Difference between revisions of "Forthcoming Publications"

From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to search
 
(27 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
 
__NOTOC__
 
__NOTOC__
−
'''27 FEBRUARY'''
+
'''26 FEBRUARY'''
−
__NOTOC__
 
−
'''13 MARCH'''
 
 
{{Frontpage
 
{{Frontpage
−
|author=Jonathan Buckley
+
|author=Maria Stepanova and Sasha Dugdale (Translator)
−
|title=One Boat
+
|title=The Disappearing Act
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
−
|summary= ''One Boat'' is a deeply introspective novella that defies traditional narrative structure, drawing the reader into a contemplative realm of philosophical musings and fragmented memories flowing from our narrator and protagonist, Teresa. Set against the evocative backdrop of a small coastal Greek town, this work masterfully captures the magic of its setting and its power to provoke profound introspection. Teresa herself recognises these qualities as the reason she has visited it after the death of both her parents. Prompted by her mourning, her narrative voice is meditative and deeply self-aware, inviting the reader into her labyrinthine cogitations. It is a book that not only requires but inspires depth of thought, since its narrative structure is fragmentary and ironically relies on analepsis for its propulsion.
+
|summary=Despite her anonymisation of place names and people, Stepanova's message in this short work of autofiction is unmistakable. A novelist named M travels from B (ostensibly Berlin) to the town of F for a literary festival she is to be a guest speaker at. Detoured by erratic train schedules and nudged by forces beyond her control, her journey slowly bends toward a traveling circus. Swept up in this series of events, M eventually offers to step in for a circus performer who has unexpectedly left the show. The train functions as a motif of transience and impermanence, while the circus embodies the reshaping of identity and a retreat into fantasy, an impulse that lies at the very heart of the novel form itself.
−
|isbn=1804271764
+
|isbn=1804272329
 
}}
 
}}
 +
'''9 APRIL'''
 
{{Frontpage
 
{{Frontpage
−
|author=Mary McCarthy
+
|author=Polly Barton
−
|title=Memories of a Catholic Girlhood
+
|title=What Am I, A Deer?
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
−
|genre=Autobiography
+
|genre=Literary Fiction
−
|summary=Mary McCarthy describes herself as an ''amateur architect'', obsessively digging into the past to piece together the broken mosaic of her life. She attributes her ''burning interest in the past'' to her orphanhood, as she lacked any second-hand memories from her parents, who died in the 1918 flu epidemic. This memoir chronicles her early years, beginning with her orphanhood in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she lived under the harsh guardianship of her late father's Irish Catholic parents and her abusive Uncle Myers and Aunt Margaret. Later, she moved to Seattle to live with her maternal grandparents—her grandmother being Jewish and her grandfather Presbyterian—who provided her with a different kind of upbringing.
+
|summary=Polly Barton's debut novel is an intellectually playful yet emotionally exposed work that uses translation as both subject and governing metaphor. The narrator, newly relocated from London to Berlin, works translating video games into Japanese through the process of localisation, rewriting language until it feels comfortably familiar to a new audience. Barton treats this as a paradoxical act: arguably, in striving for universality, language is endlessly repackaged, its originality at risk of disappearing altogether. From this, the novel opens out into a wider, resonant question: to what extent do we translate ourselves in order to be understood, accepted, or loved?
−
|isbn=1804271659
+
|isbn=1804272175
−
}}
 
−
'''27 MARCH'''
 
−
{{Frontpage
 
−
|isbn=0008643660
 
−
|title=The Burial Place
 
−
|author=Stig Abell
 
−
|rating=4
 
−
|genre=Crime
 
−
|summary=A group of archaeologists are uncovering a Roman site close to Little Sky: it's idyllic and some of the excavations are being televised.  There's even a hoard of Roman gold worth millions which will be split between the finders and the landowner. It's perfect until the group begin receiving threatening letters.  Jake Jackson, a former police detective, is trying to lead a simpler life at Little Sky but he's inevitably drawn in to investigate.  Reading the letters, it's difficult to avoid the conclusion that there will be violence and even the local police are keen that Jake should be involved.
 
−
}}
 
−
'''10 APRIL'''
 
−
{{Frontpage
 
−
|author=Guadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey (Translator)
 
−
|title=The Accidentals
 
−
|rating=4.5
 
−
|genre=Short Stories
 
−
|summary=This collection was truly enchanting in all senses of the word: spellbinding with its fantastical, magical elements and charming in its gentle portrayal of nature and human relationships. Guadalupe Nettel writes intelligently and precisely, her stories structured by a wisdom that appears to want to teach us something about the world.
 
−
|isbn=1804271470
 
−
}}
 
−
'''22 MAY'''
 
−
{{Frontpage
 
−
|author=Annie Ernaux and Anna Moschovakis (translator)
 
−
|title=The Possession
 
−
|rating=5
 
−
|genre=Autobiography
 
−
|summary=Ernaux opens with a disclaimer, warning readers that what follows is more or less a confession: ''I have always wanted to write as if I would be gone when the book was published''. Towards the end of the book, she claims that the title (somewhat enigmatic at first) bares witness to a brief period of time in her life, labelled and documented here as ''The Possession'', in which she felt herself in the throes of an all-encompassing and seductive jealousy targeted at the new partner of W, a man she has since separated from after a six-year long affair.
 
−
|isbn=1804271497
 
 
}}
 
}}

Latest revision as of 10:15, 8 February 2026

26 FEBRUARY

1804272329.jpg

Review of

The Disappearing Act by Maria Stepanova and Sasha Dugdale (Translator)

4star.jpg Literary Fiction

Despite her anonymisation of place names and people, Stepanova's message in this short work of autofiction is unmistakable. A novelist named M travels from B (ostensibly Berlin) to the town of F for a literary festival she is to be a guest speaker at. Detoured by erratic train schedules and nudged by forces beyond her control, her journey slowly bends toward a traveling circus. Swept up in this series of events, M eventually offers to step in for a circus performer who has unexpectedly left the show. The train functions as a motif of transience and impermanence, while the circus embodies the reshaping of identity and a retreat into fantasy, an impulse that lies at the very heart of the novel form itself. Full Review

9 APRIL

1804272175.jpg

Review of

What Am I, A Deer? by Polly Barton

4star.jpg Literary Fiction

Polly Barton's debut novel is an intellectually playful yet emotionally exposed work that uses translation as both subject and governing metaphor. The narrator, newly relocated from London to Berlin, works translating video games into Japanese through the process of localisation, rewriting language until it feels comfortably familiar to a new audience. Barton treats this as a paradoxical act: arguably, in striving for universality, language is endlessly repackaged, its originality at risk of disappearing altogether. From this, the novel opens out into a wider, resonant question: to what extent do we translate ourselves in order to be understood, accepted, or loved? Full Review

Retrieved from "http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/w/index.php?title=Forthcoming_Publications&oldid=173286"