Four women, living together in a house in Antwerp, Belgium, are "[t]hrown together by a conspiracy of fate and a loud man called Dele." They have escaped their lives in Africa, but only at the cost of their freedom; Dele, who orchestrated their immigration, now...
Here's what stands out most about this slim Korean novel for me: it's surprisingly not Korean. Except for the few Korean names, virtually no other Korean markers exist within these pages, which I found rather strange in a novel set in Seoul featuring the lives of...
With the debut volume receiving major approval by the American Library Association earlier this year by making YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association)'s list of 2011 Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens, the rest of the Saturn series certainly has quite a bright future on translated shores. Kind and gentle Mitsu...
I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that counting books are ubiquitous on kiddie shelves. And, alas, too many of them are just same old, same old: dressing up the familiar 1, 2, 3, is surely not an easy task. So when something clever...
Yu Hua's unforgettable tome requires a solid commitment in time and patience, yet your reward for finishing the final page will make your investment amply worthwhile. The opening paragraph begins with the end: "Baldy Li, our Liu Town's premier tycoon," sits contemplating his life on his...
Check out the earnest determination on an oh-so-young Kenji's face as he announces, "Justice never dies." Four decades later, his surviving renegade friends are desperately trying to keep his prophetic, childhood words alive: "I'm saving this world from evil, no matter what happens!!" Two of the...
As most Haruki Murakami fans as well aware, the countdown to the pub date of his latest 1Q84 ends after this weekend ...
In less than a week, you can be holding 1Q84, Haruki Murakami's long-awaited spectacular title finally available in English, which hits shelves on October 25. You might choose to hold out until November 8 when the audible version is scheduled for release. All 944 pages (on paper...
Oh, those complicated but charming men who wander in and out of the kitchen, creating and serving the most toothsome fare at the Casetta dell'Orso ...
No one has such an unpredictable, quirky, downright wacky imagination as Haruki Murakami. And even though your brain knows he's created an impossible universe, everything on the page seems so convincing, you'll go along for the ride – any ride with Murakami at the helm. Even almost...
Let the games continue! Volume 8 adds a new character to the roster – cousin Mizuki Asami returns to Japan from his mountaineering adventures with his world-famous father, and moves in with the Tsukishimas. As sweet, polite, and considerate as he is, he almost immediately announces...
Half a century ago today – on October 1, 1961 – Roger Maris of the New York Yankees hit his 61st home run of the season, breaking Babe Ruth's record of 60 set in 1927. I knew you needed this information today (it came in at the...
An 18-year-old boy, Camilo, is dead, his youthful body prepared and confined forever in a coffin that now sits in a living room, attended by his estranged parents on either side. Through the course of the inaugural night that marks his sudden, violent passing, his...
Little orphan Teodora promises her dying godmother to look after her worthless bed-hopping son. Raised Cinderella-style in a small village in Colombia, Teodora willingly enslaves herself to ensure handsome but immoral Galaor's every comfort, and not surprisingly falls madly in love with him. 'Love is...
Less is indeed more in Palestinian writer Adania Shibli's U.S. debut-in-translation. The deceptively minimal 72 pages of touch hold layered shards from a young girl's life, some shining with promise, others sharp with painful gravity, but undoubtedly an existence shattered at seemingly regular intervals by violence and...
*STARRED REVIEW At the core of 1Q84 is a spectacular love story about a girl and boy who briefly held hands when they were both 10. That said, with the fiercely imaginative Murakami as author, the story’s exposition is gloriously labyrinthine: Welcome “into this enigma-filled world...
Ready for the final three? Talk about total creep-fest ...
The pace picks up rapidly (in spite of a few too many explanatory inner babbling bubbles) in the second half of one of the most popular manga series ever, endless spin-offs and all! In vol. 7, Kira #3 and his Notebook are now in the hands...
I'm probably one of the last readers on earth to have managed to avoid this international (posthumous) publishing phenomenon. I might as well confess right now that I never finished the Harry Potter series, either (made it through the first three with gritted teeth, but...
Here's another intriguing premise from Ana Maria Machado – one of Brazil’s preeminent writers for children, and winner of the highly prestigious 2000 Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing ...
