Bookshelf Travelling for Insane Times – Translated Fiction
Posted in Diego Marani, Gabriel García Márquez, Irène Némirovsky, Memes, Orhan Pamuk, Other fiction at 12:00 on 14 June 2020
Time for Reader in the Wilderness’s meme again.
These shelves contain my paperbacks of fiction translated from languages other than English. Evidence here of my usual suspects – Bohumil Hrabal, Mario Vargas Llosa, Naguib Mahfouz, Diego Marani, Gabriel García Márquez, Irène Némirovsky, Orhan Pamuk, but nearly all of these have been worth reading. In fact I would say there are no real duds here. The English language books on the lower shelf belong to the good lady and are shelved there because they fit into the space:-
Several really large hardbacks are too big to sit on the above shelves so have to be kept separately. These are not all translations but there is more Orhan Pamuk, more Naguib Mahfouz, more Irène Némirovsky, and then the English language Salman Rushdie. The John Updike omnibus is the good lady’s:-
Tags: Bohumil Hrabal, Bookshelf Travelling, Bookshelf Travelling For Insane Times, Diego Marani, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Irène Némirovsky, Irene Nemirowsky, John Updike, Mario Vargas Llosa, Naguib Mahfouz, Orhan Pamuk, Salman Rushdie
Judith
16 June 2020 at 00:37
Hi Jack,
I’ve enjoyed perusing your bookshelves. I loved Palace Walk by Mahfouz. I’m wondering which of Rushdie’s novels you’ve most appreciated. I’ve tried one by him but got stuck somehow. Hrabal I know not at all, and am wondering which novel by him you’d recommend.
And, by the way, great, well-lit photos of your bookshelves! I’ve had a problem with lighting most of all(and with mess!) for photographing my shelves. Wish I could.
jackdeighton
16 June 2020 at 19:26
Judith,
Thanks,
Well, Midnight’s Children is the Rushdie novel most people would recommend, I preferred his next one, Shame, but I probably benefited from a bit of knowledge of Pakistan’s political history. Of his more recent novels The Enchantress of Florence is one I remember fondly.
I’ve liked every Hrabal I’ve read. Closely Observed Trains (titled A Close Watch on the Trains in the US I think) is extremely good (slightly more so than I Served the King of England and Too Loud a Solitude.)
I can’t say there’s any sort of secret to my photos, I’m not a photographer. Sometimes they come out blurred and I have to retake them!
Thanks for the comment.