On this page, I keep track of what I read in 2024. The links go to reviews or wherever I’ve written about a particular book.
31. Ned Beauman, Venomous Lumpsucker (England, 2022). Satire on the industrialisation of extinction. [***]
30. Ana Paula Maia, Of Cattle and Men (Brazil, 2013 tr. 2023). Brutality haunts the all-consuming world of the slaughterhouse. [****]
29. Penelope Curtis, After Nora (Scotland, 2024). Characters seek understanding through art in two episodes of family history. [****]
28. Ia Genberg, The Details (Sweden, 2022 tr. 2023). It’s all in the small things as a woman remembers four people from her life. [***]
27. Selva Almada, Not a River (Argentina, 2021 tr. 2024). Menacing tale of tragedy on a rural fishing trip. [****]
26. Domenico Starnone, The House on Via Gemito (Italy, 2000 tr. 2023). A writer looks back on his Naples childhood and his domineering father. [****]
25. Urszula Honek, White Nights (Poland, 2022 tr. 2023). A constellation of stories about the lives and deaths of people from the same village. [****]
24. Ismail Kadare, A Dictator Calls (Albania, 2022 tr. 2023). Exploration of a phone call that took place between Stalin and Boris Pasternak. [**]
23. Andrey Kurkov, The Silver Bone (Ukraine, 2020 tr. 2024). A historical crime novel with typical Kurkov strangeness. [***]
22. Jente Posthuma, What I’d Rather Not Think About (Netherlands, 2020 tr. 2023). Fragmented portrait of a woman and her late twin brother. [***]
21. Gabriela Wiener, Undiscovered (Peru, 2021 tr. 2023). The author-narrator searches for an equilibrium with her family history and personal life. [***]
20. Itamar Vieira Junior, Crooked Plow (Brazil, 2018 tr. 2023). A panorama of life in a community of tenant farmers, revolving around two sisters. [***]
19. Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (USA, 2022). Saga about video game developers – interesting in places, but overlong. [***]
18. Jenny Erpenbeck, Kairos (Germany, 2021 tr. 2023). A student and an older man embark on an affair that echoes the final years of East Germany and after. [****]
17. Rodrigo Blanco Calderón, Simpatía (Venezuela, 2021 tr. 2024). A posthumous request to set up a clinic for abandoned dogs leads to an unexpected web of events. [***]
16. Veronica Raimo, Lost On Me (Italy, 2022 tr. 2023). A journey through the life of a wry narrator who uses anecdote as a shield. [***]
15. Jonathan Walker, Push Process (England, 2024). Part novel, part meditation on photography as an academic finds his way in Venice. [***]
14. Ursula Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven (USA, 1971). I thought I’d read this before, but it seems not. Dreams that change reality, and intractable ethical problems. [****]
13. Thomas Morris, Open Up (Wales, 2024). A set of five stories whose male protagonists are seeking connection. [***]
12. Willem Frederik Hermans, An Untouched House (Netherlands, 1951 tr. 2005). A microcosm of war beneath its own mask of civility. [****]
11. Paul Lynch, Prophet Song (Ireland, 2023). I quite liked the abstract nature of this dystopia to begin, but ultimately it needed something more tangible to have weight. [**]
10. David Rose, Vault (England, 2011). A character rebels against the novel of his own life. [***]
9. Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin (USA, 2003). No, we don’t. [**]
8. Catherine Chidgey, Pet (New Zealand, 2023). A 12-year-old girl is dazzled by her glamorous teacher in this tense novel which keeps the truth open to question. [****]
7. Max Blecher, Adventures in Immediate Irreality (Romania, 1936 tr. 2015). No object or event can be relied upon to be stable for this narrator. [****]
6. Pat Gray, Mr Narrator (Northern Ireland, 1989). Elusive tale of a man navigating the bureaucracy of a fictional country. [***]
5. Kristin Hersh, The Future of Songwriting (USA, 2024). A conversation about finding authenticity and balance. [***]
4. Simone de Beauvoir, A Very Easy Death (France, 1964 tr. 1985). Brief yet harrowing account of the author’s mother. The end of life is easy in some ways, not at all easy in others. [***]
3. Mário de Andrade, Macunaíma (Brazil, 1928 tr. 2023). Shapeshifting and bewildering. I didn’t I really grasp it, but I’ll try it again another time. [****]
2. Hiroko Oyamada, Weasels in the Attic (Japan, 2012-4 tr. 2022). Three stories, three meals between friends, that subtly echo the tensions in relationships. [****]
1. Domnico Starnone, Ties (Italy, 2014 tr. 2017). The pieces of a marriage, told from three viewpoints. [***]
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