Not a River by Selva Almada, transl by Annie McDermott (4*)

Shortlisted for the 2024 International Booker and translated by Annie McDermott I've been wanting to read this since the English Translation came out . Also on my to be read list are her other books The Wind that Lays Waste and Bricklayers and although these are the first of this loosely connected trilogy I've always been under the impression they can be read in any order. In the UK it is published by the marvelous Charco Press from Edinburgh who produce the great Central and South American Literature in English. This edition includes a post note by the translator which is well worth a read. She was shortlisted also for Brickmakers.

This is a story of a weekend island fishing trip by 3 friends, which echoes a previous trip made some years before. Almada works her storylines back and forth, flowing like a river, and rivers we know can be smooth and steady, welcoming and also dangerous fierce raging torrents. So with this book. I read that the author was born and raised in Entre Rios which is a province to the north of Buenos Aires that is full of rivers dotted with lush islands. You feel that tension between water and land, between island and mainland in this book as Almada explore classic topics such as the bonds of friendship and family, the dangers facing women and girls, and the male urge to solve problems through violence.

One group consists of the fishermen from the mainland Enero and El negro and the younger Tilo, son of their friend Diana and now taking his father Eusabio's place in the fishing group. The islander group is led by Aguirre, his sister Siomara and her daughters Lucy and Mariela. Their backstories lap upon the reader as short sentences, short paragraphs as waves on the page. It is a beautifully constructed story, has an ease of reading, a great build up of tension and grand storytelling in under 100 pages.

The Death of Francis Bacon by Max Porter, narrated by Max Porter (3*)

I didn't enjoy this as much as Porter's other books, but then I suspect not many people will. Having said that it is a highly experimental work , even by Porter's standards. One which only covers 74 A6 pages, and the seven chapter title pages are in fact only picture medium and size labels. But again it is all about the voice - this time the author himself narrates this and he does it very well - in my opinion like a great actor can deliver with momentum, with speeds changes, employing tone and voice pitch, slow and soft, fierce and firm, brutal and blunt , without apparently taking a breath. As I read it and listened to it, it struck me I didn't know much about Francis Bacon's art and life, much less how and where he died. The book left me remembering the live, one man stage show that Simon Callow did of Dickens - a performance that required not only inordinate memory but total commitment to the part, the giving of 100% of the actor's life for that hour or so to be someone else, without the breathing space afforded by fellow actors playing their part. Here we do have the intermittent voice of the clinic's Sister and quotes from others like John Berger, but they are a tiny part. The rest is Porter's impressions of the final chaotic workings of a mind of the artist, its a homage in many ways as Porter transforms these scenes into the 7 text pictures and tries to catch the the torment of Bacon's artwork and the inevitable chaos of what was for most of his life an illicit love live, full of characters and full of violence. The range of topics that Porter has tackled in his 4 novels is broad. This is a great author in the making.

Lanny by Max Porter , narrated by Annie Aldington, Clare Corbett, David Timson and Jot Davies (5*)

This is the 3rd Max Porter book I have read. I am becoming addicted. He is the most exciting novelist I have read in recent times. I adore his writing and this one is the best so far, a gripping read. I love the way he uses words - 'Palette-knife smears of bad weather rush past the windows'; ' There is a moment like a cello note, then. Warm and wooden and full of other things. Nobody speaks but we are all listening' 'I'm more accustomed to the sound of the village now. I know a hedgehog making its way along the planted borders, I know the postman's early footsteps on the gravel. I know the alien hum of Mrs Larton's late-night tumble-drying.This isn't that. This is a human body moving. There is someone in my house.' The way the eavesdropped conversations of villagers, the sound bite of gossip and mundane minutiae of life are 'heard' on the wind, on the page they move like fluttering words - they are brought to life by excellent multi-voice narration. It really pays the hear Porter's novels read aloud, like listening to a Guillermo del Toro producing Pan's Labyrinth. This book will take you from realism, into the magical unreal, from folk tale into drama and twisting it walks backwards through them all.

Max Porter has a new book due out in Feb 2027 entitled Burn and Rave, I , for one, will be eagerly waiting for it.