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.

Shy by Max Porter (4*) , narrated by Joe Gaminara (5*)

This is the second [author:Max Porter|13807841] book I have read. And I must highly recommend him as a writer, especially for people who love words, rhythm and rhyme. His plots are thin, sparse, but his language is rich, lush and exorbitant. Reading him is like lying in your favourite bubble bath, soaking it all in. In this book we have Shy a very troubled youth, now having his last chance at the 'Last Chance' school an unconventional rehab institution for delinquent, disturbed and violent offenders.

I would advice listening to the audio narrated brilliantly by Joe Gaminara alongside the textual copy. His narration captures the multi-voice way Porter writes, bringing the author's architectural style of producing words on the page to the narration. Gaminara brings the building bricks of the text - its spacing, loft and right justifications, italics etc - to life. So much added value.

Porter is incredibly innovative in in writing style - unique? You really hear the hip-hop, bass and drums that Shy likes, you experience the chaos of his mind, how he tries to handle his own frustrations, his ignorance, his questioning, his interactions with other, the noise, noise noise of his existence. This is a powerful book. Not easy subject matter. But you will know you have read it.

Assembly by Natasha Brown (4*)

My roll of short great novels continues.

Race and class in Modern Britain circa 2013 . Social climbing today for old money and new. Privilege and expectation versus work hard, work harder mantra or the migrant and the masses. Although some passages feel like creative writing exercises re-used, this woman can write. She makes the essence of her protagonist explode from the concise 100 pages of tight text into full bloom in your mind.

Deservedly on the Granta 2023 Best of Young British Novelists list

On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle, Translated from the Danish by Barbara J. Haveland (4*)

This book takes the concept found in Groundhog Day, and in The Time Traveller's Wife etc and runs with it in 1st person narrative of antiquarian book seller Tara. As she tells her husband about the repetition , each day's recantation getting longer and longer, we see her try to maintain then be a voyeur and then remove herself from his 18th, from his life, their house, their life. It was an addictive listen. Ive ordered Book 2 of the series from the library to see how she develops this and where she takes it.

The Song of the Safina #1 : The Republic of Memory by Mahmud El Sayed (4*)

I seem to be on a good reading run at the moment. This one is the latest. Another first novel and it is a stonker (*) of a book, marvellous world building, up there with the best, layered full of politics, love, linguistic classes, uprising and revolution aboard a generational ship.

Oh the wait for book 2!! I just hope it is already well underway in the publication pipeline.

Mahmud El Sayed is a British Egyptian writer, translator and former journalist. He won the 2023 Future Worlds Prize for his novel at that time being entitles "What the Crew Wants". This is not a Prize I was aware of but found the 2026 shortlist on Substack and if other winners are the calibre of this one they should be worth reading.
A stonker is British slang meaning "something that is very good, impressive, or an extreme and massive example of its kind."

The Employees by Olga Ravn. Translated by Martin Aitken (4*)

This author has been on my to read list now for some time and this is the first of her books I have picked up.

Martin Aitken is well known for his translations of other Scandinavian authors and has twice been listed for his translations of Olga Ravn works.

The story is presented as a series of numbered statement from crew members of a spaceship called the Six Thousand Ship. The Guardian book review states "The Employees is not only a disconcertingly quotidian space opera; it’s also an audacious satire of corporate language and the late-capitalist workplace, and a winningly abstracted investigation into what it means to be human. "

What I will say is that it is impressively novel, impressively short, impressively packed full. The Statements illuminate the workplace, the worker, the social interactions amongst the crew, the corporate / political infrastructure in which they work, their reaction to their departure from Earth, their long sojourn into deep space, their arrival on a world called New Discovery and to the artifacts they find there and bring aboard.

But also this novel is very apt in the time I write this with all its discussion of rogue AI agents escaping sandbox boundaries, hacking other systems, their inability to end a conversation, take no for an answer, and to abide by human conventions , rules of law, rules of morality, understanding of what constitutes acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, to distinguish right from wrong when considering actions to be taken.

Reading this book means letting it flow over you as it slowly and with great craft releases its story to you. A thought provoking read

No wonder it was shortlisted for the International Booker 2021!

Grief Is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter (5*)

I rarely give a book 5* - this is one.

This is an exceptional little book. With its mixture of Emily Dickinson and Ted Hughes references, its episodic passages from Dad, the Boys and the Crow in turn. Crow is the father's alter ego, a grief counselor, bereavement service arriving on the death of wife/mother. The passages are outpourings, stories real and imagined, dreams, memories lost and found, commentaries on the other's passage. Shortlisted for Guardian First Book Award 2015 it is an astoundingly novel, first novel. Unputdownable, unforgettable. Just read it!

10:04 by Ben Lerner (3*)

I've read one book by this author before Leaving Atocha Station and I began my review of it with the words "Probably the most compelling first person narrative I have read. " Here again it is written in 1st person. Its title is from the time on the clock tower in the movie Back to the Future and this book also does somersaults with time. It is about an author who has written a story in the New Yorker on the strength of which he has been given a huge advance to write his first novel. But he has much going on in his life including a potentially fatal health diagnosis, the prospect of becoming a father and in exactly what capacity following his female friend, Alex's request to him to help her conceive a child, another friend exhibits 'totalled art' , the art written off by insurance companies after damage, he has a course on Whitman to prepare for his students, he is on a writing retreat at Marfa in Texas from which he turns out a epic poem, and his thoughts are always being distracted . It is through these aspects that Lerner writes this book which essentially is about how writers write. It meanders, philosophizes, ponders the big and the small. It takes a bit of submersion to feel the book, to tease the different threads that are jumbled together, narrative not as we usually are presented with it. But hidden within are some writing gems - one for me was his story about The Challenger Disaster. If you've read Atocha and enjoyed it, read this one. If you've never read Lerner, read slowly, dont rush it, and immerse yourself in his images, lyrical descriptive analyses based on the fleeting glimpses of this that and the other.

Wandering Souls By Cecile Pin (4*)

This is one of the best first novels I have ever read! I wonder why they only longlisted it for the Women's Prize? Basically the story of 3 child refugees, 'Boat People' from Vietnam, an older sister and two brothers as they leave Vietnam and make their way first to Hong Kong and then to UK. There is tragedy and joy, racism and welcomes, innocence and experience, the whole migrant experience told through Anh the older sister but also through other voices. First there is the ghost of Dao, a much younger brother who left Vietnam with other family members, and a third voice the narrator unknown until much further into the book. This voice is researching and their passages are factual and shows the author's done her research ( I do not know whether any of this is biographical of her own family history) - 1979 Koh Kra incident ; Operation Wandering Soul ; and academic reference to Transgenerational trauma ( apologies I forgot to make a note of its details) and Joan Didion's book The White Album. In this way the author constructs her book - it is fascinating, creates layers and totally engages the reader. I read it in one sitting, very unusual for me. Stunning!

Book Review : The Wildings - Part 1: The Wildings and Part 2: The Hundred Names of Darkness by Nilanjana Roy , narrated by Tania Rodrigues

The Wildings by Nilanjana Roy
4 of 5 stars

Utterly marvellous tale of a colony of cats in Old Delhi. For story lovers of all ages. Highly recommended.

Linguistic note - the squirrels are named Ao and Jao - Come and Go.
The birds are called sa, re, ga, ma, pa, dha, and ni - the 7 notes (swara) in Hindustani classical music.



The Hundred Names of Darkness by Nilanjana Roy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

No sequel disappointment herein! The adventures of the Nizamuddin cats continues as they struggle through hard times.
Marvelous section telling of the love between the two eagles,Tooth and Claw.
The author's choice of names for all the animal characters is great, and the tone of voice captures their individual characters so well.
Both books are so very well narrated by Tania Rodrigues.

I can't recommend these enough!

View all my reviews

Book Review: Blackwater by Nilanajana Roy

Black River by Nilanjana Roy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Although the plot is a bit predictable in the sense that I guessed the murderer really early on, that didn't detract from a good read - the main characters' back stories are the best part eg Chand's time working in Delhi and living on the back waters with Rabia and her husband. What is also very strong is the representation within the story of the societal issues in India - Hindi v Muslim, city growth and expansion, climate and environment issues, corruption, police violence and the difficulties that woman in particular face.

The author has fairly recently started writing for the FT and is on the panel selecting 2026 International Booker. This is her first adult novel, so a really good debut in my opinion. She has previously written two children's books. Additionally, I'm dipping in and out of her book of essays The Girl Who Ate Books: Adventures in Reading

View all my reviews

Book Review: Fireborne by Rosaria Munda - The Aurelian Cycle, Book 1

My rating:4 of 5 stars

I flew through this piece of pure escapism fantasy. Thoroughly enjoyed the storyline. It is a YA book with all the usual themes of dragons, a young dragon rider finding there place in the hierarchy and the world. It could be compared to Game of Thrones, Untethered Sky, Red Rising and even to Harry Potter and probably others , but I liked the twist in that here our two young heros - Annie and Lee - come from opposite sides of a now overthrown previous regime. Both have suffered trauma, both have their friendship tested and the new society is rife with politics which they have to handle - power corrupts etc etc . Enjoyed it enough to order the second and third parts of this trilogy from my local library.

कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती - My attempt at a translation of this Hindi poem

Here’s my attempt at translating this Hindi poem.

कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती । 

(Koshish karne walon kee haar nahin hotee)

You can watch on YouTube the lovely narration by Amitabh Bachchan.

लहरों से डर कर नौका पार नहीं होती
कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती

नन्हीं चींटी जब दाना लेकर चलती है
चढ़ती दीवारों पर, सौ बार फिसलती है
मन का विश्वास रगों में साहस भरता है
चढ़कर गिरना, गिरकर चढ़ना न अखरता है
आख़िर उसकी मेहनत बेकार नहीं होती
कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती

डुबकियां सिंधु में गोताखोर लगाता है
जा जाकर खाली हाथ लौटकर आता है
मिलते नहीं सहज ही मोती गहरे पानी में
बढ़ता दुगना उत्साह इसी हैरानी में
मुट्ठी उसकी खाली हर बार नहीं होती
कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती

असफलता एक चुनौती है, स्वीकार करो
क्या कमी रह गई, देखो और सुधार करो
जब तक न सफल हो, नींद चैन को त्यागो तुम
संघर्ष का मैदान छोड़ मत भागो तुम
कुछ किये बिना ही जय जयकार नहीं होती
कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती

Lahrõ se darkar naukā par nahī̃ hotī,

Koshish karne walõ ki hār nahī̃ hotī.

Nanhī chīntī jab dānā lekar chaltī hai,
Chadhtī dīwarõ par, sau bar phisaltī hai.
Man ka vishwas ragõ mẽ sāhas bhartā hai,
Chadhkar girnā, girkar chadhnā na akhartā hai.
Akhir uski mehnat bekār nahī̃ hotī,
Koshish karne walõ ki hār nahī̃ hotī.

Dubkiyā̃ sindhu mẽ gotakhor lagātā hai,
Ja ja kar khalī hāth lautkar ātā hai
Milte nahī̃ sahaj hī motī gehre panī mẽ,
Badhtā dugnā utsah isī hairanī mẽ.
Muthī uskīi khalī har bar nahī̃ hotī,
Koshish karne walõ kī hār nahī̃ hotī.

Asafltā ek chunautī hai, ise swīkar karo,
Kya kamī reh gaī, dekho aur sudhār karo.

Jab tak na safal ho, nīnd chain ko tyāgo tum,
Sangharsh ka maidān chhodkar mat bhāgo tum.
Kuch kiye binā hī jai jaikar nahī̃ hotī,
Koshish karne walõ kī hār nahī̃ hotī.

 

A translation by Sheila Ash

Those who try never fail

A boat afraid of the waves will not cross the sea
Those who try never fail.

The tiny ant carrying a small grain up a wall
May climb and slip a hundred times
Yet self-belief still fills its veins with courage to climb
Falling down again is but an annoyance
Ultimately its hard work is not in vain
Those who try never fail.

The diver takes a plunge into the Indus
Going and returning empty handed
Pearls are not readily found in deep water
Excitement doubles in surprise
Every time his fist is not empty
Those who try never fail.

Failure is a challenge so accept it
See what came up short and fix it
Forego the peace of sleep until you succeed
Don’t run away from the battlefield
Acclaim doesn’t come without effort
Those who try never fail.

 © Translation by Sheila Ash , 2025

My loneliness and I by Sheila Ash ( original by Jagit Singh)

A language buddy sent a link to a Hindi poem used as a song in the Indian movie Silsila.
You can see a clip here on YouTube. The Hindi is

Main Aur Meri Tanhai (मैं और मेरी तन्हाई) Song by Jagjit Singh

आवारा हैं गलियों में मैं और मेरी तन्हाई
जाएँ तो कहाँ जाएँ
जाएँ तो कहाँ जाएँ
हर मोड़ पे रुस्वाई
मैं और मेरी तन्हाई
मैं और मेरी तनहाई

ये फूल से चेहरे हैं हँसते हुए गुलदस्ते
कोई भी नहीं अपना बेगाने हैं सब रस्ते
राहें हैं तमाशाई राही भी तमाशाई
मैं और मेरी तन्हाई
मैं और मेरी तनहाई

अरमान सुलगते हैं सीने में चिता जैसे
क़ातिल नज़र आती है दुनिया की हवा जैसे
रोती है मेरे दिल पर बजती हुई शहनाई
मैं और मेरी तन्हाई
मैं और मेरी तनहाई

आकाश के माथे पर तारों का चराग़ां है
पहलू में मगर मेरे ज़ख्मों का गुलिस्तां है
आँखों से लहू टपका दामन में बहार आई
मैं और मेरी तन्हाई
मैं और मेरी तन्हाई
मैं और मेरी तन्हाई

This inspired me to adapt its words and sentiments into my own poem -

Where should we go my loneliness and I?
fated now to wander street after street
where faces smile as if handing a bouquet of flowers in welcome.
But this is not our home , everything and everyone feels a stranger looking at us in judgement
while the mournful cries of my heart are like a piper's funeral lament.
Stars may dance on in the sky
but my loneliness flowers as wounds as bloodied tears stain my face.

(C) Sheila Ash, 2024 

chromakinetic By Comdr-Ferox