Books
Book recommendations from afar
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We get recommendations for holiday reading from bookstores in London, Jerusalem, Beijing and Brussels. Download MP3See the recommendations
World Books Remembrance: Heda Kovaly
Translating what became “Under a Cruel Star” by Heda Kovaly was a labor of love as well as a work of feminism. There were few memoirs around of a life that spanned Nazism and Stalinism. None was written by a woman.
World Books Review: Remembering “The Wrong Blood”
Balancing the domestic and the tragic, The Wrong Blood explores the ways in which political history and personal histories intertwine: the novel is an invaluable reminder of how, in the midst of war, love and continuity preserve the potential for a richer life despite the disaster.
World Books Review: Of Spongy Minds and Award-Winning Books
Call it anarchistic boorishness, an artist chomping on the hand that feeds him. But at least in this book Thomas Bernhard is honest about why he welcomes awards — he wants the money, especially because the amounts, given European largess to its culture-makers, are considerable.
World Books podcast: E.C. Osondu
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Nigerian-born writer E.C. Osondu explores the tragicomedies of cultural misunderstanding in his new short story collection Voice of America. The title is playfully ironic: the tales probe, with impish humor and sardonic urgency, the pratfalls of delusion: Africans dream of an impossible American plenty, while Americans fantasize about a non-existent African reality. Download MP3
Photos of the last decade
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A new collection of photographs chronicles the highs and lows of the past ten years. It is called “DECADE.” Host Marco Werman speaks with the editors and authors of DECADE, Terence McNamee, Deputy Director of the Brenthurst Foundation and Eamonn McCabe, an award-winning profession photographer in London. Download MP3 (Photo: Phaidon)Got a photo that represents the decade? Send it our way at theworld@pri.org
World Books Review: Visitation — Difficulty for Difficulty’s Sake?
That Jenny Erpenbeck’s latest novel, Visitation, is ambitious is unmistakable, for it is undeniably difficult and precisely crafted. Following in the footsteps of T.S. Eliot, who suggested that a difficult world as ours calls for a difficult literature, I think it a moot point as to whether the novel ultimately succeeds in its being difficult. Is it really difficult for difficulty’s sake? After finishing this novel I have to admit my own ambivalence, not based on, admittedly, its philosophical import, but because of the way it reads.
World Books Review: From Iran and Japan, Two Modern Visions of Horror
Thankfully, these fascinating short novels, while they provide plenty of genuine scares, transcend the grisly genre of “ghost stories” or “tales of madness,” partly because their authors self-consciously manipulate staid spine-tingling formulas.
World Books podcast: Gish Jen
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The title of Chinese-American writer Gish Jen’s latest novel, World And Town, suggests the story’s international resonance. Set in a small town in New England, the book examines the growing pressures — global and local, religious and technological — on the rural American experience. World Books editor Bill Marx spoke to Jen about what her novel says about the impact of the world on the American small town in the new millennium. Download MP3World Books Review: Tom McCarthy’s C
Catastrophic, consummate, and above all, cryptic
For all of the faults of this novel, which is on the shortlist for the 2010 Man Booker Prize, one can’t help but keep turning the pages. Author Tom McCarthy explores a darkness that is unpleasant, tedious, and disturbing, but also timely and fascinating. >>Read Tommy Wallach’s review
World Books podcast: Per Petterson
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Norwegian author Per Petterson’s 2007 novel Out Stealing Horses won him a worldwide readership as well as garnering him a number of major book prizes. His latest novel, I Curse the River of Time, continues the writer’s lyrical exploration of the bedevilments of mortality and time. World Books editor Bill Marx spoke to Petterson about his new book, the challenges of translation, and the reasons behind the current vogue for Scandinavian fiction. Download MP3World Books Review: A Norwegian Ghost Story
Winner of this year’s prestigious International Ibsen Award, Norwegian writer Jon Fosse is considered one of Europe’s finest living playwrights. Yet he is virtually unknown in America. Judging from this compelling novella, the neglect is not deserved.
World Books Review: A Masterpiece From Israel
Israeli novelist David Grossman’s new book is rooted in a reality so vivid, is so radiant with life, and is so precise in its delineation of its characters that it would be an important addition to the world’s literature at any time. But its publication now, when leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Territories are trying to broker a lasting peace, makes it required reading in a way few novels ever are.
World Books Review: David Grossman’s Lost Faith
In his most recent collection of essays on the intersection of politics and literature, Israeli novelist David Grossman fears his country is losing its soul, its cultural responses are hardening, its spiritual resources weakening dangerously.
World Books Review: The Early Doom and Gloom of a Spanish Genius
In this story collection mostly made up of tales written early in his career, Spain’s greatest living author, Javier Marías, wears his influences, particularly Jorge Luis Borges, on his sleeve.
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