My love affair with the novella continues unabated. When bibliofreak informed me of the upcoming November novella challenge, I had a quick whip around the shelves and boxes and within 5 minutes had come up with this pile of contenders …..
Organised in three sections.
The bottom section – translated fiction (excepting German-speaking countries): From the bottom up:
Gasoline – Quim Monzo / The Garden of Secrets – Juan Goytisolo / A Castle in Romagna – Igor Stiks / Doctor Glas - Hjalmar Soderberg / One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – Alexander Solzhenitsyn / Red Lights – Georges Simenon / Alphabet of the Night – Jean-Euphele Milce / Bonsai – Alejandro Zambra /Customer Service – Benoit Duteurtre / The Pathseeker – Imre Kertesz
In the middle: novellas originally penned in English:
Dino Vicelli, Private Eye – Lori Weiner / A Kid for Two Farthings – Wolf Mankowitz / Henrietta’s War – Joyce Dennys / The Island – R J Price / Night Visits – Ron Butlin
At the top: From Germany and Austria and Switzerland:
Journey from The Past – Stefan Zweig / Portrait of the Mother as A Young Woman – Friedrich Christian Delius / Visitation – Jenny Erpenbeck / The Madwoman on a Pilgrimage – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe / A Minute’s Silence – Siegfried Lenz / Carsten the Trustee – Theodor Storm
At the very top another volume by Theodor Storm – The Rider on the White Horse and other stories. Strategically placed for a reason. Storm is the father of my love for the novella and I’ve written eulogised about his work elsewhere. Now it’s your chance to see what all my fuss is about because I’ll send a copy of this book to the winner of the following contest. Not only is it a desirable NYRB edition but it contains three of his very best novellas: The Rider on the White Horse, Immensee and Aquis Submersus.
Just tell me which of the books in my TBR stack I should read during November and why. Or maybe you can recommend something else. For the purposes of this exercise, I’m defining novella as a single story between 60 and 160 pages in length.
Random.org will declare the winner of the contest (which is open worldwide) on Monday 1st November, giving me plenty of time to send the book and you plenty of time to join in the challenge (which would be nice, but not essential!)
Effi Briest - Theodor Fontane (Readalong 
The Beauty Room - Regi Claire
My Mother's Lover - Urs Widmer
The Help - Kathryn Stockett
The Rule of Four - Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason
Noir - Robert Coover
The Taint of Midas - Anne Zouroudi
Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson
The Duel - Anton Chekhov
The Duel - Heinrich von Kleist
Gillespie and I - Jane Harris
State of Wonder - Ann Patchett
Titus Groan - Mervyn Peake
CIty of Dreadful Night - Peter Guttridge
Shadow Sister - Simone van der Vlugt
A Far Cry From Kensington - Muriel Spark
The Assault - Harry Mulisch
Next World Novella - Matthias Politycki
The Water Theatre - Lindsay Clark
Water For Elephants - Sara Gruen
The Liberation of Celia Kahn - J David Simons
Nocturnes - Kazuo Ishiguro
Hotel Du Lac - Anita Brookner
I love novellas, but hardly know any of these. I’d say One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich because it is such a classic, and I’ve read it! Then again, the Kertesz could be good. I’ve read two of his novels (both novellas I think but would have to check the pages) and liked them a lot: Liquidation, and Fatelessness. And, I hear the Delius is good. I bought it and gave it to my brother recently. He and his partner both liked it.
Then, there are some of my favourites, but I’ll just give one here, Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Chronicle of a death foretold. Great tone, great book.
Hmmm… perhaps I’ve disqualified myself by going overboard, but this is a subject dear to my heart.
It simply isn’t possible to go overboard about books on this blog, WG.
Thanks for reminding me about the Marquez. I have a copy of it somewhere ….
I have only heard of one of these – Bonsai – Alejandro Zambra so I vote for that one. I would love to see a review of this book – the blurbs rave about the writing and I also want to know why he picked the title he did. My husband does Bonsai and it is a very unique art form, not only because it is a living work of art, but because you need both artistic and horticultural knowledge to develop a spectacular tree.
PB
I have read just a few from your pile and if I were you, I would go for Visitation – Jenny Erpenbeck. It’s a quiet, though brilliant novella and I would love to read your review!