A Word About Awards

THE BLACK MOSES by Alain Mabanckou   Nominations: Aspen Words Longlist 2018, Booker Longlist 2017, PEN/Translation Finalist 2018   Date Read: November 28, 2023   Bearing the unwieldy name of Tokumisa Nzambe po Mose yamoyindo abotami namboka ya Bakoko, whose rough translation is: “Thanks be to God, the black Moses is born on the earth of our ancestors,” the hero of this story is trying to build a life in an evolving Congo. As an orphan who has never met his parents, Moses doesn’t have the best beginnings.   Moses has survived the brutality of an orphanage which is used as a hot-spot for revolutionizing all the orphan’s thinking. He has endured fights among the kids, the director’s corrupt rule and illnesses until he is able to escape at the age of 13. He agonizingly leaves behind his dear friend Bonaventure who he cannot convince to go with him. Not having known any other life than the one at the orphanage, his newfound freedom comes as a surprise.   Moses immediately falls into a life

THE TESTAMENT OF MARY by Colm Toibin   Nominations: Booker Finalist 2013, Carnegie Longlist 2013, Dublin Longlist 2014   Date Read: November 26, 2023   The Testament of Mary is a fictionalized account of Mary’s life after the death of Joseph and Jesus. Although she lived through the loss of her son, she didn’t realize the significance of his death and what it would mean to the world. She seems, in fact, incredulous and disbelieving that his death will save all sinners past, present and future.   To me, it seems that Mary was almost embarrassed by her son’s actions or miracles as they came to be called. She witnessed him turning water into wine and the aftereffects of Lazarus’ resurrection but instead of being awed, she wants him to return home with her and hide out from the authorities who are now looking for him.   But it’s already too late as guards come to arrest Jesus at the wedding where he turned water into wine. Mary knows what’s to come will be awful but she doesn’t foresee him

BLACKOUTS by Justin Torres   Award: National Book Winner 2023 Nomination: Los Angeles Times Finalist 2023, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 2023, PEN/Jean Stein Longlist 2024   Date Read: November 25, 2023   The unnamed narrator of Blackouts has come to The Palace to be with a dear friend, Juan, as he dies. Fleeing a flooded kitchen, Juan provides No Name a place to stay in exchange for continuing his life’s work: completing a 1941 study called  Sex Variants: A Study in Homosexual Patterns.   Between the two’s memories and education, they explore queer history and how this history has affected their own lives. Interspersed throughout the novel is redacted text from the study that forms more of a personal history between the lines or what Juan calls “…little poems of illumination.” The text was originally written by Jan Gay as an anthropological study in homosexuality but Dr. George Henry co-opted her work and turned it into a study of homosexuality as a deviance from the norm that

A CHILD’S BOOK OF TRUE CRIME by Chloe Hooper   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2004, Women’s Prize Finalist 2002   Date Read: November 24, 2023   I think this book was trying to be suspenseful and intriguing but it missed the mark for me. Premise: a primary school teacher, Kate Byrne, embarks on an affair with the father, Thomas, of one of her students, Lucien. Thomas’s wife, Vanessa, is a true crime author who has just published a book about a murder that happened nearby. As strange phone calls and mysterious car malfunctions occur, Kate begins to think the same circumstances surrounding that murder are happening to her.   The murder at Black Swan Point saw a vet having an affair with his very young assistant. When the wife discovered the affair, she confronted her husband and hit him in the head with a wine bottle, cutting him badly. He passed out and woke to find blood all over their room and word makes it to him that his lover is dead and his wife is missing. They find the wife’s car

A BEND IN THE RIVER by V.S. Naipaul   Award: Nobel Prize 1979   Nominations: Booker Finalist 1979, NY Times Finalist 1979   Date Read: November 21, 2023   Salim accepts a job as a trader in a remote part of Africa, bringing Metty, the son of a slave he had grown up with. The store he in charge of is at a bend in the river, the river being a prevalent symbol in throughout this novel. Salim engages with the local intellectuals at a precarious time in the village’s development.   Moving from colonialism to a newly independent state, the future of this part of Africa is in flux and everyone has ideas about the direction the state should take. Of course, none of the paths forward are straight and what could be a bright future eventually descends into chaos. Corruption and greed abound while the basic tenets of society come crashing down. The only future is one of killing and death.   Salim manages to escape with barely his life and relegates Metty to a very uncertain fate. He has no idea wh

THE PERFECT NANNY by Leila Slimani   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2020, LA Times Finalist 2018, NY Times Finalist 2018   Date Read: November 18, 2023   In an upper-middle class neighborhood in Paris, Myriam and Adam both have hectic and demanding careers that monopolize their time. Mila and Adam, their children, are almost second thoughts as they both pursue their own ambitions. After much searching, they find Louise, a nanny who comes highly recommended   Louise turns out to not just be a nanny but an accomplished cook, mender, cleaner and girl Friday. Myriam and Adam becomes spoiled, coming home to a clean house without a single thing misplaced. Best of all? Their children love Louise. As this novel opens with the deaths of the children, the reader can only wonder what makes this woman snap?   Myriam and Adam waffle in the their relationship with Louise between friendship and disgust. Their communication with her seems entirely lacking. They invite her on vacation and have a fun even

THE MAYTREES by Annie Dillard   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2009, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 2008   Date Read: November 17, 2023   Dillard deftly explores the complexities of life, love and death. Although Toby Maytree falls in love with Lou Bigelow at first sight, their relationship is fated for the decades that follow. Slowly wooing her over the course of the summer, they eventually marry and have a son, Pete. In their wedded bliss, foresight is blind to the years ahead.   Toby finds himself falling with love Dearie, an old friend. He never thought another woman would turn his head but, alas, here he is moving to Maine to be with her, leaving Lou and Pete behind. They essentially become estranged.   What makes this novel unique is that as Dearie comes to the end of her life, and Toby is too old to care for her on his own, the only person who will take them in is Lou. With the most generous and forgiving heart, she helps Dearie come to the end comforted and cared for, ignoring that she is

THE LAND OF GREEN PLUMS by Herta Muller   Awards: Dublin Winner 1998, Nobel Winner 1998   Date Read: November 15, 2023   In The Land of Green Plums, Muller explores the fates of four young people as they begin their adult lives and how those lives are shaped by living under a corrupt and brutal dictator. All of them are moderate in their political views with undertones of dissidence but those leanings are not overt. Having all come from the countryside, they believe their prospects will be improved if they move to the city. All of their futures are compromised, though.   As another wrote, “…we see the way the totalitarian state comes to inhabit every human realm and how everyone, even the strongest, must either bend to the oppressors or resist them and thereby perish. ” And perish they do. Almost as soon as they can feel the warm embrace of freedom do two of the four come to mysterious ends, both of which are labeled suicides. The state has the power to corrupt their livelihoods, their

THE BEEKEEPER OF ALEPPO by Christy Lefteri   Award: Aspen Words Winner 2020   Nominations: BookTube Finalist 2020, Dayton Literary Peace Finalist 2020   Date Read: November 12, 2023   Nuri and his wife Afra have lost everything in their flight from war-torn Syria – their son Sami, their home and even their connection to each other. Navigating a treacherous journey that is about as harrowing as the place they are fleeing from, the Ibrahims relentlessly pursue the reconnection with their dearest friend in England.   Only during this arduous journey does it become clear that Nuri is suffering from PTSD. He has invented a child to save, Mohammed, as a psychological replacement for the loss of his son. Nuri is depressed, constantly vigilant and wading through darkness, hoping to find the light.   The Beekeeper of Aleppo shows just how difficult the immigrant journey is. All these refugees want is honest work, a sense of home and connection to family. As Sami imagines England, he envisions a

SEVERANCE by Ling Ma   Award: Kirkus Winner 2018   Nominations: Aspen Words Longlist 2019, Dublin Longlist 2020, PEN/Hemingway Finalist 2019   Date Read: November 8, 2023   In this apocalyptic debut, Ma explores the impact of a spore pandemic on cities, work life and survival culture. This is a stunning novel, with the feeling of a frog being boiled and not realizing it’s screwed until it’s too late.   Candace is living the dream, in a sense. She has a decent job with upward potential, living in New York and has a boyfriend she loves. Jonathan, the boyfriend, has decided he wants to drop out and not live in the capitalist rat-race and is moving to Washington. Candace isn’t willing to let her life go to follow him, even though she loves him.   She has put in for a promotion that she’s likely to get, and has one other massive complication. She’s pregnant with Jonathan’s baby. Wrestling with whether to tell him or not, she decides not to tell. And then he’s gone. With the spread of the fe

THE SILENT PATIENT by Alex Michaelides   Award: Goodreads Winner 2019   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2021   Date Read: November 5, 2023   This thriller was quite good with a twist at the end. Grappling throughout with the psyche and the ways it can betray us, Theo is fighting the good fight for his own healing and others’. More specifically, he wants to help Alicia who is an infamous husband killer and famous artist. Since the murder of her husband, she hasn’t spoken a single word.   Theo embarked on a career in psychotherapy because of his own upbringing and wanted to overcome the trauma from that time. As it turns out, Alicia had a very similar upbringing, although she lost her mom quite young. Theo hunts down where Alicia is being held and doggedly pursues a job there. He is eventually hired.   His one and only reason for taking a job at an institution that’s near collapse is explicitly because of Alicia. You realize he is somewhat obsessed, but in a benign way. Theo, is after all,

THE DISCOMFORT OF EVENING by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld   Award: Booker International Winner 2020   Date Read: November 2, 2023   Four siblings are growing up in a rural village in the Netherlands by fundamentalist parents who push the word of God above affection. As each of them come of age in their own way, the eldest, Matthies, drowns when he falls through the ice while skating with friends. The aftermath of this devastating loss is devastating on its own.   Told through the perspective of Jas, the eldest girl, she is trying her best to make sense of this tragedy and the best she can come up with are the plagues in the Bible. The family loses all of their cows, their main cash crop, to hoof and mouth disease. They have an invasion of frogs. They have lost their eldest son. How could this not be a punishment for sin?   Jas has enshrouded herself in her red jacket and is slowly collecting things in its pockets – wrappers, whiskers, a cheese scoop. She wears her coat 24/7 as a way to avoi