19 October 2012
Call no: 800
Genre: historical fiction
Setting: 1940s, Spain
7 Stars
4 Comments
One of my RIP reads Translated from the Spanish by Lucia Graves Book 1 of The Cemetery of Forgotten Books In Barcelona a young boy is brought by his father to a secret place, The Cemetery of Forgotten Books. He … Continue reading
5 July 2012
Call no: 800
Genre: detective & mystery, psychological fiction
Setting: Berlin
7 Stars
2 Comments
translated from the German by Shaun Whiteside. Seeing a couple break-up in public Kris goes over to apologise to the woman. He tells her that her ex is sorry for what he has done, that he wishes he hadn’t, that … Continue reading
13 May 2012
Call no: 800
Genre: contemporary fiction, fictional biography
Setting: Afganistan
7 Stars
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The story of Enaiatollah Akbari, trans. from the Italian by Howard Curtis When Enaiat is around ten his mother takes him from his village in Afganistan and they travel Pakistan. And then, after a few days, she leaves him there, … Continue reading
1 December 2011
Genre: biography, non-fiction
Setting: 1800s, 1900s, Blasket Islands, Ireland
9 Stars
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Translated from the Irish (An tOileánach) by Robin Flower Tomás Ó Criomhthain, or, if you’d prefer an anglicised version, Thomas O’Crohan, was born on the Great Blasket Island in 1856. He lived all his life there as a farmer and … Continue reading
20 August 2010
Genre: general fiction
Setting: Paris
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by Raymond Radiguet translated by Christopher Moncrieff
Although the 1930′s mini challenge has come to an end, when I spotted this book at work I thought it might fit, and wanted to read more books of that time. Of course then I read the details and discovered that it was actually written earlier than that… Oh well :)
The devil in the flesh created quite a bit of a scandal when it was published, semi-autobiographical, the author wrote it from the age of sixteen to eighteen, after his own affair with a married woman. And that, my dears, is the central theme to this book. In fact, it is the end all and the be all of everything in this book. Our 15/16 year old narrator’s affair with a married woman. And I found that incredibly off-putting.
15 May 2010
Call no: 800
Genre: detective & mystery
Setting: France, Paris
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Author: Fred Vargas ; trans from the french by Sian Reynolds
An Adamsberg novel
Chief Inspector Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg has recently been transferred to Paris. His police methods aren’t exactly standard procedure and his inspectors have a lot to get used to. But they can have no doubt that he is a born policeman, and while even he is unable to explain how he arrives at his conclusions he is usually correct. In this case he thinks that there is something strange about the blue chalk circles that have been appearing in the Parisian streets. He is convinced that there is something sinister about them. Continue reading
18 May 2008
Genre: detective & mystery
Setting: Paris
2 Comments
Author: Fred Vargas
Trans: Sian Reynolds
As you may already know I’m a big fan of Fred Vargas’ work and while this one is a library copy I’ll be buying this when it comes out in the proper size. I can’t stand these trade publications versions. They make no sense to me. All the negatives of a hardback with none of the positives. But enough about that; on to the plot.
The most straight-forward way of describing this book is to say that it is a murder-mystery. But with characters like Adamsberg there is no such thing as a straight-forward case. So when he spots something a little “off” about the two bodies that have shown up he decides that this case his rather than giving them over to the Drugs Squad.
18 February 2008
Genre: detective & mystery
Setting: Paris
6 Comments
trans. Sian Reynolds
I’m a huge fan of Fred Vargas’ work. And this book is no exception. The star, once more, is Commissaire Adamsberg. The plot revolves around a series of murders, the first in 1943, the latest takes place in the present of the book. Adamsberg has a special interest in this case, and the judge he believes to have committed these crimes. In each case the murder victim is killed by three stab wounds. And in each case an assailant has been found, always suffering from amnesia but also having a murder weapon in his possession. In each case the police decide that this individual is responsible and, there you go, case closed. Adamsberg is not so sure.
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10 January 2007
Call no: 800
Genre: detective & mystery
Setting: France
9 Stars
2 Comments
The first Vargas book I read was Seeking Whom He May Devour, which I loved, and the reason I picked it up was because I liked the cover, well, this one doesn’t have quite such a gripping cover, but it really did grow on me. It is quite simple, just a tree picked out by a shaft of light in a garden, everything else is half hidden in the darkness. It really suits the story.
As I’ve mentioned before characters are what make, or break, a book for me. And this book has great, if slightly odd, stars. Eccentric is probably the polite term.
13 November 2006
Call no: 800
Genre: sff
Setting: Japan
8 Stars
2 Comments
trans from the Japanese: Philip Gabriel ISBN: 0099494094 ; Mental mayhem ; Mindspill “So you’re all set for money, then?” the boy named Crow asks in his characteristic sluggish voice. The kind of voice you have when you’ve just woken … Continue reading