Booker Shortlist 2011 – The Sisters Brothers – Patrick De Witt

The second Canadian novel on this year’s Booker shortlist and, although you might not think a Western could have much in common with a story of a jazz band in Nazi Germany, I was immediately struck by the similarities to the first. Both are first person narratives involving lots of time on the road with redemption of [...]

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Announcing German Literature Month

*** Fanfare please *** I’m happy ecstatic to announce that Caroline from Beauty is A Sleeping Cat and myself are co-hosting a German Literature Month in November.  Ever since Iris from Iris on Books hosted her Month of Dutch Literature,  it’s been on our minds to do something similar for the literature of the German-speaking countries. We both share a passion for the literature of [...]

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Booker Shortlist 2011: Half-Blood Blues – Esi Edugyan

There was much bemoaning and bewailing last year when not a single Canadian title appeared on the 2010 longlist.  This year the fight back is on with a double whammy on the shortlist – both of which appealed to me right away.  Esi Edugyan’s Half Blood Blues opens in Paris in 1940 as the remaining members of the Hot Time [...]

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The Pledge – Friedrich Dürrenmatt

The following conversation ensues as Inspector Matthäi is taking his leave from the parents of a murdered 8-year old child. Who is the murderer?” she asked in a voice so calm and sober that Matthäi was startled. “I intend to find that out, Frau Moser”.“The woman just looked at him.  Her gaze was threatening, imperious. “Is that [...]

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BBAW Giveway: Pick Yourself A Book (International)

Apologies to Book Blogger Appreciation Week. My time is so short at the moment, I can but be a perfunctory player. But let’s make that play a positive one, shall we?  How about a choose yourself a book giveaway?  Sounds good?  OK, let’s do it. Simply pick yourself a book up to the value of [...]

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Detective Mueller – Augusta Groner

You just never know when a reading journey is beginning.  A trip to the World Literature Weekend in London in June led to a subscription to the excellent World Literature Today magazine and the first issue of my subscription fortuitously contained a comprehensive feature on German language crime writing. This has come in very useful now that the Crime [...]

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Booker Shortlist 2011 Book 1: The Sense of An Ending – Julian Barnes

I didn’t like Arthur and George.  I was possibly the only reader in the universe who didn’t but there you go.  So when Barnes’s new novel was published, I wasn’t first in the queue.  Then I read the blurb: Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate [...]

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I may live to regret this ….

but something unusual happened today.  The Booker shortlist was announced …. and all 6 books are already in hand.   So unusual, this is a first.  As I’m on restricted book buying from now until the end of the year (i.e 1 book per month – embargos don’t work so I’ve given up on them), it would be [...]

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Crime – Ferdinand von Schirach

Grüß Gott,  meine Damen und Herren! After a two week detour to Edinburgh, I’m rejoining the Crime on A Europass Tour now that the train has arrived in Munich,  the city where my love affair with Germany began and where the Weisswurst (white sausage) is delicious and the beer is even better! Munich is also home to Ferdinand [...]

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420 Hours in Edinburgh: Hours 412-420

Monday 29.08.2011 Such a bittersweet day. An enthralling programme to be followed by a farewell.  Oh, be still my aching heart. First up, in the writer’s retreat, Rebecca Hunt and her huge, smelly, sweaty black dog of depression, Mr Chartwell.  The writer’s retreat, the smallest venue in the EIBF, and I was glad that sound [...]

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