The Catalan author and journalist Montserrat Roig (1946 – 1991) is a welcome new discovery for me. Her second novel, the award-winning The Time of Cherries (initially published in 1976), has only recently become available in English, beautifully translated by Julia Sanches and published by Daunt Books (my thanks to the publisher for kindly providing a review copy). It’s a vivid, richly-textured novel that explores life in 20th-century Catalonia through the experiences of three generations of the same family, intertwining the personal and the political to exhilarating effect. Here is a story te ..read more

The Argentine writer and journalist Mariana Enriquez grew up during the country’s Dirty War. From 1976 to 1983, when Argentina was in the grip of the military dictatorship, several thousands of citizens were murdered or disappeared, many of whom were not formally documented due to the terrorist regime in place. While the primary targets were communist activists and sympathisers, others were also singled out, from artists, writers and journalists to students, militants and trade unionists – in short, anyone suspected of being a left-wing activist. Things We Lost in the Fire – a superb collectio ..read more

I don’t usually mark my blog’s birthdays, but as JacquiWine’s Journal is 10 years old today, I couldn’t resist this post as a celebration of sorts! It seems such a long time since I first dipped my toe in the blogging world with some reviews of books longlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2014. I was part of a Shadow Panel back then, and initially, the other shadowers kindly posted my reviews on their blogs as I didn’t have one of my own – not until I set up the Journal in May 2014, and the rest as they say is history. Much has changed since I started blogging, but the bookish ..read more

It’s early April, so it must be almost time for another of Karen and Simon’s ‘Club’ weeks! On Monday 15th, the #1937Club will begin – a week-long celebration of books first published in 1937. These ‘Club’ events are always great fun, and I’m looking forward to seeing all the various tweets, reviews and recommendations flying around the web. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given my fondness for mid-20th-century lit, I’ve reviewed a few 1937 books over the years. So, if you’re thinking of taking part in the Club, here are my recommendations. La Femme de Gilles by Madeleine Bourdouxhe (tr. Faith Evans ..read more

Last year, the Italian-Cuban writer Alba de Céspedes secured a spot in my books-of-year with Forbidden Notebook – a candid, exquisitely written novel in which a middle-aged woman in post-war Rome finds a release from marriage and motherhood by keeping a secret journal. This year, she looks set to repeat this feat with her immersive, richly-textured 1949 novel Her Side of the Story – at once a blistering portrayal of the constraints, frustrations and realities of life for women trapped in a patriarchal society and a vivid coming-of-age story giving voice to the female experience in 1940s Italy ..read more

Vladivostok Circus is the latest of Elisa Shua Dusapin’s novels to appear in English, courtesy of the publishing arm of Daunt Books. Born in France and raised in Paris, Seoul and Switzerland, Dusapin is carving out a distinctive niche for herself with these slim, enigmatic novellas – the dreamlike Winter in Sokcho (published in English in 2020) is an excellent introduction to her style and themes, and the follow-up, The Pachinko Parlour, is equally compelling. As a writer, Dusapin seems interested in exploring displacement, cross-cultural identities and fleeting connections, with her protagoni ..read more

Over the past few years, I’ve developed a fondness for Japanese fiction, particularly books by women writers such as Yūko Tsushima, Mieko Kawakami and Sayaka Murata. Now I can add Banana Yoshimoto to this list courtesy of The Premonition, a haunting, enigmatic story of childhood, long-buried memories and the complex nature of family relationships. Although the novella was first published in Japan in 1988 – the same year as the author’s award-winning book, Kitchen appeared – it has only just made its way into English, beautifully translated by Asa Yoneda. I found this to be a very captivating ..read more

January really is the longest month. Here we are, not even halfway through, and it already feels as though it’s been dragging on for weeks… As Johanna Thomas-Corr said in her recent piece in The Sunday Times, ‘if ever there were a month to hibernate with a stack of books it would be January‘. Books are a source of solace for many of us, helping us through the coldest, darkest months of the year, both seasonally and more personally. So, if you’re in need of a little brightness to cut through the gloom, here are my favourite comfort reads – ten books to savour to banish the blues. Crampton Hodn ..read more

Despite the political turmoil unfolding across the world, 2023 has been another great year of reading for me. I’ve read some excellent books over the past twelve months, the best of which feature in my reading highlights. Just like last year, I’m spreading my books of the year across two posts – ‘recently published’ titles in this first piece, with older books (including reissues) to follow next week. As many of you know, I read a lot of books from the mid-20th century, so my books-of-the-year posts will reflect this. In fact at one point, I wondered whether I would have enough ‘new’ books to ..read more

This year, I’m spreading my 2023 reading highlights across a couple of posts. The first piece, on my favourite ‘recently published’ titles, is here, while this second piece puts the spotlight on the best ‘older’ books I read this year, including reissues of titles first published in the 20th century. These are the books I loved, the books that have stayed with me, the ones I’m most likely to recommend to other readers. I’ve summarised each one in this post (in order of reading), but as before, you can find the full reviews by clicking on the appropriate links. There are thirteen in total – a B ..read more