Book 10 of my 10 choices for #20BooksOfSummer23 is Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro (tr. Frances Riddle) which is an affecting read. It’s structured around Elena’s doses of medication for Parkinson’s which is a great way to weave in the idea of ‘crip time’, something many disabled people recognise. It’s explored as part of a compelling mystery #bookstodon #BookReview #Storygraph #WITMonth

https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/92d31073-bddf-4633-8ce2-4b3858a9dd35

#BookReview Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro
Tr. Frances Riddle
read as e-book, using a mix of electronic Braille and TTS
Charco Press
Pub. 2021
___

I heard about this book when it was longlisted for the Barbellion Prize which promotes literature that concerns issues around illness/disability. The author is known as a crime writer but I knew going in not to categorise it.
We follow Elena, who’s in her 60s and has Parkinson’s, as she goes through her day. We learn that her daughter, Rita, has died and she’s determined to prove that it was murder, not suicide as the police believe.
Elena’s day is not straightforward as even though she has a very fixed idea she must get to Isabel for help (a woman she met briefly 20 years ago) her #disability reduces her mobility and everything takes so much longer. Her movements are tied to her medication so she has to carefully pace herself in order to get to the train station, conserving enough to control her body to get through the journey before needing to take another pill. It’s a juggling act she’s learnt over recent years and now thatRita has died she’s all alone in the world.
Piñeiro has structured the book around Elena’s doses of medication which is a brilliant way to weave in the idea of ‘crip time’, something that many disabled people recognise in their lives. This is powerfully explored, showing the frustrations Elena has about not being able to hold her hed up straight and the difficulty she has in walking.
“even though she knows that her time isn’t measured with clocks she looks at her watch; it’s more than an hour until her next pill…her time that isn’t time measured with clocks has begun to run out like sand slipping between her fingers, like water, and, elena knows, she won’t be able to get up off that couch until after she takes her next pill”
Themes of motherhood, identity, religion and who controls a woman’s body are also all woven into this emotional and affecting novel.
#bookstodon #WITMonth @bookstodon

I finished a modest seven books this month, mainly because it was a Proust month (and Oxen of the Sun in Ulysses took a while). All except Marcel were women for #WITMonth (two actually in translation, and four in the original German).

http://chinese-poems.com/blog/?p=2573

Wisst ihr, was sich hinter der Abkürzung WIT verbirgt? Es steht für #WomeninTranslation, und die Bewegung setzt sich dafür ein, dass nicht englischschreibende Autorinnen* & deren Werke als Übersetzung oder im Original gelesen werden. Der sogenannte #WITmonth wird den ganzen August gefeiert mit dem Ziel, eine größere Sichtbarkeit für diese nachweislich unterrepräsentierte Gruppe in der internationalen Literaturbranche zu schaffen. Lasst uns gerne wissen, welche weiteren Beispiele ihr kennt. 📚/em

Book 6 of #WITMonth: People From My Neighbourhood by Hiromi Kawakami (translated by Ted Goodson) there is something about these stories and Kawakami that just doesn’t quite work for me. Sure these stories get under my skin but they also leave me wanting more.

Book 5 of #WITMonth: Loop by Brenda Lozano (translated by Annie McDermott) I don’t know why I love this book so much. Is it The Odyssey retelling, is it the literature conversation, or is it her obsession. This was just a great read and I’m ready to reread it!

A wanderer between two worlds: The Postman of Abruzzo by Vénus Khoury-Ghata, tranlated by Teresa Lavender Fagan #WITMonth

http://roughghosts.com/2023/08/29/a-wanderer-between-two-worlds-the-postman-of-abruzzo-by-venus-khoury-ghata/

Book 7 of my 10 choices for #20BooksOfSummer23 is Moshi-Moshi: A Novel by Banana Yoshimoto, 2010, tr. Asa Yoneda. I fell in love with her elegant writing, gulping it down in a day! It’s about grief and human connection and the afterward about the importance of community was very touching #WITMonth #bookstodon #BookReview #Storygraph
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/92b21108-a42d-4c6f-875b-edcabb3186ea

Book 4 of #WITMonth: Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata (translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori) I wasn’t a fan of these short stories, the oddity felt a little juvenile, and reminds me too much of Agustina Bazterrica. This isn’t my thing and I know she does better stories than this. The best story here was Hatchling, if it wasn’t for that, I may have given this 2 stars.

In a hidden corner of the world: In Red by Magdalena Tulli #WITMonth, #Polish Lit

http://roughghosts.com/2023/08/24/in-a-hidden-corner-of-the-world-in-red-by-magdalena-tulli/

📚 Women in Translation Month: top books to celebrate global writers

"We as readers deserve to have access to stories that truly reflect the vastness of the world in which we live"

#WITMonth #WomeninTranslation #WomeninTranslationMonth
#books #bookstodon

https://howtobe247.com/women-in-translation-month-top-books-to-celebrate-global-writers/

@lorywidmerhess @bookstodon Glad you completed the challenge. I’m on my last of 10 choices and it’s also abook for #WITMonth, Elena knows, and is great so far. I’ve enjoyed reading my 10 books and surprised myself by reviewing them all too which I wasn’t planning to do! They have all been brilliant reads but Moshi:Moshi and Small Things Like These were highlights. What were your favourites?

Book 3 of #WITMonth Miss Kim Knows and Other Stories by Cho Nam-Joo (translated by Jamie Chang) I’m so glad Cho Nam-Joo went back to exploring the gender gaps, this is where her writing really shines. I was so excited to see this short story collection existed, after Saha, I was worried about the future of her writing.

Woooo.

Just finished Leila Slimani's The Perfect Nanny (Morocco/France) (2016)

My 5th for #WomenInTranslation month.

I read it in one sitting. Could not put it down.

Definitely deserves all the awards:
Prix Goncourt (2016), Los Angeles Times Book Prize Nominee for Mystery/Thriller (2018), Edgar Award Nominee for Best Paperback Original (2019)

#WIT #WITmonth #books #bookstodon #Paris

Review of #ToveJansson's The True Deceiver (translated by Thomas Teal) for @BookJotter's #ToveTrove and #WITMonth.

Also, announcing #MoominWeek for 2024...

https://wp.me/s2oNj1-deceit

Book #2 for Women In Translation month #WIT is another novel by Maria Gainza Portrait of an Unknown Lady (Argentina)(2018)
again first person narrator, again an art critic, again set in Buenos Aires, again not taking the art world or herself too seriously.
Very mysterious subjects - art forgery, art forgers, galleries, museums, creativity. What happened to Reneé, gifted art forger and unforgettable personality?
Interesting, packed full of wit and wisdom.
#WITmonth #books #bookstodon #art

10 Must Read Titles by #WomenInTranslation

https://morebedsidebooks.tumblr.com/post/725274942693883904/10-must-read-titles-by-women-in-translation

#WITMonth #Bookstodon #TranslatedLiterature

Hab auf Arbeit eine Ausstellung anlässlich des Women in Translation-Month gemacht. Bin gespannt, wie das aufgenommen wird.

#WomenInTranslation #WIT #WITMonth #Bibliothek #BuchBubble

#BookReview Moshi-Moshi: A Novel by Banana Yoshimoto
tr. Asa Yoneda
read as e-book, using a mix of electronic Braille and TTS
pub. 2010, 210pp
___

Yocchan is living with her mother after her father dies in suspicious circumstances, trying to cope with her own grief while encouraging her mother to return home. Her mother believes the family home is haunted and is very happy to spend her days living in her daughter’s apartment, like a housemate, pottering around the local shops and cafes all day while Yocchan works in a bistro.
Yocchan’s father was a musician in a rock band, Sprout, and she travelled with him and her mother when he went on tour, living a rather bohemian childhood. She has fond memories of him as a loving father:
“He kept every promise he made to Mom or me, no matter how small, writing them down in his diary or on the back of his hand. even now, when I think of his hands, I see them in my mind's eye covered in notes.”
As the days go by, Yocchan reflects on life with her father, wondering about how well they really knew him:
“Even when he was alive, Dad had been like a hologram projected between us, showing us each a different image.”
Mother and daughter help one another cope with what has happened, talking frankly about their shared past and consoling each other. They keep returning to the day he died, trying to make sense of the tragedy, speculating on what he might have been thinking and feeling.
As the novel progresses, details emerge about yocchan’s father that may explain the mystery of his death and she has to confront his failings while continuing to support her mother.
I fell in love with Banana Yoshimoto’s elegant writing from the start and gulped this book down in a day. The afterward about loss and the importance of community was very touching and now I want to find an accessible copy of Kitchen, 1988, her most famous novel.
#bookstodon #WITMonth @bookstodon

Like its author this memoir is a quiet survivor--after disappearing from sight when first published in 1945 'A Bookshop in Berlin' by Françoise Frenkel was rediscovered in a charity sale in Nice in 2010 and tells of her life opening a French language bookshop in Berlin shortly after WWI, fleeing to Paris in 1939, and time in Southern France evading the Vichy gendarmes and Germans. It has a searing immediacy though told with restraint making it all the more affecting.

#bookReview #reading #WITMonth #VichyFrance #memoir @bookstodon

https://gallimaufrybookstudio.com/a-bookshop-in-berlin-francoise-frenkel-witmonth/