Tag Archives: Literature in Translation

November 18, 2014 · 12:00 am

Review: The Heart Has Its Reasons by Maria Duenas

I received an advanced review copy of this book from Atria through NetGalley. This is an English translation of the original Spanish novel.

My Review:

Blanca Perea has just found out that her husband of 20 years has not only left her for a woman 15 years his junior, but he is also having a baby with this other woman. In order to escape the inexplicable pain she is experiencing, Blanca leaves Madrid and accepts an appointment as a visiting professor at a small university in California. She is essentially running away from and avoiding her problems.

Blanca’s main task as a visiting professor is to sort out the papers and documents of Andres Fontana, a deceased professor of Spanish Literature. What begins, for her, as a bland secretarial position, turns into a excavation and investigation into the fascinating life of this professor. But I would argue that the central figure in the book is not Blanca, or even Professor Fontana, but it is Daniel Carter, the professor’s student. Daniel takes one of Professor Fontana’s classes at the University of Pittsburgh and gains an appreciation for the Spanish language and culture that changes his life forever.

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8 Comments

Filed under Literature in Translation, Literature/Fiction

Tagged as Literary Fiction, Literature in Translation, Spain

November 16, 2014 · 10:20 am

Review: Suspended Sentences by Patrick Modiano

I received an advanced review copy of this book from Yale University Press through NetGalley. This book is the compilation of three French novellas that have been translated into English by Mark Polizzotti.

My Review:

I love to review short stories as well as longer works of fiction. These three stories by Patrick Modiano occupy the space somewhere between a short story and a full length work of fiction. This collection of stories, or novellas, are all set in Paris in the mid-twentieth century. They are all told from a first person point of view and are a bit rambling, almost as if they were the diaries or personal memoirs of the narrator in each story. The narratives jump from place to place and back and forth between different periods of time. It can be hard to keep track of where the author is trying to lead us. The tone of these tales are also very brooding, sad and even melancholy.

In the first novella, “Afterimage,” a woman meets a famous photographer while she is at a café in Paris. The photographer, whose name is Jansen, is an eccentric genius who eventually withdraws from the rest of the world. The narrator has volunteered to catalog his vast array of photographs which lay in old trunks in his studio. Jansen calls her “scribe” and she observes the odd habits of the artist until one day he completely drops out of sight, never to be heard from again. As the woman gets older and her own life seems unfulfilled, she begins to understand Jansen’s choice of disappearing.

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Filed under Literature/Fiction, Novella

Tagged as Fiction, Literature in Translation, Novella, Paris

November 12, 2014 · 8:47 am

Review: All Days are Night by Peter Stamm

I received an advanced copy of this book from the author through NetGalley. This edition of the book is translated by Michael Hoffman.

My Review:

When the book opens, Gillian is waking up in a hospital room after a terrible car accident. Her husband, Matthias, is dead, and she has been terribly disfigured. She must undergo several operations to repair her nose and make her look normal again. As Gillian spends a lot of time alone, she contemplates her previous life as a wife, a television news journalist and a minor celebrity.

On the night of the accident, Gillian had a terrible fight with her husband and they were both drinking heavily. Matthias found nude pictures of Gillian and confronted her about them. Gillian had conducted an interview with an artist named Hubert whose specialty was taking pictures of and painting nude women. Gillian starts meeting Hubert in secret and he tries to paint her nude as well, but he seems to have lost his artistic inspiration.

The second part of the book is narrated by Hubert himself. He is stuck in a marriage in which there is no real depth of emotions. When he met Gillian his artistic creativity is on the wane and he cannot quite figure out how to get it back. Hubert takes a job teaching art at a local college, which means more financial stability for his wife and son, but he seems unfulfilled and uninspired.

The range of emotions that the author conveys in this short novel is astonishing. Gillian feels guilt, pain, remorse and finally happiness. Hubert feels stifled, jealous and confused. This book brings to light the contrast between what we are on the outside and who we actually are behind the façade. Can Gillian and Hubert reconnect and get beyond their past? Can Hubert fully disconnect from his wife and move on? ALL DAYS ARE NIGHT is a short read, yet it is full of dialogue that will make you contemplate life, personal identity and the passage of time.

About The Author:

Peter Stamm grew up in Weinfelden in the canton of Thurgau the son of an accountant. After completing primary and secondary school he spent three years as an apprentice accountant and then 5 as an accountant. He then chose to go back to school at the University of Zurich taking courses in a variety of fields including English studies, Business informatics, Psychology, and Psychopathology. During this time he also worked as an intern at a psychiatric clinic. After living for a time in New York, Paris, and Scandinavia he settled down in 1990 as a writer and freelance journalist in Zurich. He wrote articles for, among others, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the Tages-Anzeiger, Die Weltwoche, and the satirical newspaper Nebelspalter. Since 1997 he has belonged to the editorial staff of the quarterly literary magazine “Entwürfe für Literatur.” He lives in Winterthur.