Dispatches from Book World

The place were both my head and heart live at least 80% of the time

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Recently, my own personal reading has been revolving around The Counter Arts Book Club novels, ‘Kairos’ (Jenny Erpenbeck) and ‘Brotherless Night’ (V.V. Ganashenanthan) — look out for reviews of those coming up.

For the meantime, to keep you busy, there have been a few winners announced by literary prize judges lately, so let’s take a look at those!

The International Booker Prize

From the following shortlist:

• ‘Small Boat’ — Vincent Delacroix, translated from French by Helen Stevenson, which looks at a current global crisis through the story of a boat full of migrants which is refused help.
• On the Calculation of Volume I, by Solvej Balle, translated from the Danish by Barbara J. Haveland, the first part of a septology we are told, in which a woman is stuck in a time loop.
• A Leopard-Skin Hat, by Anne Serre, translated from the French by Mark Hutchinson, a story of a fraught friendship told in fragments of memory.
• Perfection, by Vincenzo Latronico, translated from the Italian by Sophie Hughes, tells of two Millenials attempting to discover an authentic life in their adopted home, Berlin.