A Book and Literary Travel Blog
Below you can find a list of books by the contemporary Ukrainian authors exploring the war in eastern Ukraine which started in 2014 as well as the annexation of Crimea. All these books are available in English and constitute an important contribution to the public discourse when it comes to better understanding of Ukraine, its […]
I have prepared a few book recommendations written by the African writers including Mohamed Sarr, Kamal Ben Hameda, Adrienne Yabouza, Mbarek Ould Beyrouk, Ivan Vladislavic, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Tete-Michel Kpomassie, Leila Aboulela, Scholastique Mukasonga, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Kaouther Adimi, Andre Aciman. I hope you will find this list of books useful and interesting.
Journey to Karabakh by the Georgian writer, Aka Morchiladze is set in the post-Soviet Georgia of the early 1990s and in the heavily contested region of Karabakh between Armenia and Azerbaijan. This book can be read as a metaphor for the meaning of individual freedom and social as well as cultural constraints imposed on us, […]
“People change over time. People’s lives, and loves, are ever shifting, never permanent. But everyone has one goal that never changes: the pursuit of that word “happiness”. Everyone has the right to pursue a happy life, and no matter what people do to pay the bills, it’s always a happy life they’re striving after.” By […]
These are some of my favourite books under 200 pages including Patrick Modiano, Zofia Nalkowska, Adrienne Yabouza, Mohsin Hamid, Tahar Djaout, Yevgenia Belorusets, Octavio Paz, Jhumpa Lahiri, Alifa Rifat. I hope you will find these recommendations of interest.
In Light of India by the Mexican poet and the 1990 Nobel Prize laureate, Octavio Paz is a rich collection of essays on India, packed with ideas, informative, well- researched and lived-through insights, deep ruminations on culture, history, religion, philosophy, society, architecture, languages, Sanskrit poetry and the notion of nationhood and statehood shown through the […]
“But life went on anyway. It didn’t finish. Life never finishes, even if someone leaves it.” Life Went On Anyway by a Ukrainian dissident artist, writer, filmmaker, Oleg Sentsov is a collection of autobiographical stories which portray Sentsov’s childhood and growing up in the Crimea during the last years of Soviet Union and in a […]
The Weight of Loss is a beautifully crafted debut novel by an extremely gifted writer, Sally Oliver. The novel offers a profound exploration of a young life shaped by grief, loss, trauma and troubled relationships. It is also a story of how the ordinariness of the reality we inhabit has an impact on our inner […]
Adrienne Yabouza is a writer from the Central African Republic (CAR). She worked as a hairdresser for many years in the capital of CAR, Bangui. Currently Adrienne dedicates her time to writing books for children and adults in French, Sango, Yakoma, and Lingala. As a young woman she fled the civil war in CAR with […]
Sunken City by the Italian writer, Marta Barone is a spellbinding noir-memoir exploring the meaning of personal memory versus historical records, family relationships especially those between fathers and daughters, the quest for one’s roots, nostalgia for missed opportunities and relationships with the backdrop of contemporary and especially the 1970s Italy. It is also a portrayal […]
I remember reading Stoner by John Williams a decade ago or so when it was republished here in UK almost 40 years after it was first published in USA. It had a huge impact on me. When Stoner was published first time in 1965, it only sold 2000 copies and it did not achieve a […]
Lucky Breaks by Ukrainian writer and photojournalist, Yevgenia Belorusets in translation of Eugene Ostashevsky is a collection of vignettes accompanied by a series of black and white photos taken by the author herself and placed carefully within the text. Even though these photographs do not illustrate any of the events described in the book, they […]
“Sometimes, when faced with an unexpected crossroads in life, we discover that for years we have been walking a tightrope, with no knowledge of whether we are stepping out over a void, or if there is anything – or anyone- strong enough to catch us underneath. And we realise that we do more for others […]
Grey Bees by the great Ukrainian writer, Andrey Kurkov has become one of my all-time favourite books and its protagonist, one of the most beautiful solitary characters I have encountered in literature, Sergey Sergeyich is someone I would love to set off on a journey with across free, independent Ukraine one day. I cannot express […]
Reputation is a compelling crime novel providing a nuanced social and cultural commentary on a modern society. While I was reading Reputation by Sarah Vaughan, I could not stop thinking about a Labour MP Jo Cox who was murdered in 2016 by the man who was shouting ‘Britain First’, and a Conservatives MP David Amess […]