Contemporary Reads: The Emperor's Children

The Emperor's Children (2006) is Claire Messud's latest novel. It is a wonderful comedy of manners set largely in New York city in the months leading up to 9/11 . The book has been hailed by critics from both sides of the Atlantic. To read the review published on the New York Times click here.

Contemporary Reads: The Eye in the Door

The Eye in the Door (1993) is the second novel on Pat Barker's trilogy about the Great War. The story this time centres around one of Dr River's patients, Prior, and Charles Manning. Apart from themes of class and anti-war sentiment that were already tackled by her previous novel, Barker also deals with persecution and prejudice.

The Eye in the Door is perhaps a richer novel than Regeneration and I am sure it can be as enjoyable read on its own as as part of the trilogy.

Contemporary Reads: The Sea

The Sea (2005) is the Man Booker Prize winning novel by John Banville. Its fragmented narrative follows the return of art historian Max Morden to the seaside house where he used to spent his childhood holidays. The different fragments are mostly made up by his memories of different periods of his life: his wife's cancer diagnosis and death; his relationship with his daughter, Claire; his tragic childhood memories. This novel is concerned with grief but also with memory that, unreliable as it sometimes is, still has a profound effect on the present.

Some readers might consider this book difficult to read as it is not really plot driven. What seduced me was its poetic language, its essayistic qualities and how the fragmented narrative is really at the service of the story.

Other books I have read by the same author: The Book of Evidence.

Contemporary Reads: Regeneration

Regeneration (1991) is a novel by Pat Barker. It fictionalises the real-life encounter between army psychologist W.H.R. Rivers and Siegfried Sassoon. Other real life characters, notably poet Wilfred Owen, are part of the narrative.

Pacifism, class, psychology, anthropology or the effect of the Great War on ordinary people are all elements of this important novel.

This novel is the first of the Regeneration Trilogy together with The Eye in the Door and The Ghost Road.

Untranslated Lit: Stupeur et Tremblements (Fear and Trembling)

Stupeur et Tremblements (1999) is a novel by Belgian writer Amélie Nothomb. It narrates the year a Belgian girl spent working for a Japanese firm in Tokyo before returning to Europe to become a writer. During that year, faux pas after faux pas, our heroine was subjected to several humiliations at work. Having been employed as an accountant she is finally demoted to guarding the toilets or being 'Madame Pipi' as she puts it.

This novel is partly biographical and her witty observations on modern-day Japan are hilarious when they are not tragic.

Although I have read it in the original French, the novel has been published in English in the UK and I certainly recommend it.

Untranslated Lit: El Aleph (The Aleph)

El Aleph (1949) is a collection of short stories by Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges. The stories are poetical, metaphysical, deep. My favourite ones are Deutsches Requiem, La Espera (The Wait) and El Aleph (The Aleph).

Contemporary Reads: Digging to America

Digging to America (2006) is the latest novel by American writer Anne Tyler. You can read many reviews on this novel by clicking here.

Modern Classics: In Cold Blood

In Cold Blood (1966) by Truman Capote is the masterful reconstrunction of a horrid mass murder that took place in Kansas in late 1959 when ex-convicts Perry Smith and Dick Hickock killed a whole family in their rural home.

Capote offeres us a study in depth of the crime, its effect on all those involved up to the criminals' execution. Exceptional.

Contemporary Reads: The Testament of Gideon Mack

The Testament of Gideon Mack (2006) is the latest novel by Scottish author James Robertson. It tells the unlikely story of atheist Church of Scotland minister Gideon Mack who after having fallen from a cliff-face and gone missing for three days claims to have been rescued and cared for by the Devil. When he confesses this publicly he is discredited and treated as a lunatic until his death soon after.

Another Scottish writer, Irvine Welsh has described this novel as a parable of the relationship organised religion, the supernatural and mental illness. It is indeed a wonderful novel that will have readers asking themselves many a deep question.