Staff Pick - The Violin of Auschwitz by Maria Angels Anglada

Daniel, a Jewish luthier, tells his Nazis captors that he is a carpenter and a cabinetmaker, thinking that this will make him more useful to them than as a maker of fine violins. He stumbles upon a musician playing badly and saves him serious punishment by speaking up and declaring the instrument to be damaged. He is tasked with repairing the violin and feels his humanity returning as he practices his craft once again. His success leads to a cruel wager. If Daniel builds a violin within a certain time frame the barbaric doctor will give the camp Kommandant a case of burgundy; if he his is unsuccessful the doctor will get Daniel for his insidious experiments.

The Violin of Auschwitz by Maria Angels Anglada is a beautiful little book that has tremendous emotional impact. Amidst the cruelty and arbitrary rules of the concentration camp, Daniel is able to focus on his talent rather than on the atrocities that surround him. His essential kindness is never lost and he remains compassionate to those around him. He takes comfort in the fact that his fiance and niece are in better circumstances than he. It is a story of contrasts. As he starves he imagines his fiance eating bread with butter. Despite the beatings, starvation, and torture in the name of medicine, there is music and craftsmanship. The prisoners live in an atmosphere of anxiety and fear. They know they will suffer punishment for unknown offences, they know that prisoners vanish and never return and they imagine much worse. Despite this Daniel retains his essential humanity and dignity.

The Violin of Auschwitz was first published in Catalan in 1994. It has attracted international attention as it has been translated. The author, Maria Angels Anglada, completed this novel towards the end of her life, passing away in 1999. 

This subtle and lyrical story has inspired me to try other Catalan writers.

A Not So Perfect Crime by Teresa Solana - "Another day in Barcelona, another slimy politician’s wife is suspected of infidelity. Lluis Font discovers a portrait of his wife in an exhibition that leads him to conclude he is being cuckolded by the artist. Concerned only about the potential political fallout, he hires twins Eduard and Pep, private detectives with a supposed knack for helping the wealthy with their “dirty laundry.” Their office is adorned with false doors leading to nonexistent private rooms, a mysterious secretary who is always away, and a broken laptop computer picked up on the street. The case turns ugly when Font’s wife is found poisoned by a marron glacé from a box of sweets delivered anonymously. This is a deftly plotted, bitingly funny mystery novel. A satire of Catalan politics and a fascinating insight into the life and habits of Barcelona’s inhabitants, diurnal and nocturna." - publisher

Pandora in the Congo by Albert Sanchez Pinol - "It is 1914. In the heart of the Belgian Congo, Garvey, a bedraggled British manservant, emerges from the jungle. He is the lone survivor of a mining expedition in which both his masters have died, and all of the party's African porters have fled. With him, he carries two huge diamonds. From his prison cell in London, Garvey recounts his horrific and thrilling ordeal. Young Tommy Thomson, an aspiring novelist, is assigned to transcribe the story, and only he can untangle the extraordinary mysteries of the Garvey case" - publisher

Titles that tell the story

What is it lately with novels having extra long titles? I have seen really ancient books with long titles.The longest ever book title belongs to Nigel Tomm which has 670 words; or as it is known : Selected Works of Nigel Tomm. There has been a trend of Swedish comedies that have long titles. Do they need extra words so nothing is lost in translation? Or is this normal in these countries?

One example is The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. Allan Karlson lives in a seniors citizen residence and about to celebrate his 100th birthday. The home wants to mark this occasion with a party. Allan is not interested in the fuss, so he steps out the window and disappears. Through a series of events he gets a hold of drug money and goes on the run from the old age home, the police and the drug dealers. Besides the adventures that take place in the present day we also hear Allan’s life story. These adventures include encounters with President Harry S. Truman, Winston Churchill, Mrs. Mao Zedong and various historical figures. I guess he is the Swedish equivalent of Forrest Gump.

Jonas Jonasson continues his flights of fancy in the novel The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden. Nombeko Mayeki is a young Soweto girl born during South African’s most troubled times. Put to work at the age of five, Nombeko has grand plans for herself. She teaches herself to read and write. At the age of 15 she manages to escape her dismal life. She makes it out of Soweto and with millions of smuggled diamonds goes to Sweden. There she encounters twins who plans on bring down the Swedish monarchy by any means possible! Is it Mission Impossible? I suppose you can tell from the title that it is not, however the wild adventure is fantastic!

The Little Old Lady Who Broke All The Rules and the sequel The Little Old Lady Strikes Again by Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg prove Swedish authors have great imaginations! Seventy-nine year old Martha Anderson dreams of leaving her shabby nursing home. She enlists her four closest friends, AKA The League of Pensioners, to protest the horrible conditions, stating that prisoners are treated better than seniors. They deliberately commit crimes in the hope of being placed in prison and because they are seniors they are the last people suspected. In this novel and the sequel the crimes they commit are accomplished in a very weird, humorous and roundabout way. The sequel has them still on the run and planning more crimes to help out neglected members of society. This satire will both have you angered at the system and amused at the antics the League gets up to. Well worth the read.



The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an IKEA Wardrobe by Romas Puertolas. Puertolas received Le Grad Prix Jules-Vern, sold over 100,000 copies in France by August 2014 and has become an international best seller sold in 36 nations. I don’t know what it is with the Swedish theme but it continues with this funny French novel. Okay, it is a IKEA in France where the novel begins but that counts as Swedish, eh? Just like the Jonasson novels, we encounter a descriptively long title, a wide and weird cast of characters and a plot that demands you suspend your disbelief. The Fakir cons his village into getting him a ticket to Paris to buy a bed of nails. I know, I know, I can see you shaking your head, but just go with it and you will have an enjoyable ride as the Fakir goes from country to country to country, completely by accidents of fate. I look forward to his second book, The Little Girl Who Swallowed a Cloud as Big as the Eiffel Tower, which has just been published in French on January 7, 2015. I can hardly wait for it to be translated into English.

So suspend your disbelief and sometimes logic and just enjoy these wild reads.

Man Booker International Prize 2013

The Man Booker International Prize began in 2005, selecting Albanian Ismail Kadare as the initial recipient. The biennial award is a little unusual in focus in that the eligibility isn't based on a single book or a writer's lifetime achievement. Rather is celebrates a writer's current body of work, not necessarily an entire career. The nominees for the prize are self generated by the judging panel, with no submission process.  The works have to be in English, but include translations.

Here is the partial press release:

"Anyone who could have guessed even five of the 10 novelists who have just been revealed as the finalists for the fifth Man Booker International Prize deserves a mass cap-doffing from the wider reading public. The previous incarnations of the prize have included a large cluster of well-known and indeed expected names, from Doris Lessing and Milan Kundera to Amos Oz and Joyce Carol Oates. There is, however, nothing familiar or expected about the list unveiled today by the chair of judges Sir Christopher Ricks at the DSC Jaipur Literary Festival.

It is a list that will, for many readers, open up a wealth of possibilities since perhaps only two of the writers can be said to have a wide international profile, Marilynne Robinson and Aharon Appelfeld. Robinson, an Orange Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award winner is the only one of the 10 who has been nominated for this prize before."

Josip Novakovich (Canada)

Yan Lianke (China)

Marie NDiaye (France)

U R Ananthamurthy (India)

Aharon Appelfeld (Israel)

Intizar Husain (Pakistan)

Vladimir Sorokin (Russia)

Peter Stamm (Switzerland)

Lydia Davis (USA)

Marilynne Robinson (USA)

Nominations Needed! - Int'l IMPAC Dublin Literary Award

Each year Halifax Public Libraries participates in the International Dublin IMPAC Literary Award. This is an award that is based on nominations from public libraries from around the world. Obviously, this is an award near and dear to the hearts of readers' advisors in libraries everywhere.

The deadline for the 2013 nominations is coming very soon. We have to select three English language novels, or recent novels translated into English, which were published in 2011. We factor into our decisions, feedback from our readers, staff impressions, book reviews, and circulation statistics from our branches.

I am hoping that readers of this blog will help us to select our nominees this year.

Please leave a comment below suggesting titles for consideration by our nomination committee.

The most recent winner was Colum McCann for the Let Great World Spin (M), which I am pleased to note was nominated by Halifax Public Libraries.

We also picked the 2001 winner- Alistair MacLeod's No Great Mischief (M).

Last year we nominated the following novels:

Solar (M)
by Ian McEwan

Room (M)
by Emma Donoghue

Secret Daughter (M)
by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

It's About Time - fiction

Yesterday's post was also about time, highlighting three fascinating nonfiction titles. But if you are not in the mood for non-fiction books, here are a few novels that might peak your interest:

Alan Lightman seems to me to be a fascinating man. He is a novelist, essayist, physicist and Adjunct Professor of Humanities at MIT. From a very early age he was entranced by both science and the arts. His novel, Einstein's Dreams (M) was an international best-seller in 1992, has been translated into 30 languages and has been adapted for the stage by David Gardiner. It has been used in numerous college and university courses. A fictional Albert Einstein is troubled by dreams as he works on his theory of relativity. Each of the chapters features a dream by Einstein, all of which are on the subject of time.

Banned in China - and the Chinese government authorities have banned its export and blocked all sites that offer free download - The Fat Years (M) by Chan Koonchung has become an underground phenomenon. Presenting a dystopian portrait of one of the world's superpower, Koonchung’s novel takes place during an economic boom in 2013. The beginning point for the novel is that one month has gone missing from the official records and popular memory in China. Something terrible happened during this time, but the government has managed to effect a state of near total forgetfulness. Protagonist Old Chen wants to find what happened and joins forces with a few others wanting the same thing. They kidnap a senior official and he tells them what lies behind the "fat years". This is a fascinating novel about a very secretive country, well worth a look.

Zig Zag: a novel (M), by Jose Carlos Somoza is part horror, part science fiction and part thriller. String theory and time travel are key elements of the plot. Physics professor Eliza Robledo was part of a science exhibition working to manipulate string theory. In doing so the scientists were able to witness images of the past, as if the events were live and happening now. Continuing their research on a remote island in the Indian Ocean, the team awoke something dangerous. Years later, Eliza discovers that members of the team are dying gruesome deaths and she may be next. What does time have in store for poor Eliza? As the saying goes, time waits for no (wo)man.

So no matter how much time it took for you to read this blog, I hoped you enjoyed it.

South Asian Canadian Fiction Authors You Should Know - part 2

As promised, here is part 2 of yesterday's post about South Asian Canadian Authors You Should Know:

Tariq Malik (M): Pakistani Canadian author Malik has published two books through small presses, 2004's Rainsongs of Kotli and last year's Chanting Denied Shores. The first book is a series of short stories set in the mountainous Kotli District of Pakistan, the second is a novel set against the back drop of a real historical event, the 1914 arrival in Vancouver of a ship called the Komagata Maru that carried hundreds of Indian immigrants.


Shani Mootoo (M): Born in Ireland, of South Asian heritage, raised in Trinidad and now a Canadian resident, Mootoo is a global author whose writings address questions of culture, sexuality and class. Her first novel, Cereus Blooms at Night, was shortlisted for the Giller Prize, and she has been included in the long lists for other major prizes, but Mootoo remains far from a house hold name in Canada. Her most recent novel Valmiki's Daughter was released in 2008. From the publisher: "The story circles around a well-to-do Trinidadian family, in particular, Valmiki, a renowned doctor and loving if confused father, and his youngest daughter, Viveka, lively, intelligent, and intent on escaping the gilded cage that protects but also smothers her . . . Mootoo writes with an unusual combination of clear-eyed affection and expansive humanity about society and its hierarchies..."


Shyam Selvadurai (M): Sri Lankan Canadian author Selvadurai won the Amazon/Books in Canada First novel award in 1994 for Funny Boy. His 2005 novel Swimming in the Moonsoon Sea (described by a Halifax Public Libraries readers' adviser as "A novel for older teens and adults. A modern coming of age narrative, set against the beautiful backdrop of Sri Lanka, that also explores the cross pollination of modern cultures") won a Lambda Literary award.


If you want to further explore South Asian writing, consider also Story-Wallah! A Celebration of South Asian Fiction (M), edited by Shyam Selvadurai, featuring stories from authors from all across the world.

South Asian Canadian Fiction Authors You Should Know - part 1

A website called Flavorwire that I sometimes follow for arts and culture news, recently posted a story called 10 Contemporary South Asian Writers You Should Know offering ideas for readers looking to explore the stories of "India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and the surrounding areas". It's a great list, inspired by the recent release of 78 year old Pakistani author Jamil Ahmad's (M) debut novel The Wandering Falcon.

In the last few decades, Canadian authors of South Asian descent have grown to prominence within Canada and internationally. Authors like Michael Ondaatje, Rohinton Mistry and M.G. Vassanji have become household names, their books frequently included on the short lists of the Giller Prize and the Governor General's Awards.

So, in the spirit of the Flavorwire post, I've drawn up a list of Canadian authors with South Asian ancestry to further expand your reading options. The writings from these authors touch on the cultures and history of a number a regions, but the list is by no means exhaustive: feel free to contribute more names in the comments below.

Anita Rau Badami (M): Although now resident in Montreal, Badami's website biography says "I have been a traveler since I was born. My father was an officer in the Indian railways and as a result we moved frequently. My geographies were in a permanent state of flux, I was always moving away somewhere, perennially settling in, and soon, change became my constant." Badami's books are largely set in India or Canada, and often explore the idea of place. Her most recent book is Tell it to the Trees, set in Northern British Columbia, the novel begins with a death, and unfolds to explore "a story of love and need, and of chilling secrets never told aloud." (publisher's description)

Shauna Singh Baldwin (M): Baldwin was born in Montreal, and currently lives in the United States, but her Canadian upbringing and Indian cultural background permeate her writings. Her first novel What the Body Remembers burst onto the scene in 2000 and won her the Commonwealth Writer's Prize for Best Book in the Canada-Caribbean region. Her followup 2004's The Tiger Claw was shortlisted for the Giller Prize.

Randy Boyagoda (M): Born in Oshawa, Boyagoda's parents immigrated to Canada from Sri Lanka about ten years before he was born. Author of two novels, frequent contributor to Canadian and US magazines, and currently a professor at Ryerson University, Boyagoda's most recent book is Beggar's Feast. The novel was inspired by a story he was told about a family ancestor and follows the life of Sam Kandy, born into poverty in a small village in Ceylon, who spends much of the 20th century rising above expectations from him. The publisher describes it as "a novel about a man who lives in defiance of fate."


~ part 2 of this list will be posted tomorrow.

Women’s Life Stories

Today's post is by guest blogger and Dalhousie University School of Information Management student Jennifer.

I am a library student and have chosen this career path because I have always loved books and reading. I have fond memories of the time spent in the library reading during childhood. In high school I excelled in my English classes and it was only natural to me that when it came time to go to university I would major in English Literature. The down side to being in university is that you do not have a lot of free time to select your own reading materials; however, the advantage is that you are able to discover literature that you may have normally not selected for yourself. In fact some of the most memorable classes during my undergraduate degree were the classes that forced me to expand my reading beyond my comfort zone. I will be discussing books I read in one such course.

I was required to take a course on literary theory. The class was focused on feminist theory and the theoretical essays were challenging because they were written in dense paragraphs with complex language. However, I pushed through and I found the themes and topics we discussed in class to be very fascinating. We then began to read novels and short stories written by women who were facing very challenging social and political situations. The stories also have a strong sense of place because their hardships were often born out of a culture that oppresses women.

You do not have to understand feminist theory to enjoy these stories. I enjoy these stories because they are characterized by strong female characters that are able to give voice to the troubling social realities of their lives. They are also characterized by a strong sense of place; particularly these stories which are set in the countries of Iran, Afghanistan, and Egypt.

Persepolis: the story of a childhood
by Marjane Satrapi

“The great-granddaughter of Iran's last emperor and the daughter of ardent Marxists describes growing up in Tehran in a country plagued by political upheaval and vast contradictions between public and private life” (NoveList). This story is a memoir told in graphic novel format. This is actually the first and only graphic novel I have read so far. I had not read any graphic novels because I did not think that they would be for me; I thought that they were for young adults who enjoyed comic books – I was wrong. If you share this opinion then you may want to take a chance on this story. Persepolis also has a sequel: Persepolis 2: The story of a return. It has also been turned into an animated film.

My Forbidden Face: growing up under the Taliban: a young woman's story,
by Latifa, written with the collaboration of Shékéba Hachemi.

“A young woman born into a middle-class Afghan family describes the 1996 revolution in which the Taliban seized power in Kabul, the resulting changes in her life as a victim of Taliban fanaticism, and her eventual escape with her family” (Novelist). This story is Latifa’s memoir. Latifa is a pseudonym because she was afraid that her expression of opposition to the Taliban would place her family still in Afghanistan in danger.

Woman at Point Zero
by Nawal El Saadawi

This novel is a creative non-fiction, meaning that parts of the story are based on true events with added fictional elements. This story was originally written in Arabic in 1973 and translated to English in 1983. It has been republished a number of times because it is a shocking and passionate story that still resonates as a representation of a woman’s life in parts of the Middle East. The story is framed as the main character Firdaus tells her story of a neglected and abused childhood and her adult life of prostitution to a psychiatrist in prison in Cairo, Egypt.

Currently on my reading list is A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini the author of The Kite Runner, which I just finished and enjoyed. Both of these stories are life stories about living in war-torn Afghanistan. The Kite Runner is told from the perspective of a young man who over the course of the book grows up and moves to America. A Thousand Splendid Suns tells the life stories of two women, and I am hoping that it will be a fiction read-a-like for the stories above.

I encourage you to comment on this post if you would like to recommend other stories that share a common characteristic.

International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2011 shortlist

The 2011 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award shortlist has been announced. This prestigious award celebrates the best in international fiction and the winner is chosen by public libraries from around the world. (How cool is that?)

Of particular interest this year is that Canadian author Michael Crummey has made the shortlist for the second time in his career. (Congratulations Michael!)

Also of note is that one of the shortlist titles was nominated by Halifax Public Libraries: Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann.

Here is the complete shortlist for your reading enjoyment:

Galore: a novel
by Michael Crummey

"An intricate family saga and love story spanning two centuries, Galore is a portrait of the improbable medieval world that was rural Newfoundland, a place almost too harrowing and extravagant to be real. Remote and isolated, exposed to savage extremes of climate and fate, the people of Paradise Deep persist in a realm where the line between the everyday and the otherworldly is impossible to distinguish." - publisher

The Lacuna
by Barbara Kingsolver

"This is a gripping story of identity, connection with our past, and the power of words to create or devastate. Like no other novel yet written, it illuminates an era when bold internationalism gave way to a post-war landscape of narrowly defined ‘Americanism’. Crossing two decades, from the vibrant revolutionary murals of Mexico City to the halls of a Congress bent on eradicating the colour red, The Lacuna is as deep and rich as the New World itself." - publisher

The Vagrants
by Yiyun Li

"Writing with profound emotion, and in the superb tradition of fiction by such writers as Orhan Pamuk and J. M. Coetzee, Yiyun Li gives us a stunning novel that is at once a picture of life in a special part of the world during a historic period, a universal portrait of human frailty and courage, and a mesmerizing work of art." - publisher


Ransom
by David Malouf

"Lyrical, immediate and heartbreaking Malouf’s fable engraves the epic themes of the Trojan war onto a perfect miniature - themes of war and heroics, hubris and humanity, chance and fate, the bonds between soldiers, fathers and sons, all newly burnished and brilliantly recast for our times." - publisher


Let the Great World Spin
by Colum McCann

"New York, August 1974: a man is walking in the sky. Between the newly built Twin Towers, the man twirls through the air. Far below, the lives of complete strangers spin towards each other: Corrigan, a radical Irish monk working in the Bronx; Claire, a delicate Upper East Side housewife reeling from the death of her son; Lara, a drug-addled young artist; Gloria, solid and proud despite decades of hardship; Tillie, a hooker who used to dream of a better life; and Jazzlyn, her beautiful daughter raised on promises that reach beyond the skyline of New York. In the shadow of one reckless and beautiful act, these disparate lives will collide, and be transformed for ever." - publisher

Little Bird of Heaven
by Joyce Carol Oates

"A searing exploration of the mysterious conjunction of erotic romance and tragic violence in late-twentieth-century America, Little Bird of Heaven returns to the emotional and geographical terrain of acclaimed author Joyce Carol Oates's previous bestsellers We Were the Mulvaneys and The Gravedigger's Daughter. Told in halves in the very different voices of Krista and Aaron, Little Bird of Heaven is classic Oates—where the lyricism of intense sexual love is intertwined with the anguish of loss, and tenderness is barely distinguishable from cruelty." - publisher

Jasper Jones
by Craig Silvey

"Late on a hot summer night in the tail end of 1965, Charlie Bucktin, a precocious and bookish boy of thirteen, is startled by an urgent knock on the window of his sleep-out. His visitor is Jasper Jones, an outcast in the regional mining town of Corrigan. Rebellious, mixed-race and solitary, Jasper is a distant figure of danger and intrigue for Charlie. So when Jasper begs for his help, Charlie eagerly steals into the night by his side, terribly afraid but desperate to impress." - publisher

Brooklyn
by Colm Toibín

"It is Ireland in the early 1950s and for Eilis Lacey, as for so many young Irish girls, opportunities are scarce. So when her sister arranges for her to emigrate to New York, Eilis knows she must go, leaving behind her family and her home for the first time. Arriving in a crowded lodging house in Brooklyn, Eilis can only be reminded of what she has sacrificed. She is far from home - and homesick. And just as she takes tentative steps towards friendship, and perhaps something more, Eilis receives news which sends her back to Ireland. There she will be confronted by a terrible dilemma - a devastating choice between duty and one great love." - publisher

Love and Summer
by William Trevor

"In spare, exquisite prose, master storyteller William Trevor presents a haunting love story about the choices of the heart, and the passions and frustrations of three lives during one long summer. Ellie is a shy orphan girl from the hill country, married to a man whose life has been blighted by an unspeakable tragedy. She lives a quiet life in the Irish village of Rathmoye, until she meets Florian Kilderry, a young photographer preparing to leave Ireland and his past forever. The chance intersection of these two lost souls sets in motion a poignant love affair that requires Ellie to make an impossible choice."- publisher

After the Fire, a Still, Small Voice
by Evie Wyld

"Set in the haunting landscape of eastern Australia, this is a stunningly accomplished debut novel about the inescapable past: the ineffable ties of family, the wars fought by fathers and sons, and what goes unsaid. After the departure of the woman he loves, Frank drives out to a shack by the ocean that he has last visited as a teenager. There, among the sugarcane and sand dunes, he struggles to rebuild his life. Forty years earlier, Leon is growing up in Sydney, turning out treacle tarts at his parents’ bakery and flirting with one of the local girls. But when he’s drafted to service in Vietnam, he finds himself suddenly confronting the same experiences that haunt his war-veteran father. As these two stories weave around each other- each narrated in a voice as tender as it is fierce- we learn what binds Frank and Leon together, and what may end up keeping them apart." - publisher