiting delight wafers on the gauze of time and polishers for manumissions rowers stretching the fabric of oblivion. Lamento of small full and golden bubbles light dive in the narrowness of the glass. Waves incarnation of the inaudible Evening full moon ALONE Alone at the table in the night which fills with shadow mother is listening notes, a voice often. She loves the seduction that escapes In that voice She loves and blames herself at the same time. Everything at your fingertips without effort, without suffering for that one, the other, the foreigner the enemy sometimes, her daughter. Alone at the table The mother smooths the blue raincoat with a distracted hand and heavy she loves and suffers immensely alone among her eight children. CHARME Le bruit qui se déploie dispute le ciel aux aboiements des chiens Charme des mots lancés et puis repris des mors d’orfèvre de l’espoir des brocheurs de fils d’or sur la soie de l’attente gaufreurs de délice sur la gaze du temps et polisseurs pour les manumissions rameurs tendant le tissu de l’oubli. Lamento de petites bulles pleines et dorées plongée de la lumière dans l’étroitesse du verre. Ondes incarnation des inaudibles Soir de pleine lune SEULE Seule à la table dans la nuit qui s’emplie d’ombre la mère écoute des notes, une voix souvent. Elle aime la séduction qui s’échappe De cette voix Elle aime et s’en veut à la fois. Tout à portée de main sans efforts, sans souffrances pour celle-là, l’autre, l’étrangère l’ennemi parfois, sa fille. Seule à la table La mère lisse le ciré bleu d’une main distraite et lourde elle aime et souffre immensément seule parmi ses huit enfants. Gerty Dambury was born in Guadeloupe. She has also published Mélancolie , nouvelles, Enclosed Fury, poetry, 1999 and Effervescences (Éditions du Manguier, 2010). Laurent Binet’s Civilisations takes us on quite an entertaining passage through history. We embark on a journey through a frame where Binet turns the world upside down, and explores alternate endings to the Viking’s Icelandic sagas, a parody of Columbus’s journal, and a fascinating reimagining of the Inca’s led by Prince Atahualpa's expedition to, and conquering of, Spain and other parts of Europe. Binet also navigates alternate biographies of Cervantes and Luther, with fascinating considerations of Martin Luther’s Reformation, the Spanish Inquisition, capitalism, the miracle of the printing press, and the Copernican Revolution as he reimagines the Inca takeover of much of western Europe. It is a thought-provoking and clever adventure.
Perhaps the journey truly begins with Binet’s debut, bestselling novel, HHhH (Himmlers Hirn heißt Heydrich). It is here that he commences his exploration of fictionalization as a possible explanation for the behavior of central characters in the chronicling of historical events. HHhH was awarded the 2010 Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman. Portuguese writer, Gonçalo M. Tavares' largest-scaled project - a series of ten books - was published in France in a single volume and applauded by critics, who classified the writer as "the Gaudí of language”.
The collection, "O Bairro", was published under the title “Le Quartier, Les Messieurs” (“O barrio, os senhores”), and is a compilation of titles, each dedicated to a homonymous “lord” of a great writer: “O Senhor Valéry” (winner of the Branquinho da Fonseca Prize), “O Senhor Henri”, “O Senhor Brecht”, “O Senhor Juarroz”, “O Senhor Kraus”, “O Senhor Calvino”, “O Senhor Walser ”,“ Mr. Breton ”,“ Mr. Swedenborg ”and“ Mr. Eliot ”. Tavares was born in 1970 and his first work entitled “O Reino”, which consists of four books, was published in 2001. He has been recognized for the originality of his creative projects and celebrated by international critics. Many of Tavares’ works have also been adapted to projects including plays, art instillations, art videos and opera. Moi les hommes, je les déteste, the controversial debut novel of 25 year-old Pauline Harmange, began in 2019 as a blog post in which she shared her frustrations with men’s apathy and overall disinterest in feminism and the frustrations experienced by women. Harmange was thrilled when obscure publisher, Monstrograph, offered to publish her volume and print 400 copies.
The story and her fame would have ended there except that an adviser to France’s ministry on gender equality demanded the book be banned on the grounds that the title tended to incite hatred. This heavy handed attempt at control generated significant buzz, resulting in Harmange’s misandrist manifesto enjoying a print run of 20 000 copies in France with additional requests for the book to be translated into 16 languages. Harmange, describes herself as the ‘harbinger of the feminist storm’ and confessed that despite the title of her manifesto: ‘I chose to marry one anyway, and to this day, I have to admit that I love him very much.’ Is it possible to run away from your self? Suffering through heartache and the unforgiving realities of over-indulgent drinking, Jack seeks retreat in Canada’s Northwest Territories. His frustrating attempts at escape result in his reaching a space of reflection, observation and understanding. Jack discovers that healing and wisdom await.
In his first novel, Denis Lord shares, with uncommon humor,—the challenges of a lost soul in search of communion and humanity. Begin your journey into Jack est scrap here. Photo of Wes Anderson courtesy of Wikipedia BY BONNIE STIERNBERG / APRIL 6, 2020 12:06 PM Wes Anderson’s highly anticipated movie The French Dispatch is the latest film to see its release date pushed back as a result of the pandemic. The New Yorker-inspired movie — originally slated to hit theaters on July 24 — has reportedly been pushed to Oct. 16. As Indiewire notes, “The original July 24 release date led many in the film industry to believe Searchlight would world premiere The French Dispatch at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival, but that event has been postponed until future dates that still haven’t been determined.” Now the film — which stars frequent Anderson collaborators Bill Murray, Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton and Frances McDormand, as well as Elisabeth Moss, Timothée Chalamet, Anjelica Huston and Saoirse Ronan — will be released in the fall, when most studios tend to release their awards-season contenders. The French Dispatch has been described as Anderson’s “love letter to journalists.” It is reportedly inspired by The New Yorker and centered around the writers and editors of a weekly magazine in a fictional French town called Ennui-sur-Blasé and three of its stories — “The Concrete Masterpiece” by J.K.L. Berensen, “Revisions to a Manifesto” by Lucinda Kre, and “The Private Dining Room of the Police Commissioner” by Roebuck Wrig. You’ll have to wait until Oct. 16 to see it, but tide yourself over by checking out the trailer here. Article shared courtesy of insidehook.com and Indiewire. Nobel- and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison, a leading figure in African-American literature, has explored slavery's enduring legacy in a poetic, raw voice that has influenced generations of writers. Here are five standout novels: - 'The Bluest Eye' (1970) - Morrison's first novel, published when she was 39, focused on a young black girl in 1940s Ohio who dreams of having blue eyes -- synonymous in her mind with whiteness and beauty in a world shadowed by slavery. It announced a vivid, raw voice, described at the time by the New York Times as "a prose so precise, so faithful to speech and so charged with pain and wonder that the novel becomes poetry". It met with mixed response at the time of its release and sales were low, but its fortunes turned when it was added to a university reading list. The novel has since provoked legal challenges and bans from schools in various US states for broaching controversial subjects including incest and child molestation. - 'Song of Solomon' (1977) - Morrison's second novel -- winner of the prestigious US National Book Critics Circle Award -- mixed magical realism, folklore and sociology to tell the story of a teenager trying to forget her past as a slave. It brought forth one of Morrison's animating themes -- the troubled search for identity in a hostile world. - 'Beloved' (1987) - With her fifth novel, Morrison created an overnight sensation by dramatising the harrowing true story of Margaret Garner, a fugitive slave who killed her daughter in 1856 to save her from a life of servitude. "It is an American masterpiece, and one which, moreover, in a curious way reassesses all the major novels of the time in which it is set," wrote A.S. Byatt in The Guardian when the book first appeared. "Beloved" controversially missed out on two top US awards when it was published, prompting 48 writers to sign an open letter in the New York Times Book Review decrying the failure to recognize Morrison. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 and was adapted into a film 10 years later, starring Oprah Winfrey as the mother, Sethe. - 'Paradise' (1998) - "Paradise" completed Morrison's trilogy of novels, which began with "Beloved" and continued with "Jazz" (1992), challenging mainstream accounts of the past by exploring specifically African-American history from the mid-19th century to the present day. Her first novel written after she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993, "Paradise" employed Morrison's typical style of split-narrative and jumping across time periods to explore the root causes of a brutal murder in an Oklahoma town in the 1970s. - 'Home' (2012) - Opening the novel with the question "Whose house is this?", Morrison goes on to explore another recurring theme in her work: the nature of home and how it makes or breaks us. She does this via a 20-something man returning from the Korean War to his family in Seattle -- "discharged from an integrated Army into a segregated homeland," as The New York Times put it in a review when the novel was published. Image courtesy of AFP/File Article reprinted courtesy of RFI |
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