Reading Journal: Monday 3rd May 2010

And so with great pleasure fellow reader, I return once more to scribing the virtual pages of my online reading journal. Adamant that I would not return to posting journal entries until I was completely happy with the format I was using for this feature, I realised the futility in having such a mindset; [...]

Daily Bookshot: The Foreign Fiction Prize Six

Foreign Fiction Prize Six, originally uploaded by Robert Burdock.

This if a shot (if you didn’t know already), of the six novels shortlisted for this year’s Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. I’ve set myself the task of reading all of them before the overall winner is announced on Thursday May 13th, and I thought I [...]

Rob’s tackling the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2010 shortlist

You may remember a few days ago that I posted the shortlist for this year’s Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, and remarked that the greatest source of the excitement for me was discovering that all but one of the titles on the shortlist was the product of a smaller ‘indy’ [...]

Shortlist for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2010 revealed

It was an exciting start to a dreary morning, as the shortlist for this year’s Independent Foreign Fiction Prize was announced earlier today. Taken from the original longlist of 15, which included big ‘hitter’s such as Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones (Chatto & Windus) and Yoko Ogawa’s The Housekeeper [...]

Afterthoughts: Broken Glass by Alain Mabanckou

It’s shocking, it’s fast and it’s oh so definitely rebellious. Find out exactly what I thought of Alain Mabanckou’s latest translated novel as I present my afterthoughts on it

Daily BookShot: Capital Rebel

Capital Rebel, originally uploaded by Robert Burdock.

In a recent interview Congolese author Alain Mabanckou explained that he ignored the rules of punctuation for his novel ‘Broken Glass’, because he wanted to be a rebel.

Forethoughts: Broken Glass by Alain Mabanckou

In a trend that sees me reading mainly unknown (to me) translated works so far this year, I set off with the next title in my literary journey, Congolese Alain Mabanckou’s Broken Glass, from UK publisher Serpent’s Tail. Here’s my initial impressions!

Daily BookShot: Broken Glass

Alain Mabanckou’s Broken Glass, originally uploaded by Robert Burdock.

‘Book Bites’ for Friday 3rd April 2009

Guardian’s audio interview with Alain Mabanckou – I’ve already been evangalising the next novel in my reading pile – Broken Glass, for its glorious cover, and now thanks to The Guardian we can all sit back and enjoy an interview with its Congolese author, Alain Mabanckou. At just over 17 minutes long this interview with [...]

Cover Love: Two recent acquisitions that make me go mmm…

Time to share a bit of deserved ‘cover love’ for two books I’ve recently received for review – Emergency by Neil Strauss and Broken Glass by Alian Mabanckou