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June 2010 - Translated novels

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The castle in the Pyrenees by Jostein Gaarder. (2010)
"Through five intense years in the 1970s, Steinn and Solrunn had a happy life together. Then they suddenly parted ways, for reasons that are unclear to both. In the summer of 2007 they meet again on a balcony of an old wooden hotel by a fjord in western Norway. It is a place they both have fond memories from, and their meeting turns out to be fateful. But is it purely coincidental that they meet at that particular spot at that particular time? Over a couple of weeks that summer they write emails to each other, and it becomes clear that they have been living with very different interpretations of their shared past." (Amazon)

We, the drowned, Carsten Jensen ; translated from the Danish by Charlotte Barslund with Emma Ryder. (2010)
"In 1848, a motley crew of Danish sailors set sail from the small island town of Marstal to fight the Germans. Not all of them return, and those who do will never be the same. Among them is the daredevil Laurids Madsen, who promptly escapes again into the anonymity of the high seas. As soon as he is old enough, his son Albert sets off in search of his missing father on a voyage that will take him to the furthest reaches of the globe and into the clutches of the most nefarious company. This novel spans four generations, two world wars and a hundred years." (Amazon)

Swell, Iōanna Karystiani ; translated from the Modern Greek by Konstantine Matsoukas. (2010, c2006)
"The moment of reckoning has come for Captain Mitsos Avgustis. After 12 years at sea it's time to go home to the island on which he was born: home to his wife Flora, his two daughters, his son, a granddaughter and Litsa, his lover from years ago. It will take all his courage and strength to face the squalls and storms on land after a lifetime at sea." (Amazon)

Desert, J.M.G. Le Clézio ; translated from the French by C. Dickson. (2009)
"Young Nour is a North African desert tribesman. In 1909 as the First World War looms Nour's tribe, the Blue Men, are forced from their lands by French colonial invaders. Spurred on by thirst, hunger, suffering, they seek guidance from a great spiritual leader. The holy man sends them even further from home, on an epic journey northward, in the hope of finding a land in which they can again be free. Decades later, an orphaned descendant of the Blue Men, a girl called Lalla, is living in a shantytown on the coast of Morocco. Lalla has inherited both the pride and the resilience of her tribe. As she makes a bid to escape her forced marriage to a wealthy older man, she flees to Marseilles, where she experiences both the hardships of immigrant life, as a hotel maid and the material prosperity of those who succeed when she becomes a successful model. And yet Lalla does not betray the legacy of her ancestors." (Amazon)

Books burn badly by Manuel Rivas ; translated from the Galician by Jonathan Dunne. (2010)
"On 19 August 1936 Hercules the boxer stands on the quayside at Coruna and watches Fascist soldiers piling up books and setting them alight. It is a moment which transforms a young group of friends, who just weeks before had spent their days sunbathing beneath the lighthouse, into a broken generation. Out of this incident during the early months of Spain's tragic civil war the lives of not only Hercules the boxer and his friends will be tainted by the unending conflict, but also those of a young washerwoman who sees souls in the clouded river water and the stammering son of a judge who uncovers his father's hidden library. This depiction of life under Franco's dictatorship reveals violence and betrayal but also irrepressible humour and love, and stands as a testament to the indomitable freedom of the human imagination." (Amazon)

Counterpoint by Anna Enquist ; translated from the Dutch by Jeanette K. Ringold. (2010, c2008)
"An unnamed woman practises Bach’s Goldberg Variations. As she practises, tenaciously, almost grimly, it soon becomes clear that she is seeking not only technical control and intellectual understand but an emotional release from the burden of the past." (Book cover)

The great magician, Christian Jacq ; translated by Sue Dyson. (2008)
"Thamos, Count of Thebes, is the last keeper of an eternal knowledge, keeping alive the secrets of the pharaohs. Now he has been entrusted with a vital mission. He must leave Egypt for the cold lands of Europe to find and protect the 'Great Magician', a genius whose works will save humanity from chaos. When he encounters a child prodigy, a six-year-old composer lauded throughout Prague, Vienna and Frankfurt, Thamos senses that he's found the one. Is this young musician really the 'Great Magician' foretold by Osiris, the one who can pass on the light of the East to humanity?" (Amazon)

Skylark by Dezső Kosztolányi ; translated from the Hungarian by Richard Aczel ; introduction by Péter Esterházy. [2010]
"After Ákos Vajkay and his wife, Antónia, dispatch Skylark, their stifling, unattractive and overbearing daughter, to visit with relatives, they revitalize their lives in Szarszeg, their backwater village, and recapture their youth with the Panthers, a schnapps-swilling men's social club. During their daughterless week, Ákos and Antónia rekindle their joy in living, taking in a transformative production of The Geisha and engaging in a drinking binge and epic meals at the local tavern. With their health and happiness returned to them, the disquieting realization of Skylark's return sets in, leading to an inevitable confrontation." (Amazon)

Alphabet of the night by Jean-Euphèle Milcé ; translated from the French by Christopher Moncrieff. (2007)
"Port-au-Prince, another dull morning tinged with violence and black magic. Jeremy Assaël, a Jewish shopkeeper, sees his friend and lover, Lucien, gunned down outside his shop by a vengeful policeman. In a Haiti that exists in the perpetual night of misery and oppression, Jeremy wonders if his only option is exile. His best friend from school, Fresnel, has disappeared in ominous circumstances. So he embarks on a quest to discover his fate. His search leads him to a corrupt pastor, a shady revolutionary and a voodoo priest. What is revealed is not only himself but contemporary Haiti, a land where everything and nothing is possible." (Amazon)

Neighbours : the story of a murder by Lília Momplé ; translated from the Portuguese by Richard Bartlett and Isaura de Oliveira. (2009)
"On the eve of the Muslim festival of Eid, Narguiss, who ‘never wanted anything to do with politics’, is more preoccupied with family problems than with the radio news of kidnappings and murders. Nearby, Leia, Januário and their young daughter are caught up in the pleasure and security of finally finding a flat of their own, while Mena, who was once the beauty of her village, overhears her husband plotting murder. Before dawn, these innocent people seeking to lead peaceful lives are thrown together in a vicious conspiracy to infiltrate and destabilise Mozambique." (Amazon)