I finished nine books in April, five as part of my International Booker Prize monthly theme. Seven by women/POC, three in German, and one re-read in Portuguese.
- Ancestral Night — Elizabeth Bear
- Über die Berechnung des Rauminhalts I — Solvej Balle, tr. Peter Urban-Halle
- Hey guten Morgen, wie geht es dir? — Martina Hefter
- A Leopard-Skin Hat — Anne Serre, tr. Mark Hutchinson
- Under the Eye of the Big Bird — Hiromi Kawakami, tr. Asa Yoneda
- Perfection — Vincenzo Latronico, tr. Sophie Hughes
- Uma menina está perdida no seu século à procura do pai — Gonçalo M. Tavares
- Out of Time — Samira Azzam, tr. Ranya Abdelrahman
- Deine kalten Hände — Han Kang, tr. Kyong-Hae Flügel
For the IBP theme, I concentrated on the longlisted books from this year, and the first of these was Über die Berechnung des Rauminhalts I (obviously not the longlisted translation). It was also the best. It starts with a mystery — a woman in a house seems to be hiding from the man who lives there too — then follows the psychological effects of the fantastic premise. The repetition in the middle section did occasionally drag, but that’s fair enough as it’s the point, and I was very much caught up again as the ending approached. Though only the end of volume one of a projected seven….
A Leopard-Skin Hat is a portrait of a woman, often reminiscent of Anne Weber’s Kirio as it focuses on its one central character. The tone is generally darker, but Serre does have fun with the role of the Narrator, who (apparently) tells the story in the third person. What seems mere eccentricity at first is revealed as something more as the book progresses.
Under the Eye of the Big Bird was also mysterious, and remained quite mysterious at the end. It’s composed of related stories, and much of the interest lies in working out how they connect. I will need to re-read to get a better grip on that.
Perfection was of particular interest as it’s largely set in my backyard of Berlin, and the city (or a nightmarishly perfect version of the city) plays a central role. The first pages are very hard going — again, deliberately — after which the book unfolds well with just the right amount of satirical distance.
Finally, one book by former winne Han Kang: Deine kalten Hände. It’s a very odd one, with a not obviously necessary prologue and epilogue sandwiching the tale of a misogynistic sculptor’s relationships with two women. I did like the descriptions of the art, though not enough to recommend the book wholeheartedly.
Honourable mention to two books on the IBP longlist which I haven’t finished yet: There’s a Monster Behind the Door (Gaëlle Bélem, tr. Karen Fleetwood and Laëtitia Saint-Loubert), and the mighty (and mightily weird) Solenoid (Mircea Cărtărescu, tr. Sean Cotter).
Ancestral Night is a fun space opera clearly influenced by the Culture (complete with ship names), but in a somewhat lighter vein. Spacegoing cats, afthands, and interstellar seahorses make it a very enjoyable read.
Hey guten Morgen, wie geht es dir? was unfairly overshadowed by the circumstances of its winning the Deutscher Buchpreis, but it’s a really good book. The seemingly light main story is cleverly given weight by the mythological overtones, and the protagonist is highly engaging. The audiobook performance by Inka Löwendorf is particularly good, especially in the treatment of the internet chat sections.
Uma menina está perdida no seu século à procura do pai was yet another enigmatic book, even a second time through. The audiobook (especially choice of voices) is rather eye-opening, but the wacky characters we meet along the way are extremely memorable.
Finally, I started Out of Time for my Read Palestine month, and finally got round to finishing it. Azzam tends to spell things out more than I would like, but they’re fascinating stories, particularly their depiction of less reported sides of the country (Palestinian Christians and the wealthy middle-class frequently feature).
So, on to next month. There are some novels still to finish, and I’ll keep up my daily stories, but otherwise May will be non-fiction month. Time to make some progress with my white Fitzcarraldi.