Marie-Renée Lavoie writes in French, but has become one of my ‘must read everything (translated) authors’. She’s the author of a hilarious series of books that follow Diane, a disgruntled divorcee. You can check out my reviews of those two books here and here. Her latest book Some Maintenance Required, translated by Arielle Aaronson includes…
In honour of Father’s Day this month, I’m reading and reviewing books that feature father figures for my upcoming radio segment. The Boy and the Mountain; A Father, His Son, and a Journey of Discovery by Torbjørn Ekelund and translated by Becky L. Crook fit the bill perfectly. It’s a slim work of non-fiction that…
I distinctly remember picking this book out from a long list of pitches sent by a publisher, simply because the premise hooked me immediately; an old woman picks up the phone, hears one word, and shoots dead the husband she’s been married to for decades before fleeing their home. Now that’s a beginning to remember!…
Sometimes it feels good to just have a little cry, and you’ll have to keep the therapeutic benefits of sobbing in mind if you plan on reading If You Hear Me by Pascale Quiviger, translated from the French by Lazer Lederhendler. It’s a daunting read knowing it centers on the fracturing of a family’s life…
I seem to have great luck with the translated books that I read, and that success is mostly due to the careful eye of the editors at the Arachnide imprint from Canadian press House of Anansi. They regularly choose the best and the brightest when it comes to translated works that will impress English Canadians…
It was a mistake on my part to not give the first book in this series, Autopsy of a Boring Wife by Marie-Renee Lavoie its very own full review on my blog because it’s a stand-out novel for me. I’m finally righting that wrong and giving the second in the series, A Boring Wife Settles…
In the past few months I’ve reviewed a few works of climate fiction, but apparently they didn’t cause me enough anxiety so I kicked it up a notch with some non-fiction about our impending climate disaster instead. On Time and Water by Andri Snaer Magnason, translated from the Icelandic to English by Lytton Smith, focuses…
Hoo boy, this book is tough. It’s a difficult story, disturbing on many levels, but compulsively readable at the same time. There are, thankfully, trigger warnings at the beginning, (they call them ‘content notes’), so I’ll reiterate that before my readers go any further. Daniil & Vanya by Marie-Helene Larochelle, translated from the French by…
Every once in a while during my reading travels, I unknowingly pick up a book that speaks directly to me in that particular moment in my life. Because I read so many books, and consciously pick ones that I think I may like, this doesn’t come as a shock, but still, I sometimes feel as…
As I write this review, The Dishwasher by Stephane Laure, translated from the French by Pablo Strauss was named winner of the Amazon Canada First Novel Award just a few days ago. A prize devoted to first-time novelists only, it’s a highly-coveted way of launching one’s writing career, and the purse ain’t too shabby at…
Are you a fan of ‘noir fiction’ ? Do you even know what ‘noir’ means? There are various definitions for it, but I found this wikipedia listing pretty thorough, and the first sentence does enough for my purposes here: “In its modern form, noir has come to denote a marked darkness in theme and subject…
Written by the “grand dame of Dutch literature”, Sleepless Night by Margriet de Moor is 122 pages of reminiscing and remembrance. Translated from the Dutch by David Doherty, it follows a widow over one sleepless night as she bakes a Bundt cake in the dead of winter, recalling the unfortunate and early death of her…
