Road Rage Hits Spain, the Devil Deals in Sweden, and a Burglary Stumps Denmark A minor fender bender on a Monday morning leads a frazzled female executive named Sonsoles to hop out of her convertible and let loose with a string of insults and profanities that would make even the most grizzled truck driver blush…Continue Reading
Youths Kick-Start Japanese Market, China Makes the Grade, French Teacher Explores Afterlife When 19-year-old Hitomi Kanehara and 20-year-old Risa Wataya recently became the youngest authors ever to win the coveted Akutagawa Prize (which helped launch the careers of greats like Kenzaburo Oe and Ryu Murakami), the Japanese literary scene received just the spark it needed…Continue Reading
She’s Got Game Gablé’s Bold Move in Germany, Forest Fling in Holland, And Spain’s Answer to Umberto Eco Move over, Monopoly. Board game junkies worldwide are in for a surprise this month as author and former university lecturer in Medieval Studies Rebecca Gablé’s quirky novel The Settlers of Catan hits stores and the German bestseller…Continue Reading
Walk on the Wild Side Sophie’s Choice in Sweden, Saddam Does Denmark, And Russia’s Crime Babe Rides Again The co-creator of the longest-running Swedish soap opera in history sends white-hot sparks of sensuality shooting over Scandinavia this month with “a clearly political manifesto disguised as an entertaining literary soap.” In Stars Without Vertigo, now bounding…Continue Reading
Cuckoo Cavaliers Three Pests in Gavron’s Mess, Down and Out in Gdansk, And Gala Rings Twice in Spain John Belushi meets the Coen brothers — or maybe the three stooges — this month as a trio of young Israelis land in New York to strike it fabulously rich but soon put the pedal to the…Continue Reading
Realpolitik Redux Aguinis in Argentina, King’s Ransom in Denmark, and Slobo’s Serbian Adventures With the world reeling from the 1994 bombings of the Israeli embassy and the Argentine Jewish Mutual Aid Association in Buenos Aires, a Moslem scholar and a young and impulsive journalist join forces to prevent future attacks in Argentine author Marcos Aguinis’…Continue Reading
Sketches of Spain Gala’s Jungle of Love and Aldecoa’s Enigma, Plus Holst’s Uppity Danish Women At the colossal Fnac megastore in Barcelona last month, you had to bushwhack your way past bales of Jean Auel’s The Shelters of Stone — the ubiquitously promoted tome could be had in no less than four separate editions: Catalan,…Continue Reading
