Disoriental
Disoriental

Author: Négar Djavadi

Publisher: Europa Editions

Published: 2018-05-01

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 1609454529

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National Book Award Finalist: “A multigenerational epic of the Sadr family’s life in Iran and their eventual exile . . . Full of surprises” (The Globe and Mail). Winner of the 2019 Albertine Prize and Lambda Literary Award Kimiâ Sadr fled Iran at the age of ten in the company of her mother and sisters to join her father in France. Now twenty-five and facing the future she has built for herself, as well as the prospect of a new generation, Kimiâ is inundated by her own memories and the stories of her ancestors, which come to her in unstoppable, uncontainable waves. In the waiting room of a Parisian fertility clinic, generations of flamboyant Sadrs return to her, including her formidable great-grandfather Montazemolmolk, with his harem of fifty-two wives, and her parents, Darius and Sara, stalwart opponents of each regime that befalls them. It is Kimiâ herself—punk-rock aficionado, storyteller extraordinaire, a Scheherazade of our time, and above all a modern woman divided between family traditions and her own “disorientalization”—who forms the heart of this bestselling and beloved novel, recipient of numerous literary honors. “Where initially Disoriental seems focused on Kimiâ’s father and his pro-democracy activism—first against the Shah, then the Ayatollah Khomeini—this is truly Kimiâ’s story of disorientation—national, familial and sexual—and finding herself again.” —The Globe and Mail “A tour de force of storytelling . . . Djavadi deftly weaves together the history of 20th-century Iran [and] the spellbinding chronicle of her own ancestors. . . . Perfectly blends historical fact with contemporary themes.” —Library Journal “Riveting . . . Djavadi is an immensely gifted storyteller, and Kimiâ’s tale is especially compelling.” —Booklist (starred review) “A wonder and a pleasure to read.” —Rivka Galchen, author of Atmospheric Disturbances WINNER 2019 ALBERTINE PRIZE WINNER 2019 LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FINALIST 2018 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST 2019 CLMP FIRECRACKER AWARD FINALIST 2019 BEST TRANSLATED BOOK AWARD WINNER LE PRIX DU ROMAN NEWS WINNER STYLE PRIZE WINNER 2016 LIRE BEST DEBUT NOVEL WINNER LA PORTE DORÉE PRIZE ONE OF THE GLOBE & MAIL’S BEST BOOKS OF 2018

Life, Only Better
Life, Only Better

Author: Anna Gavalda

Publisher: Europa Editions

Published: 2015-11-24

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 1609453034

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Two lost young Parisians discover new paths for their lives in this charming pair of novellas by the international-bestselling author of Billie. Twenty-four-year-old Mathilde has abandoned her studies in art history for a job leaving anonymous negative comments on websites. One day she loses her bag in a café—a bag that happens to contain ten thousand Euros. When an unknown man returns it to her a week later, Mathilde becomes obsessed with the mysterious encounter. Twenty-six-year-old Yann works as a sales assistant in a home appliances store while he waits for better days to come. He wouldn’t say he is unhappy. But sometimes, late at night, when he is crossing a bridge over the River Seine, he imagines jumping. One day he does a favor for one of his neighbors and is asked to stay for dinner as thanks. The following morning Yann throws caution to the wind and decides to change his life entirely. These two novellas by bestselling author Anna Gavalda are among her most moving and inspiring. Life, Only Better is a touching, cleverly crafted book about choices and their consequences.

Call Me Evie
Call Me Evie

Author: J. P. Pomare

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2019-03-05

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 0525538151

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A seventeen-year-old struggles to remember the tragic night that changed her life forever in this twist-filled debut novel of psychological suspense for fans of Sharp Objects and The Last Time I Lied. Evie and her uncle Jim have just moved to an isolated cabin in a remote beach town--a far cry from their hometown of Melbourne. But Evie isn't her real name. And Jim isn't really her uncle. Jim tells Evie she did something terrible back home, that he's hiding her to protect her. But Evie can't remember anything about that night--for all she knows, he's lying. As fragments of her memory return, she starts to wonder if Jim is really her savior...or her captor. In a riveting novel that fearlessly plumbs the darkest recesses of the mind, J.P. Pomare explores the fragility of memory and the potential in everyone to hide the truth--even from themselves.

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree
The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree

Author: Shokoofeh Azar

Publisher: Europa Editions

Published: 2020-01-07

Total Pages: 202

ISBN-13: 1609455665

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A grieving family flees Tehran after the Islamic Revolution in this novel of “magical realism with a Persian twist” translated from Farsi (The Guardian, UK). When their home in Tehran is burned to the ground by zealots, killing their thirteen-year-old daughter Bahar, a once-prominent family flees to a small village. There, they hope to preserve both their intellectual freedom and their lives. But they soon find themselves caught up in the post-revolutionary chaos that sweeps across their ancient land and its people. Bahar’s mother, after a tragic loss, will embark on a long, eventful journey in search of meaning in a world swept up in the post-revolutionary madness. The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree speaks of the power of imagination when confronted with cruelty, and of our human need to make sense of trauma through the ritual of storytelling itself. Through her unforgettable characters, Iranian novelist Shokoofeh Azar weaves a timely and timeless story that juxtaposes the beauty of an ancient, vibrant culture with the brutality of an oppressive political regime. “[Azar’s] book is a great journey. It moves places and it moves us as readers, in an emotional and intellectual sense.” —Robert Wood, The Los Angeles Review of Books

I'll Be Strong for You
I'll Be Strong for You

Author: Nasim Marashi

Publisher: Astra Publishing House

Published: 2021-04-06

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 1662600364

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This award-winning debut novel by Iranian journalist Nasim Marashi follows the lives of three young women in Tehran over the course of two seasons as they pursue their wildly different dreams even as they discover that it may mean breaking with the past and endangering their longstanding friendship. Three recent college graduates in Tehran struggle to find their footing in this award-winning debut by Iranian journalist Nasim Marashi. Roja, the most daring of the three, works in an architecture firm and is determined to leave Tehran for graduate school in Toulouse. Shabaneh, who is devoted to her disabled brother and works with Roja, is uncertain about marrying a colleague as it would mean leaving her family behind. Leyla, who was unable to follow her husband abroad because of her commitment to her career as a journalist, is wracked with regret. Over the course of two seasons, summer and fall, in bustling streets and cramped family apartments, the three women weather setbacks and compromises, finding hope in the most unlikely places. Even as their ambitions cause them to question the very fabric of their personalities and threaten to tear their friendship apart, time and again Roja, Shabaneh and Leyla return to the comfort of their longtime affection, deep knowledge and unquestioning support of each other. Vividly capturing three very distinct voices, Marashi's deeply wrought narrative lovingly brings these young women and their friendship to life in all their complexity.

The Book of Venice
The Book of Venice

Author: Elisabetta Baldisserotto

Publisher: Comma Press

Published: 2021-05-27

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 191269753X

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An inspector rages against the announcement that police HQ is to relocate – the way so many of the city’s residents already have – to the mainland... An aspiring author struggles with the inexorable creep of rentalisation that has forced him to share his apartment, and life, with ‘global pilgrims’... An ageing painter rails against the liberties taken by tourists, but finds his anger undermined by his own childhood memories of the place... The Venice presented in these stories is a far cry from the ‘impossibly beautiful’, frozen-in-time city so familiar to the thousands who flock there every year – a city about which, Henry James once wrote, ‘there is nothing new to be said.’ Instead, they represent the other Venice, the one tourists rarely see: the real, everyday city that Venetians have to live and work in. Rather than a city in stasis, we see it at a crossroads, fighting to regain its radical, working-class soul, regretting the policies that have seen it turn slowly into a theme park, and taking the pandemic as an opportunity to rethink what kind of city it wants to be.

Speaking Up
Speaking Up

Author: Gillian Triggs

Publisher: Melbourne Univ. Publishing

Published: 2018-10-01

Total Pages: 434

ISBN-13: 0522873529

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As president of the Human Rights Commission, Gillian Triggs advocated for the disempowered, the disenfranchised, the marginalised. She withstood relentless political pressure and media scrutiny as she defended the defenceless for five tumultuous years. How did this aspiring ballet dancer, dignified daughter of a tank commander and eminent law academic respond when appreciative passengers on a full airplane departing Canberra greeted her with a round of applause? Speaking Up shares with readers the values that have guided Triggs’ convictions and the causes she has championed. She dares women to be a little vulgar and men to move beyond their comfort zones to achieve equity for all. And she will not rest until Australia has a Bill of Rights. Triggs’ passionate memoir is an irresistible call to everyone who yearns for a fairer world.

No Touching
No Touching

Author: Ketty Rouf

Publisher: Europa Editions UK

Published: 2021-08-12

Total Pages: 157

ISBN-13: 1787703312

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A MOVING STORY OF LIBERATION THAT SHATTERS TIRED PREJUDICES ABOUT WOMANHOOD, SEX AND SOCIETY Josephine teaches in a high school in a suburb of Paris. Her life is a balancing act between Xanax and Tupperware lunches in the staff room until she walks into a Champs-Elysée's strip club. There she learns a secret nocturnal code of conduct; she discovers camaraderie and the joys of female company, and she thrills at the sensation of men's desire directed toward her. Josephine, a teacher by day, begins to lead a secret existence by night that ultimately allows her to regain control of her life. This delicate balance is shattered one evening by an unexpected visitor to the club where she dances. A heartrending reflection on a woman's image of herself, and the way others see her, Ketty Rouf's extraordinary debut novel No Touching won the prestigious French literary prize Prix du Premier Roman 2020 (First Novel award)

Blue
Blue

Author: Emmelie Prophète

Publisher: AmazonCrossing

Published: 2022

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781542031318

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An award-winning Haitian novel about silence, beauty, and the solidarity of tears. Airports are distillations of the world. I like thinking of them that way. The hope of leaving and the desire to come home, existing side by side. Any voyage is possible. My mind flies off toward the blue province once again. I don't know, anymore, why I always associate it with blue. It isn't even my favorite color. Traveling alone from Miami to Port-au-Prince, our narrator finds comfort at the airport. She feels free to ponder the silence that surrounds her homeland, her mother, her aunts, and her own inner thoughts. Between two places, she sees how living in poverty keeps women silent, forging their identities around practicality and resilience. From a distance, she is drawn inevitably homeward toward her family and the glittering blue Caribbean Sea. Blue comes alive through vivid images crowding the page, just as memories do in real life, as if the author is trying to sort through them, to come to grips with her own emotional conflict. Balancing the pain and anger are spiritual bonds that connect the author to the women who have come before her, who have created her, and with Haiti itself, her motherland. No amount of glittering opportunity up north can prevent her from finding her way home.