Aitmatov, Chinghiz "Jamilia"

Aitmatov, Chinghiz "Jamilia" (Russian: Джамиля - Jamilia) - 1958

This is a very interesting story by a writer from a country we don't know that well, he is from Kyrgyzstan but writes in Russian, as far as I know. I read the translation ;-)

The novel describes village life in Central Asia and the disappearance of Central Asian cultural traditions in the USSR. The main character is a painter who had painted a picture at the time that his sister-in-law, Jamila, and Daniyar, a village outsider, had fallen in love and left the village. He remembers and describes the summer of 1943, when he lost both his friends.

This is one of the best love stories I ever read. It's not a very long one and I read it quite a while ago, yet, I still recall the feeling the story invokes. Great novel!

From the back cover:

"Jamilia's husband is off fighting at the front. She spends her days hauling sacks of grain from the threshing floor to the train station in their small village, accompanied by Seit, her young brother-in-law, and Daniyar, a sullen newcomer to the village who has been wounded on the battlefield.

Seit observes the beautiful, spirited Jamilia spurn men's advances, and wince at the dispassionate letters she receives from her husband. Meanwhile, undeterred by Jamilia's teasing, Daniyar sings as they return each evening from the fields. Soon Jamilia is in love, and she and Daniyar elope just as her husband returns.

Translated by James Riordan."

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

Smith, Ali "The Accidental"

Smith, Ali "The Accidental" - 2004

This book was shortlisted for the Booker prize. Everybody praised it. I think, the first one probably didn't want to admit that he/she didn't understand the novel and therefore praised it and then it went on and on like that ... I didn't like the book at all. It was boring, weird, nothing that really tempted me to ever touch a novel by this author again.

Ali Smith was shortlisted for "The Accidental" in 2005. 

From the back cover:

"Arresting and wonderful, 'The Accidental' pans in on the Norfolk holiday home of the Smart family one hot summer. There, a beguiling stranger called Amber appears at the door bearing all sorts of unexpected gifts, trampling over family boundaries and sending each of the Smarts scurrying from the dark into the light. A novel about the ways that seemingly chance encounters irrevocably transform our understanding of ourselves, 'The Accidental' explores the nature of truth, the role of fate, and the power of storytelling. This book will change you."

Dutch and French Books

Word cloud made with WordItOut

From time to time, I read a French or a Dutch book. I prefer to read a book in its original language because with a translation there is always a third person in the conversation, the translator. Unfortunately, I don't speak all the languages I would like to and therefore have to rely on translations from time to time. These are the books I managed to enjoy (or not) just like that.

DUTCH

Abdolah, Kader "Het huis van de moskee" (The House of the Mosque) - 2005
- "Spijkerschrift" (My Father’s Notebook) - 2000
Benali, Abdelkader "Bruiloft aan zee" (Wedding by the Sea) - 1996
Boom, Corrie Ten "De Schuilplaats" (The Hiding Place. The Triumphant Story of Corrie Ten Boom) - 1972
Brijs, Stefan "De engelenmaker" (The Angel Maker) - 2005
de Loo, Tessa "De Tweeling" (The Twins/Die Zwillinge) - 1993

de Man, Herman "Het wassende water" [The Growing Water - not translated] - 1925
de Winter, Leon "De Hemel van Hollywood" (The Hollywood Sign) - 1997

- "Zionoco" (Zionoco) - 1995
Dorrestein, Renate "Een hart van steen" (A Heart of Stone) - 1998
Durlacher, Jessica "Het Geweten" (The Conscience) - 1998
Eggels, Elle "The House of the Seven Sisters" (Het Huis van de Zeven Zusters) - 1998

Enquist, Anna "Mei" [May] - 2007

Frank, Anne "Het Achterhuis" (The Diary of a Young Girl) - 1942-44
Hertmans, Stefan "Oorlog en terpentijn" (War and Turpentine) - 2013
Hirsi Ali, Ayaan "Mijn Vrijheid" (Infidel: My Life) - 2006
Koch, Herman "Het Diner" (The Dinner) - 2009
Lanschot, Reinier van "Wij zijn Europa: een nieuw Europees verhaal" (We are Europe) - 2024

Linthout, Dik "Onbekende buren" [Unknown Neighbours - not translated] - 2002
Mak, Geert "De eeuw van mijn vader" (Das Jahrhundert meines Vaters) [My Father's Century] - 1999
- "De goede stad" [The Good Town - not translated] - 2007
- "Grote verwachtingen. In Europa 1999-2019" (Große Erwartungen: auf den Spuren des europäischen Traums) (The Dream of Europe. Travels in a Troubled Continent)  - 2019

- "Hoe God verdween uit Jorwerd. Een Nederlands Dorp In De Twintigste Eeuw" (Jorwerd: The Death of the Village in late 20th Century) - 1996
- "In Europa: Reizen door de twintigste eeuw" (In Europa. Eine Reise durch das 20. Jahrhundert) (In Europe. Travels through the twentieth century) - 2004
Marbe, Nausicaa "Mândraga" (Mandraga/Mandraga) - 1998
McLeod, Cynthia "Hoe duur was de suiker?" (The Cost of Sugar) - 1987
Mulisch, Harry "De Ontdekking van de hemel" (The Discovery of Heaven)- 1992

Multatuli (Eduard Douwes Dekker) "Max Havelaar of de koffiveilingen der Nederlandsche Handelmaatschappy" (Max Havelaar, or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company) - 1859
Münstermann, Hans "Het gelukkige jaar 1940" (The Happy Year 1940 - not translated into English/Das glückliche Jahr 1940) - 2000

Poortvliet, Rien "De tresoor van Jacob Jansz. Over het vermoedelijke leven van een gewone man voor de 80-jarige oorlog in 1566" (Daily Life in Holland in 1566) - 1991

't Hart, Maarten "De zonnewijzer" (The Sundial) - 2002
Unigwe, Chika "On Black Sisters’ Street" (Fata Morgana) - 2007   
Verhoef, Esther "Erken mij" [Acknowledge me - not translated] - 2009

Westerman, Frank "De graanrepubliek" [The Grain Republic - not translated] - 1999

FRENCH

Bâ, Mariama "Une si longue lettre" (So Long a Letter) - 1979
Barbery, Muriel "L’Elégance du hérisson" (The Elegance of the Hedgehog) - 2006
- "Une Rose Seule" (A Single Rose) - 2020
Beauvoir, Simone de "L'invitée" (She came to stay) - 1943
Beckett, Samuel "En attendant Godot" (Waiting for Godot) - 1952
Betancourt, Íngrid "Même le silence a une fin" (Even Silence has an End: My Six Years in the Jungle) - 2010

Camus, Albert "L'étranger" (The Stranger/The Outsider) - 1942

- "Les Justes" (The Just Assassins) - 1949
- "La Peste" (The Plague) - 1947
- "Le premier homme" (The First Man) - 1994

Cinquin, Marie-Madeleine = Sœur Emmanuelle avec Duquesne, Jacques; Cayrol, Annabelle "J'ai 100 ans et je voudrais vous dire … Sa dernière confession" [I'm 100 years old and I wanted to say ... Her last confession - not translated] - 2008
Dai, Sijie "Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse Chinoise" (Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress) - 2002

- "Par une nuit où la lune ne s’est pas levée" (Once on a Moonless Night) - 2007
Deforges, Regine "La Bicyclette Bleue" (The Blue Bicycle) - 1981

Delacourt, Grégoire "La liste de mes envies" (The list of my desires/My Wish List) - 2012 

Denuzière, Maurice "Louisiane. Trilogie" (Louisiana. Trilogy) - 1977
Dugain, Marc "La Chambre des officiers" (The Officer's Ward) - 1999
Dumas, Alexandre "Le comte de Monte-Cristo" (The Count of Monte Cristo) - 1844-46

Ernaux, Annie "Les années" (The Years) - 2008
Ferri, Jean-Yves; Didier Conrad, Didier "Le Papyrus de César" (Asterix and the Missing Scroll) - 2015 
Flaubert, Gustave "Madame Bovary" (Madame Bovary) - 1857

Hugo, Victor "Les Misérables" (Les Misérables) - 1862  

Gavalda, Anna "35 kilos d’espoir" (95 pounds of hope) - 2002
- "Je voudrais quelqu'un m'attende quelque part" (I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere) - 1999
- "Ensemble c'est tout" (Hunting and Gathering) - 2006
Hespel, Evelyne "Le Petit Tsar" [The Little Czar] - 2018
Hessel, Stéphane "Indignez-vous!" (Time for Outrage!) - 2011
Ionesco, Eugène "Rhinocéros" (Rhinoceros) - 1957 
Le Clézio, Jean-Marie Gustave "L'Africain" (The African) - 2004
Lafayette, Madame de (Marie-Madeleine) "La Princesse de Clèves" (The Princess of Cleves) - 1678  

Leroux, Gaston "Le Fantôme de l'Opéra" (The Phantom of the Opera) - 1910

Levy, Marc "Mes amis mes amours" (London Mon Amour) - 2006
Maalouf, Amin "Samarcande" (Samarkand) - 1988 
Modiano, Patrick "La Place de l'Étoile" (Place de l'Étoile) - 1968
Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) "L'Avare ou l’École du mensonge" (The Miser or The School for Lies) - 1668
Navarre, Marguerite de "Heptaméron" (Heptameron) - 1578
NDiaye, Marie "Rosie Carpe" (Rosie Carpe) - 2001
Némirovsky, Irène "Les Biens de ce monde" (All Our Worldly Goods) - 1941

- "La Proie" [The Prey] - 1938
- "Suite Française" (Suite Française) - 2004
Noa Bercovitch, Pascale "Oline, le dauphin du miracle" (The Dolphin's Boy) - 2000
Orsenna, Érik "La grammaire est une chanson douce" (Grammar Is a Sweet, Gentle Song) - 2001
Pagnol, Marcel "Jean de Florette, L'eau des collines #1" (Jean de Florette) - 1963

Saint-Exupéry, Antoine "Le Petit Prince" (The Little Prince)  - 1943
Sand, George "La Petite Fadette" (Fadette aka Fanchon, the Cricket) - 1849
Sartre, Jean-Paul "La nausée" (Nausea) - 1938

Satrapi, Marjane "Persepolis. Vol 1" (Persepolis. The Story of a Childhood) - 2000
- "Persepolis. Vol. 2" (Persepolis. The Story of a Return) - 2000 
Schmitt, Éric-Emmanuel "Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran" (Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran" - 1999
- "Oscar et la dame rose" (Oscar and the Lady in Pink) - 2002
Serreau, Coline "Saint-Jacques... La Mecque" (Pilgern auf französisch) (Pilgrimage in French - not translated) - 2005
Slimani, Leïla "Dans le jardin de l'ogre" (Adèle) - 2014
Staël, Anne-Louise-Germaine de "Corinne ou l'Italie" (Corinne: Or Italy) - 1807
Stendhal "Le Rouge et le Noir" (The Red and the Black) - 1830
Sthers, Amanda "Chicken Street" [The Ghost Street] (Die Geisterstraße) - 2006
Wiazemsky, Anne "Sept Garçons" (Seven Boys) -  2002
Wiesel, Elie "La Nuit" (Night) - 1958

Stewart, Sheila "Lifting the Latch"

Stewart, Sheila "Lifting the Latch" - 1987

"For eighty years Mont Abbott lived and worked on the land in Oxfordshire. In this record by Sheila Stewart, Mont 'lifts the latch' and takes us into a forgotten world of roly-poly puddings and street fairs, describing his lost skills of carting and shepherding to the joys of singing in the church choir, and the loyalty of a rural community."

I met Sheila Stewart on a talk she gave at our local W.I. when she talked about her other book "Ramlin Rose". I read it and loved it, so had to get this one, as well.

I grew up in a rural area myself but quite a bit later than Mont Abbott. Sheila Stewart doesn't just describe the life of this remarkable man but also draws a great picture of how life was about a century ago. People led a hard life, lots of work, very simple, but people cared for each other. With Mont we see the arrival of the first cars, the introduction of technology and hence change of farming life, we learn about the organization of farms, the hierarchy of life, traditions and ceremonies that were kept. Mont also survived two world wars. What a life!

Sheila Stewart managed to draw a picture of all that with lots and lots of information again with a great sense of humour and sensitivity toward a man who told her the story of his life.

What can I say, I loved this book.

From the back cover:

"In this extraordinary piece of social history, Sheila Stewart takes us into the life of Mont Abbott, who for nearly eighty years has lived and worked on the land near the parish of Enstone in Oxfordshire. Constructed from a series of taped conversations, Lifting the Latch is a record of the joys of a country life that no longer exists and of the memorable cast of characters who took part in it, as well as a document that paints a grimmer picture of personal tragedy and rural hardship before the existence of the welfare state."

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

Stewart, Sheila "Ramlin Rose"

Stewart, Sheila "Ramlin Rose" - 1993

"Drawing on extensive interviews with boatwomen born and bred on the Oxford canal, this book is a story of courage and resilience, capturing a vanished way of life. From the turn of the century to the late 1950s, horse-drawn narrow boats were a familiar sight on Britain's canals."

When I lived in England, I was a member of the local W.I. (Women's Institute). We had talks about different topics every month. For me, one of the most exciting was when author Sheila Stewart came to see us. She talked about her life as an author, how she had started writing. She was a very interesting person and her then pretty new book sounded interesting, so I bought and read it.

This book tells the story of women whose story is never told, women who were born and raised on the narrowboats on the English canals and who then also had children and raised them there. Most of them had seen a school only from the outside, none of them could read or had a link to the outside world. Sheila Stewart had written another book "Lifting the Latch" about rural life in general and the life or a farm worker in particular. The man she interviewed mentioned the women and families living on the narrowboats and so Sheila started her investigation. She interviewed several boatwomen and then put them together in one character. I found it especially interesting that the women had almost no concept of time because they couldn't read. We'll never know what we would be without books.

What an interesting account of an unusal life we hardly ever hear about. Her writing style is both informative and exciting. It was so realistic, I felt I really knew the characters. And, even though those women led a hard life, the story contained quite a bit of humour, as well. I loved this book same as "Lifting the Latch" which I read later.

From the back cover:

"From the turn of the century to the late 1950s, horse-drawn narrow boats were a familiar sight on Britain's canals. Carrying a wide variety of cargoes to such destinations as the Potteries, the textile mills of Lancashire, the papermills of London, the colleges of Oxford, they struggled on against increasing competition from rail and road traffic to maintain their place in the country's economy. Yet, little has been recorded about the lives of the canal families, and in particular, the women."

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

Newsham, Brad "Take me with you"

Newsham, Brad "Take me with you" - 2000

A travel book with a twist. An American travels around the world, 100 days backpacking. The twist? He invites one of the people he meets to visit him in America. Someone who could never travel anywhere.

Interesting and very informative description of several countries, he stays in the Philippines, in India, then Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and finally South Africa. With every person you try to guess whether he will take this one back home.

I love travel books, that way I can travel the world without spending more than about 10 Euros for the book. What I love about this one is, that the author doesn't just visit the most famous places, he also takes the time to really get to know the people. Whether his decision is the "correct one", I don't know. I probably would have invited someone else but I believe they all would have deserved it.

From the back cover:

"'Someday, when I am rich, I am going to invite someone from my travels to visit me in America.'

Brad Newsham was a twenty-two-year-old travelling through Afghanistan when he wrote this in his journal. Fourteen years later, he's a Yellow Taxi driver working in San Francisco. He's not rich, but he has never forgotten his vow.

Take Me With You is the compelling account of his journey through the Philippines, India, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and South Africa as he searches for the right person - someone who couldn't afford to leave their own country, let alone holiday in the West. Newsham's story will change the way you think about your life and the lives of those you meet when you travel.

Who does he invite home? Read Take Me With You and find out..."

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

Mercier, Pascal "Night Train to Lisbon"

Mercier, Pascal "Night Train to Lisbon" (German: Nachtzug nach Lissabon) - 2004 

A Swiss Professor of ancient languages happens to meet a Portuguese woman and finds a book in Portuguese, so he gives up his whole life and goes to Lisbon to find the author. He is going on a quest, tracking down the origin of the book and the life of the author. But in the author he also finds himself.

This is a philosophical book, someone tries to find himself. It's also almost like an epistolary Victorian novel. But it is also historical, informed us about the resistance during the dictatorship in Portugal (1933-74). A book about finding yourself. These two men are leading a parallel life: friends, family, failed marriages, everything seems to mirror the other one's life. Also a lovely description of language, how you can be a different person in another language and culture.

Some of our readers found the language difficult, we thought that might have been the translation. However, quite a few liked it also in the English translation. Quite a few of the readers said they will probably read it more times (I've read it twice so far.). It brought up so many questions. Somebody said the book makes a difference in her life.

The author paints some very visual imagines for us. This is a full, active book, it requires you to be an active reader. The story is very deep and intriguing.

One of our overseas members said it seemed very European, a person trapped in their role in life, in order to step out they had to change completely.

A Czech proverb says: Learn a new language and get a new soul. (I love that proverb, very true.)

People who travel find another world.

I love history, I love languages - and I love books. So this was the perfect recipe for a book. And most of us could find a lot of resemblances to our lives. After all, the protagonist leaves his country and goes somewhere else.

We discussed this in our international book club in March 2010.

From the back cover:

"A huge international best seller, this ambitious novel plumbs the depths of our shared humanity to offer up a breathtaking insight into life, love, and literature itself. A major hit in Germany that went on to become one of Europe’s biggest literary blockbusters in the last five years, Night Train to Lisbon is an astonishing novel, a compelling exploration of consciousness, The possibility of truly understanding another person, and the ability of language to define our very selves. Raimund Gregorius is a Latin teacher at a Swiss college who one day - after a chance encounter with a mysterious Portuguese woman - abandons his old life to start a new one. He takes the night train to Lisbon and carries with him a book by Amadeu de Prado, a (fictional) Portuguese doctor and essayist whose writings explore the ideas of loneliness, mortality, death, friendship, love, and loyalty. Gregorius becomes obsessed by what he reads and restlessly struggles to comprehend the life of the author. His investigations lead him all over the city of Lisbon, as he speaks to those who were entangled in Prado’s life. Gradually, the picture of an extraordinary man emerges - a doctor and poet who rebelled against Salazar's dictatorship."

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.