A book for #internationaltranslationday2025: Frankenstein in Baghdad by Iraqi author Ahmed Sadaawi. Saadawi transposes Frankenstein to Baghdad in the 2000s, after the US invasion. A darkly comic novel and utterly original. Translated by Jonathan Wright. talking-about-books.com/2019/09/28/f...

This week's #bookreview: Caitlin Weaver's Such A Good Family, about the fallout from a rape. And about relationships in all their complexity. Lorrie and Eden are best friends. But how will they cope when Lorrie's son rapes Eden's daughter? talking-about-books.com/2025/09/27/s...

A #bookintranslation: Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov, about a man living in the grey zone in Ukraine, between the Russian army and Ukrainian forces. A political story, told by an innocent. Translated by Boris Dralyuk. #fiction talking-about-books.com/2022/04/02/g...

This week's #bookreview: Yasunari Kawabata's Snow Country, a dreamlike book about the relationship between a wealthy man and a geisha. With a strong sense of place. Translated by Edward G. Seidensticker. #fiction #japaneseauthor @penguinbooksusa.bsky.social talking-about-books.com/2025/09/20/s...

A #bookintranslation: Japanese writer Kobo Abe's The Woman in the Dunes, a book set on the coast about a man caught up with the local population. Translated from Japanese by E. Dale Saunders. #fiction #bookreview talking-about-books.com/2015/06/22/t...

This week's #bookreview: The Lost Child by Caryl Phillips, a novel about those who are lost, unmoored and do not fit in. Bookended by chapters on another lost child, Emily Brontë's Heathcliff. @vintagebooks.bsky.social #fiction talking-about-books.com/2025/09/13/t...

A #bookintranslation for this week: The Last Will and Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo by Germano Almeida, from Cabo Verde. A man's life told through his will, which is 378 pages long. Translated by Sylvia Glaser. #fiction talking-about-books.com/2020/08/08/t...

This week's #bookreview: Playground, a brilliant novel by Richard Powers, which follows four people whose lives are in some way intertwined with the #ocean. Powers writes about big issues: the ocean, the effect of AI, the fate of small islands and much more. talking-about-books.com/2025/09/06/p...

Over the month, I'll share some good #booksintranslation. Starting with Uruguayan author Daniel Mella's Older Brother, a novel about a man trying to come to terms with his brother's death. A book about grief and loss. Transl. Megan McDowell @charcopress.com talking-about-books.com/2022/10/22/o...

Words are magic

For the last day of #WomeninTranslationMonth, here are a series of recommended books: from India, Africa and Latin America.

This week's #bookreview: Seamus Heaney's Station Island, a collection of #poems , many of them on the role of the poet in politics and history: observer or participant? Complex and rich, poems that yield more with each reading. @faberbooks.bsky.social #poetry talking-about-books.com/2025/08/30/s...

I had to share this...

A book for #WomeninTranslationMonth: Narine Abgaryan's Three Apples Fell from the Sky, a story about an Armenian village. Gentle, very enjoyable. Translated by Lisa C. Hayden. A book to escape into, especially now. #fiction #booksintranslation talking-about-books.com/2023/10/07/t...

This week's #bookreview: The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas, a historical #gothic novel set in 1800s Mexico. Beatriz hopes that her husband's home will be her refuge, but the house does not want her there. Chilling @isabelcanas.bsky.social @solarisbooks.bsky.social talking-about-books.com/2025/08/23/t...

"The veil of politeness often hides the negative undercurrents within families." Talking About Books interviewed @usharaman.bsky.social on her debut novel, her poetry, and the effect of media on reading #books. #authorinterview talking-about-books.com/2025/08/21/b...

A book for #WomeninTranslationMonth: Maja Lunde's The History of Bees, a novel that centres around the disappearance of bees. It follows three people: William in 1852 England; George in 2007 US; and Tao in 2098 China. Translated by Diane Oatley. #books talking-about-books.com/2019/05/25/t...

Photos for #WorldPhotographyDay. The big freeze in February 2012 along Lake Geneva; my Ayahma; and the Chowmahallah Palace in Hyderabad.

This week's #bookreview: Against the Loveless World by @susanabulhawa.bsky.social, a novel about a Palestinian woman. A book about exile, love, and violence—sexual, institutional and that of displacement. Powerful, moving. @bloomsburybooks.bsky.social talking-about-books.com/2025/08/16/a...

A book for #WomeninTranslationMonth: Elena Knows by @claudiapineiro.bsky.social. Packs a punch for such a slim book. About hypocrisy, the burden of care, and the lack of control women have over their bodies. Fantastic. Trans. Frances Riddle. @charcopress.com talking-about-books.com/2023/01/21/e...

World Elephant Day is an international annual event on August 12, dedicated to the preservation and protection of the world's elephants. #WorldElephantDay #ElephantDay #Elephant #Elephants #mammals #wildlife #nature #wildlifenet

This week's #bookreview: Jeferson Tenório's The Dark Side of Skin, a powerful book about #racism in #Brazil & a son's love for his father. Pedro pieces together his father's life and death to understand his own. Trans. Bruna Dantas Lobato. @charcopress.com talking-about-books.com/2025/08/09/t...

The shortlist for the Wainwright Prizes has been announced! #bookawards @wainwrightprize.bsky.social #books #naturewriting wainwrightprize.com/shortlist-20...

A book for #WomeninTranslationMonth: This Tilting World by Tunisian author Colette Fellous, a #memoir about a woman trying to come to terms with a friend's death and the 2015 terrorist attacks in Tunis. Transl. Sophie Lewis. @lesfugitivespress.bsky.social talking-about-books.com/2022/06/18/t...

This week's #bookreview: Murder in the Pettah by Jeanne Cambrai, a #whodunnit set in Colombo, Sri Lanka. CV is hired to look into the murder of a young British woman, but the more he uncovers, the murkier it becomes. #CrimeFiction @penguinbooksusa.bsky.social talking-about-books.com/2025/08/02/m...

Trying to read some Greenlandic/Inuit writing before I travel to #Greenland next month. Any recommendations? #AnnandanafricaninGreenland

This week's #bookreview: A book about Abid Hasan Safrani, a "quiet revolutionary" in the Indian independence movement and Subhas Chandra Bose's right-hand man. A fascinating account of a dedicated, uncompromising man. And someone I knew as a child. talking-about-books.com/2025/07/26/a...

We're delighted to announce the receipt of THREE @englishpen.bsky.social awards for CHILCO, ON EARTH AS IT IS BENEATH and LA LUCHA! More info: www.englishpen.org/posts/news/p...

Friday, 8 Aug., 7:30 pm IST / 16:00 CET: HLF Online session on poetry by South Asian women with Lopamudra Basu, Professor of English, University of Wisconsin-Stout, and Feroza Jussawalla, Professor Emerita, University of New Mexico, in conversation with Usha Raman. Watch at youtube.com/c/HLF-India

This week's #bookreview: Seishi Yokomizo's The Devil's Flute Murders, a twisty #whodunnit set in post-World War II Japan. A man seen alive months after his suicide, dark family secrets, and mysterious music seeming to come from nowhere. @pushkinpress.com talking-about-books.com/2025/07/19/t...

This week's #bookreview: Eurotrash by Christian Kracht, a tragicomic novel about a man taking his 80-year-old mother for a trip through Switzerland and, in the process, giving away a huge fortune. @serpentstail.bsky.social #fiction #booksintranslation talking-about-books.com/2025/07/12/e...

Something to make your day. What a sweetie.

This week's #bookreview: Margaret Atwood's Dearly, poems about loss, absence, murdered women, humans' destruction of the planet—and werewolves, aliens and zombies. A rich and very enjoyable collection. @margaretatwood.bsky.social #poetry talking-about-books.com/2025/07/05/d...

An extra #bookreview this week: Mindscapes, a collection of #artwork by children with #specialneeds. Artists are mostly children and young people from India, aged between 9 and 24, and all face physical or mental challenges. talking-about-books.com/2025/07/02/m...

This week's #bookreview: Homesick by Jennifer Croft, a moving and funny coming-of-age story about two sisters. Croft captures the nuances of a close relationship. Loved it. #fiction #memoirs @charcopress.com #fiction talking-about-books.com/2025/06/28/h...

This week's #bookreview: Banu Mushtaq's Heart Lamp, set in the southern Indian Muslim communities, winner of the Int'l Booker. Mushtaq's work as a activist for #womensrights comes through. Trans Deepa Bhasthi. @thebookerprizes.com @andotherstories.bsky.social talking-about-books.com/2025/06/21/h...

"I had written about the Middle East but missing from the narrative were the voices of the people themselves." Talking About Books interviewed Rebecca Lowe about her 2016 trip cycling from London to Tehran and her book The Slow Road to Tehran. #authorinterview talking-about-books.com/2025/06/18/c...

This week's #bookreview: Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov, a novel about time and nostalgia, about the fragility of memory and the political manipulation of the past. Intriguing. Translated by Angela Rodel. #booksintranslation #fiction talking-about-books.com/2025/06/14/t...

Dan Storper, who brought global music to Western audiences through Putumayo, dies at 74. I discovered so many wonderful artists through this label. Thank you! @putumayoworldmusic.bsky.social www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

This week's #bookreview: Usha Raman's Polite Conversations, a book about mothers and daughters and the things we leave unsaid. Raman captures relationships—and grief—beautifully. #fiction @usharaman.bsky.social talking-about-books.com/2025/06/07/p...

My amaryllis has outdone itself this year by producing three flowers! #flowers

The Hyderabad Literary Festival is holding an in-person session on Sat. 14 June with Daneesh Majid on his book The Hyderabadis: From 1947 to the Present Day, in which he uses oral histories, interviews and his personal experiences to craft a modern history of #Hyderabad. @harpercollins.bsky.social

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This week's #bookreview: Mathias Enard's The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers' Guild. An unusual book that immerses you in the history of Deux-Sèvres, France, and a homage to Rabelais. Transl. Frank Wynne. #booksintranslation @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social talking-about-books.com/2025/05/31/t...

And a belated post for Mario Vargas Llosa, who died in April when I was travelling. Another writer I admired greatly, especially his book, The Feast of the Goat, about Trujillo, the dictator of the Dominican Republic. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o died. He was a giant of African literature, and wrote both in English and Kikuyu. I loved his book, The Wizard of the Crow. It was funny and scathing at the same time. RIP. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...

This week's #bookreview: Klaus Mann's Mephisto, about a ruthlessly ambitious actor in 1920s-1930s Germany. A chilling portrait of a man and his times. Translated from German by Robin Smyth. #fiction #booksintranslation talking-about-books.com/2025/05/24/m...

A #peony from a surprise bouquet I got!

Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi, has won the International Booker! Congratulations! The 2nd win for a book in an Indian language. I bought it on my trip to India: looking forward to reading it. @thebookerprizes.bsky.social thebookerprizes.com/the-internat...