Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie's Aya de Yopougon 4 Gallimard, 2008 Read: At the table, because I said that I would use my dictionary to look up all the French words that I don't know (of course I always say that, but I never do) Warning: As the fourth book in
Acts of violence and devotion, rape and worship, funerals and betrothals, love-scenes and convent-life, adultery and illness: this medieval saga has so many facets to it that I was not expecting. Not the least of which being that it gripped my attention more tightly than any of the contemporary novels
Let me begin by saying that the cover of this novel is perfect. Juliet, with her eyes closed: she could be anywhere, but in assembling an understanding of the world around her, images from her time in Nicaragua serve as a foundation. And the vivid imagery: the combination of photographs
It's legendary now, that Madeleine L'Engle's classic novel was rejected by numerous publishers and eventually even its agent handed the book back to its author. It was "too different", different because it credited young readers with being able to grapple with the concept of evil, and because it
Nathacha Appanah's The Last Brother Translator Geoffrey Strachan (French) Graywolf Press, 2011 A Graywolf Press publication, a contender for The Tournament of Books, with a gorgeous and haunting cover image: all excellent reasons for picking up a copy of The Last Brother without reading a single word. And then you meet
