Nothing But the Night

John Williams

Nothing But the Night by John Williams depicts a day in the life of Arthur Maxley, a young man psychologically tormented by a traumatic event that happened in his childhood. The nature of the trauma is not revealed until the end of the novel.

Arthur had been advised to forget the memory of this traumatic event but his fragmentary recollections constantly intrude, paralyzing his thoughts and actions. He has abdicated all sense of agency, drifting aimlessly throughout a day punctuated with frequent hallucinations of his mother in a white gown, portraying her as some sort of hovering angel. He is self-obsessed, morbid, and confused. He meets and argues with a friend. His dinner with his estranged father is fraught with tension. And his encounter with a young woman in a club ends his day in violence.

This is Williams’ debut novel, and it shows. Unlike his brilliant subsequent novels, Butcher’s Crossing, Stoner, and Augustus, it lacks the subtlety and poignant silences that spoke volumes in the later novels. Nothing But the Night is unrestrained, histrionic, melodramatic, and highly-strung. But it contains flashes of the writer Williams was to become, so it is probably worth reading for that reason alone.

When I Sing, Mountains Dance

Irene Sola; trans. Mara Faye Lethem

When I Sing, Mountains Dance by Irene Sola, translated from the Catalan by Mara Faye Lethem, is set in the Catalan region of the Pyrenees on the Spanish-French border. The novel focuses primarily on the fate of one family, Domènec, Sió, and their two children, Mia and Hilari.

The novel unfolds in a non-linear sequence through fragmentary, first-person monologues, only some of which are delivered by humans. The narrators are past and present inhabitants of the village, ghosts, a bear, a water spirit, witches, clouds, lightning storms, mushrooms, mountains, a roe deer, and a dog, to name a few. Each chapter unfolds from a different point of view, and it may take a few paragraphs to figure out who or what is speaking. The stories are all connected and build a multilayered picture of the area. Peppered throughout the narratives are stories from myth, nature, folk tales, and history—especially the Spanish Civil War. Guns, shrapnel, grenades, and other wartime mementos turn up on the soil as constant reminders of the trauma.

What sounds like a narrative hodgepodge works remarkably well in portraying the flora, fauna, animate, and inanimate inhabitants of the region. Past and present blur, suggesting the past exists concurrently with the present just as ghosts exist alongside the living. But more than any other factor, the novel’s strength lies in the lyricism, poetry, and rhythm of the language. Sentences shimmer with life and energy on every page. Animate and inanimate, vegetable, animal, and human pulse with life through all-encompassing, lush, and sensory detail, all of which is admirably captured in the translation.

A stunning achievement with a level of exuberance and playfulness in language that echoes the poetry of Walt Whitman. And just as in the poetry of Walt Whitman, this novel contains multitudes.

Very highly recommended.

How to Read the Qur'an: A New Guide with Select Translations

Carl W. Ernst

How to Read the Qur’an: A New Guide with Select Translations by Carl W. Ernst is a nontheological literary and textual analysis of a select number of suras in the Qur’an. Professor Ernst, a professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, argues that the Qur’an, like many other influential books, is part of a global heritage. As such, approaching it on its own terms and within its own context becomes a relevant exercise regardless of one’s religious persuasion. His nontheological reading is not intended to challenge the divine status of the Qur’an as accepted by Muslims. Rather, Professor Ernst insists theological considerations are outside the scope of his work.

The work consists of a textual and structural analysis of select suras in terms of the symmetry and balance of verses within a sura, the tripartite structure of various suras, and the presence of ring composition as a symmetrical literary form whose presence is ubiquitous in previous early literature. Professor Ernst claims that a chronological reading of the Qur’an, beginning with the early Meccan, later Meccan, and Medinan suras provides a clearer understanding of the Qur’an since it approximates the sequence of its presentation to its initial audience:

As a result, it becomes possible to grasp the development of the Qur’an over time, the literary structure and organization of the sura as a literary unit, and the intertextual approach of the Qur’an in its engagement with biblical and other early sources, with cautious use of external historical sources to provide a context for the explanation of particular sections of the Qur’an.

This literary historical approach to the Qur’an is engaging, informative, and provides valuable insight into increasing our understanding a text revered by more than one billion people.

Highly recommended for readers with an interest in monotheistic traditions.

Regeneration

Pat Barker

Regeneration by Pat Baker is the first book in a trilogy that blends fact with fiction. Set in Craiglockhart Hospital during World War 1, the hospital houses men suffering from psychological trauma as a result of shell shock and exposure to the horrors of war, especially to trench warfare. It features two prominent war poets as residents of the hospital, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen.

The focal character is a psychiatrist, Dr. William Rivers, the actual doctor who treated the residents of the hospital. Impacted by what he sees and hears from his patients, it is through his interactions with them that we learn of the horrors they experienced. Their traumas are manifested in a variety of forms, including nightmares, speech impediments, tremors, memory lapses, psychosomatically induced inabilities to eat or walk, and hallucinations. Sassoon is in the hospital because his friend, Robert Graves, managed to convince the powers-that-be Sassoon’s letter calling for an end to the war is due to a nervous breakdown.

Although many of the characters’ names are fictitious, in the Author’s Note, Pat Barker claims to have based their histories and methods of treatment on Rivers’ posthumously published book. Barker alternates between characters with Rivers as the focal point. She inhabits their minds as they interact with Rivers and with each other. But because she is limited to historical accuracy in how far she can take historical figures, her characterization is sketchy. As a result, the characters don’t emerge as fully rounded individuals. They are presented in a series of interrupted vignettes which fail to fully engage the reader.

The strength of the novel lies in its depiction of war and its impact on young, vulnerable men. Barker does not sugar-coat their experiences. She allows them to describe the horror with unflinching honesty. The novel captures a medias res point in their lives, a pit stop of sorts. The young men are sent to the hospital to recover from their trauma so they can be sent back to continue the fight. As Rivers recognizes, his job is to help them recover so they can be re-traumatized.

This powerful antiwar novel, focusing as it does on the middle point of the soldiers’ lives, illustrates the obscenity of war by demonstrating its traumatic impact on men’s minds and bodies.

A Gentleman in Moscow

Amor Towles

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles is a delightful romp in a Moscow hotel during the early to the mid-twentieth century. It opens in 1922 with the sentencing of Count Alexander Rostov to house arrest in Moscow’s luxurious Metropol Hotel. Confined to the hotel for over three decades, Count Rostov manages to make the most of a bad situation.

The classic Metropol Hotel hosts an illustrious clientele. A who’s who in Moscow as well as in the international community pass through its doors to bask in its elegant atmosphere. It boasts a barber shop, a florist, a seamstress, and a chef who prides himself with his gourmet creations. Into this mix steps our gentleman count. Demoted from his formerly spacious quarters in the hotel to a bleak, small room in the upper levels of the hotel, the count quickly adjusts to living in a confined space. His day consists of strict adherence to a regimented routine, that is until all is upended by Nina, a precocious nine-year-old guest at the hotel. She disrupts his life and introduces him to areas in the hotel’s underbelly he never knew existed.

Nina is just one of the many colorful characters who interact with the count during his confinement. Among them is the glamorous actress, the chef, the maître d’, the Russian official, the piano teacher, the kind-hearted seamstress, his childhood friend, an American State Department official, and Sofia—the young child he adopts as his daughter. A connoisseur of fine wine and fine foods, Rostov is well-suited for the role he later assumes as head waiter. His life becomes even more interesting as he observes guests and garners valuable information while serving them dinner. Although confined to living within the walls of the hotel, Rostov is not cut off from the rest of the world. Quite the opposite. The hustle and bustle of the outside world with its political and social upheavals intrude into the hotel with Rostov witnessing the thick of it. His life is never dull.

An astute observer of human behavior, Rostov is also charming, erudite, cultured, intelligent, generous, well-mannered, kind, and witty. He is loved and respected by nearly everyone he meets. His endearing personality counts in large measure for the success of the novel. He is particularly delightful while conversing with children. The narrative voice also plays a significant factor in the novel’s success with its asides, footnotes on historical events, commentary, direct addresses to the reader, sparkling diction, and tongue-in-cheek humor.

The novel is well-deserving of all the accolades it has received. The plot, with its surprising twists and turns at every corner, moves at a brisk pace and keeps one engaged. The characters are well-developed, colorful, and authentic. The central figure is unforgettable, thoroughly charming, and a gentleman in every sense of the word. And piecing it all together is an engaging narrative voice.

Reading the novel is akin to having a leisurely, gourmet meal with a charming dinner companion who entertains and delights with a gripping story in a captivating voice. One almost wishes the meal would never end.

Nightcrawling

Leila Mottley

Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley is based on a real crime committed in 2015 in which police officers in the Oakland Police Department sexually exploited and brutalized young women, especially women of color.

The story unfolds in the voice of Kiara Johnson, a seventeen-year-old African American living with her older brother, Marcus. Their father is dead, and their mother is detained in a rehab facility. Marcus refuses to get a job, pinning his hopes of finding success in the music industry. Faced with eviction, it is left up to Kiara to find the income to pay for the rent. To add to her problems, Kiara assumes responsibility for her neighbor’s son, Trevor, a nine-year-old abandoned by his drug-addicted mother.

Unable to find employment and desperate to earn an income, Kiara becomes a street walker. She is picked up by two police officers. Her life of sexual exploitation by some Oakland police officers begins, spiraling Kiara into a bottomless pit where she faces threats unless she attends their parties and complies with their sexual demands. When a police officer commits suicide and mentions her name in his suicide note, Kiara becomes embroiled in a police investigation.

Kiara’s interiority generates sympathy for her plight as she tries to overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges and is torn in all directions. Motivated by her determination to protect Marcus and Trevor, she gives in to demands that humiliate and degrade her. She is thrust into a life of prostitution because she feels she has no other options. Initially, she tries to convince herself she is making a rational, economic choice. She becomes a pawn in the hands of police officers who may or may not pay her but who threaten to arrest her brother if she exposes them. Later, she is a pawn in the hands of the justice system. Through all this, Kiara emerges as tough, intelligent, articulate, resilient, and with a fierce passion to do whatever is necessary to save the people she loves regardless of the cost to her personhood.

In Kiara, Mottley has created an unforgettable heroine. Kiara’s voice is poetic, rhythmic, immersive, and infused with energy. She activates all the senses in the depiction of her dingy apartment, of the sewage infested swimming pool, and of the seedy but vibrant Oakland streets she walks at night. Her diction is peppered with vivid imagery and colorful metaphors, some of which are a little strained. And there are times when credibility seems stretched to the limit. But throughout it all, Kiara’s voice soars with authenticity and vibrancy.

In unflinchingly honest and compelling diction, Leila Mottley has depicted the plight of the powerless, poverty-stricken, and marginalized as they navigate situations and systems which exploit, abuse, traumatize, and spit them out as disposable entities at every turn.

A remarkable achievement for a young author who, at the time of writing, was barely a few years older than her unforgettable heroine.

Fight Night

Miriam Toews

Fight Night by Miriam Toews is the story of three generations of strong, resilient females. The story unfolds in the first-person voice of nine-year-old Swiv, a precocious, intelligent, articulate young girl who straddles the line between responsible caregiving with the naivete of childhood. Swiv has been suspended from school for fighting. Her grandmother, Elvira, takes it upon herself to home school Swiv in an unorthodox manner. Included in her lessons are survival skills and reinforcement of her granddaughter’s fighter instincts. Swiv’s mother, an aspiring actress, is in her third trimester of pregnancy.

 Elvira has given Swiv the assignment of writing letters to her absent father. Because her mother is in rehearsals for a play, it falls upon Swiv to be the caregiver for her ailing grandmother. She reminds her to take her medication, picks up pills she has dropped, struggles to squeeze compression socks on her legs, brushes her teeth, bathes her, saws her heavy books for easier transportability, and waits patiently while her grandmother has a bowel movement. She writes every day happenings in letters that will never be sent. She punctuates her words with cautionary tales for Gord, her soon-to-be-sibling, while alerting her to their mother’s “scorched earth” fits and their grandmother’s idiosyncrasies. Her promises to protect and help Gord navigate her nonconformist family are heart-warming.

Swiv takes on a lot of responsibilities for a child and is wise beyond her years. What makes this book so delightful and so hilarious is Swiv’s endearing voice. She parrots her mother’s and grandmother’s phrases, mimicking their frustrations. Her observations are astute. She comments on events, interacts with her indomitable grandmother while squirming at her irreverent sense of humor, and mothers her heavily pregnant mother. All this makes for hilarity. Swiv’s voice is also very poignant. Mortified by the behavior of her mother and grandmother, she is frequently haunted by the possibility they will die and abandon her.

Threaded throughout is Toews scathing critique of the oppressive Mennonite community she left behind. The characters comment on the repressive nature of the religion and its discriminatory practices toward women. Toews also weaves the depression and later suicides of her father and sister since Swiv’s grandfather and aunt killed themselves. In spite of these tragic losses, the theme to forge on ahead is uplifting. Grandmother’s insights on life and death, on finding meaning in life, on perseverance, on maintaining a fighting spirit, and on retaining a sense of humor in spite of—or because of—life’s absurdities are priceless. As Elvira says, “To be alive means full body contact with the absurd.” These words will serve her granddaughter well.

A compelling celebration of female resilience, of their fierce determination to fight for a life on their own terms, and of their unconditional love for one another.

The Summer Book

Tove Jansson; translated by Thomas Teal

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson, translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal, is a mesmerizing, quiet read. Very little happens in the novel. It is the story of a grandmother and her granddaughter spending time together during a summer on a Finnish island.

Six-year-old Sophia, who has lost her mother, is on the island with her grandmother and father. Her father is relegated to a minor role, appearing intermittently while working at his desk or on his boat. The focus is on the interaction between Sophia and her grandmother. The two of them explore the island together, chatting, arguing, and playing.

Sophia is a precocious, impetuous, articulate, and imaginative little girl. Her grandmother indulges her by playing make-believe games with her and entertaining her with stories. Their intergenerational relationship is heart-warming. They respect each other’s limitations. Sophia reminds her grandmother to take her medications, retrieves her walking cane when her grandmother drops it, and looks for her grandmother’s false teeth. And the grandmother supports Sophia in her imaginative flights of fancy, guiding her and teaching her important lessons that run the gamut from musings about life and death, happiness, the environment, and tolerance and acceptance of diversity. The two have an easy, comfortable relationship as they amble along coastlines and forests. Their interactions are peppered with moments of delightful humor.

Beneath writing that is disarmingly simple, Tove Jansson conveys important life lessons that are as relevant today as they were when the novel was first published fifty years ago. She does this gently, unobtrusively, and seemingly without effort. The quiet strength of the novel lies in authentic character portrayal and in that Jansson does not bombard the reader with her characters’ interiority or with excessive detail, leaving much that is left unsaid while disclosing only the bare essentials.

A wonderful novel that captures the essence of the preciousness of youth and the wisdom of old age without lapsing into preachifying.

The Woman From Tantoura

Radwa Ashour; translated by Kay Heikkinen

The Woman from Tantoura by Radwa Ashour, translated from the Arabic by Kay Heikkinen, is a testament to the suffering of Palestinians forced into exile during the 1948 formation of the state of Israel and its aftermath.

The novel unfolds in the first-person voice of Ruqayya. She lives in Tantoura, a village in Palestine. At the tender age of thirteen, she witnesses the massacres in Palestinian villages by the Zionist paramilitary forces. She recognizes the bloodied corpses of her father and brothers piled on top of other corpses. She escapes to southern Lebanon with her mother to live with her aunt and uncle. But Lebanon provides only an intermittently safe harbor during subsequent years due to the Israeli occupation of Beirut, the massacres that take place in Palestinian refugee camps by Lebanese extreme right-wing forces, and the ensuing Lebanese civil war. She relocates to Abu Dhabi temporarily to live with her eldest son and his family before moving to Egypt to be with her adopted daughter while she attends university. Having successfully educated and raised three sons and a daughter, she returns to Lebanon as a seventy-year-old grandmother.

Ruqayya records the events in her life as a testament to the atrocities and violence she has witnessed. One of her sons is gathering evidence, interviewing survivors of the atrocities, and documenting testimonials with the intention of suing Israeli authorities in court for their crimes against humanity. Ruqayya’s memory leaps backward and forward in time, jumping ahead or going back to a previous thread to record something she has just remembered. Her story is heart-wrenching. Like many Palestinian women, she wears the key to her home in Tantoura on a chain around her neck to keep alive the hope she will one day return. She feels an outsider wherever she lives. The yearning to return to her homeland is ever present and is particularly poignant in the final chapters when she goes to the border with Israel and looks across at the land where she was born, where her ancestors lived for generations—a land she is now prohibited from visiting.

The story is one of survival and resilience. It gives an intimate voice to Palestinian women who have endured the loss of fathers, brothers, sons, and husbands. In spite of their suffering, the women endure. They nurture their surviving children, educate them, and try to provide a safe haven for them to thrive even in hostile lands.

In clear and precise prose, Radwa Ashour has written a powerful story exposing the horror and violence that occurred in the formation of the state of Israel and the traumatic impact of expulsion, displacement, and ethnic cleansing on the Palestinian people. Palestinian land may be occupied, but the memory of their homeland and their yearning to return endures in the hearts and minds of Palestinians.

Dulcinea

Ana Veciana-Suarez

Dulcinea by Ana Veciana-Suarez unfolds in two alternating timelines. The first timeline takes place in the 1570s in Barcelona with Dolca as a young girl who meets and falls in love with Miguel Cervantes. The second timeline takes place in 1616 with Dolca married to a man chosen for her by her parents. Although her husband loves her and although she claims to love him, she cannot shake off her love for Cervantes. The two threads intertwine connected by the illicit on-again, off-again, love affair between Dolca and Miguel.

The focus is on Dolca, her childhood, her married life, and her love affair with Cervantes. They steal time to be together, with Cervantes insisting she run away with him and Dolca insisting she can’t because of her obligations. When Cervantes publishes his Don Quixote to wide acclaim, Dolca is incensed. Because of the close resemblance of her name with Dulcinea, she anticipates she will be associated with his unflattering portrait of Dulcinea. The two lose touch until the now widowed grandmother Dolca receives a letter from the dying Miguel. She embarks on a hazardous journey to see him before he dies.

Veciana-Suarez sets the novel against the backdrop of the Spanish Inquisition. The strength of the novel lies in the setting. The historical details vividly capture Renaissance Spain. But the characterization is weak and the plot line predictable. The novel reads like a generic historical romance with a self-absorbed protagonist who vacillates between her two loves to the point of becoming tedious. Those hoping for a greater connection with Don Quixote or a more prominent role for Cervantes will be disappointed.

All My Puny Sorrows

Miriam Toews

All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews is about the love between sisters and the desperate struggle of one sister to save the life of her sibling who is determined to kill herself.

The novel unfolds in the first-person voice of Yolanda. She is twice divorced, the mother of two teenage children, and an author of young adult novels. Her sister, Elfrieda, is a beautiful and highly successful concert pianist, married to a sensitive man who dotes on her. On the surface, it appears as though Elfrieda has made a success of her life and has everything going for her. But that is not the case. The novel charts Elfrieda’s repeated attempts to kill herself and Yolanda’s repeated attempts to rescue her.

One would think a novel about several attempts to end one’s life would be bleak. But the novel sizzles with humor and dazzling dialogue. All is filtered through the lens of Yolanda, the first-person narrator. She flashes back to her past in a Canadian Mennonite community and includes humorous descriptions of family encounters with somber-looking church elders who try to steer them away from their errant path. The flashbacks are energetic and engaging. Yolanda’s encounters with hospital staff after yet another of Elfrieda’s suicide attempts is realistic and vividly captures her frustration with petty rules and medical personnel who show little sympathy or understanding for her sister’s plight.

The narrator’s voice lifts the novel from being a bleak exploration of the tension between those who are weary of life and want to end it and those who love them and want them to live. Yolanda tells the story in a running series of anecdotes and dialogues without quotations marks to generate a sense of immediacy—as though we see and hear as Yolanda sees and hears. She is entertaining, funny, intelligent, witty, conflicted, angry, and able to laugh at herself and at the darker aspects of life. Above all, she is totally and unequivocally and passionately devoted to her sister. The close-knit, loving sister relationship is masterfully captured in their dialogue, their back-and-forth banter, their ability to communicate with one another without speaking and finish one another’s thoughts. The scenes with the sisters are tender, heart-breaking, and soaked with unconditional love. Yolanda is torn between wanting her sister to live versus wanting to help her do the one thing she desperately wants to do.

Miriam Toews’ father and sister committed suicide. It is a testament to her skill as an author that with compassion, honesty, empathy, and humor, she is able to turn a personal tragedy into a profoundly moving and inspiring work of fiction.

A triumphant achievement.

Greek Lessons

Han Kang

Greek Lessons, translated from the Korean by Deborah Smith and Emily Yae Won, is another extraordinary novel by Han Kang. It is short, densely packed, with little to no plot.

The novel is about two nameless characters, both of whom are adrift in the world. One is a female who mourns the loss of her mother and is devasted at having lost custody of her son to her ex-husband. To add to her problems, she is no longer able to speak. Probably because of her inability to articulate words, the woman is fascinated by language and unlocking its grammar and subtle nuances. She begins taking classes to learn ancient Greek in the hope that a language so far removed from her own might enable her to regain her speech. The second character is her instructor, a man who is slowly going blind.

The novel unfolds in the form of the two characters alternating turns to narrate scenes from their lives. They are lonely, alone, and vulnerable, each trying to cope with personal trauma and each in search of self. The woman flashes back to scenes from her childhood, but the most poignant scenes are those with her young child. The man flashes back to his life in Germany, his first love, and his return to Korea. The two eventually find their way to one another.

This is a multi-layered novel. On one level, it is about the collapse of language, the important role it plays in human connection, and the compensatory measures taken to forge connection when senses falter. The end of the novel consists of truncated passages and words floating untethered on the page. The novel also captures the loneliness, isolation, and grief of the two individuals, similarly untethered. Although Kang doesn’t describe them as grieving, she uses language to make palpable their embodiment of grief. Their interiority reflects their inner torment and alienation.

The process by which the characters connect is delineated in a slow, measured pace similar to watching a slow-motion movie. Their steps are halting, fragile, and tender. One does it through speech; the other by painstakingly tracing words on his waiting palm.

Kang’s treatment of these two damaged souls finding comfort in each other is deeply moving and inspiring. And as is the case with her other novels, she probes complex issues without offering facile responses. Her writing is philosophical and poetic. Her novels generate more questions than answers and leave a lingering effect on the reader to ponder the issues they raise.

Suad Al-Attar

Nesma Shubber

In Suad Al-Attar, Nesma Shubber chronicles the life and art of her grandmother, the internationally recognized Iraqi artist, Suad Al-Attar.

Born in Baghdad in 1942, Suad knew she wanted to be an artist from a very early age. She began painting and exhibiting her work, becoming the first female artist to have a solo exhibition in Iraq in the 1960s. She was a prolific artist and has garnered a strong following throughout the Arab world. When the political situation in Iraq became increasingly intolerable, she relocated to England with her family in 1976. She has lived and worked in London ever since.

The book includes over 130 images of Attar’s paintings and drawings. These chart the evolution of her work. Her oeuvre is replete with mythological creatures, figures from the history of ancient Mesopotamia, and plush gardens bursting with flora. The influence of various artists, including Gustav Klimt, Paul Cezanne, Henri Rousseau, and Paul Gauguin, among others, can be traced in her art. She went through a period in which her work was greatly impacted by the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and the subsequent years. Her canvases at that time depict barely discernible domed buildings in Baghdad going up in flames in swathes of reds and yellows; women’s faces in the throes of fear and distress; dismembered limbs; and a very powerful drawing of Abu Ghraib.

Also included in the book are photos of Al-Attar as a glamorous young woman and later photos of her in her London studio. She has exhibited in London and all over the Arab world, receiving awards for her work.

A thread of longing for her homeland permeates much of Al-Attar’s oeuvre. By painting images taken from Iraq’s mythology, from Assyrian reliefs and Sumerian sculptures, and by filling her canvases with palm trees and hoopoe birds, it is as though she is trying to encapsulate an idyllic vision of the Iraq of the past. Her colorful canvases bursting with flowers and palm trees and with stylized figures in gold and green transport the viewer to a magical time and place. The stunning images attest to the wide range and intricate detail of her work, making this volume a visual feast for the eyes.

Highly recommended.

What Strange Paradise

Omar El Akkad

What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad tells the tragic story of illegal migrants escaping from their war-torn countries and political persecution. Originating from different countries in Africa and the Middle East, the migrants share a common dream of a better future for themselves and their families. To realize that dream, they obtain false documents and pay exorbitant fees to human traffickers to get them to Europe.

The story unfolds in alternating chapters. The “Before” chapters focus on a nine-year-old Syrian by named Amir. We learn about his background, his family’s life, and how he ended up on the Calypso, an ill-fated fishing boat smuggling migrants to an unnamed European island.

The “After” chapters open with Amir as the lone survivor after the Calypso capsizes in the ocean. Amir wakes up on the beach, surrounded by corpses washed ashore. When men approach him in white containment suits shouting in a language he doesn’t understand, Amir runs. He encounters Vanna, a local teenage girl who springs into action to help him. She hides him, feeds him, clothes him, and initially smuggles him into a local refugee camp. The director of the camp asks Vanna to escape with Amir to the other end of the island where a ferryman will take him to a Syrian community at the port. All the while, Vanna and Amir run from island police officers eager to capture Amir.

The novel is difficult to read because it captures the desperation, hardships, and financial burdens experienced by migrants willing to risk death in the hope of a better life. The “Before” chapters describe in vivid detail the arduous journey and the fear, squalor, and stench of human bodies squashed together in cramped spaces without the benefit of food or water in a broken-down fishing boat. Amir sits next to a pregnant woman, Umm Ibrahim, who defends him and shares her food with him. The migrants bicker, disagree, rehearse the stories they intend to tell immigration officials, sleep, snore, relieve themselves, and cling to their hopes and dreams. Mohamed, one of the smugglers, repeatedly tries to puncture their dreams with the reality he claims awaits them.

The “After” chapters depict a frightened Amir struggling to make sense of his new surroundings. His fear and anxiety are palpable. Vanna assumes the role of his guardian, determined to get him to the ferryman. In spite of the language barrier separating them, the two form an inseparable bond, communicating through hand gestures. These chapters highlight the callous desensitization of tourists and some local residents to the plight of refugees.

The temporal shifts of before and after with the desperate migrants on the one hand and the islanders on the other mirror the us-versus-them dynamic that characterizes our divided world. Straddling between the two worlds is a young Syrian child and a European teenager who connect simply and honestly through their shared humanity. In clear, vivid, brutally honest, and riveting prose, El Akkad sheds light on the desperate and tragic plight of migrants before, during, and after their quest for freedom. He gives face and voice to the refugee “other,” and he does so with compassion and empathy. The unexpected twist at the end of the novel underscores the urgency of addressing this global humanitarian crisis.

The Hero of this Book

Elizabeth McCracken

The Hero of this Book by Elizabeth McCracken blurs the line between memoir and novel. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter which parts are which because the combination, context, and execution make for compelling reading.

The fictionalized memoir (for lack of a better term) opens with the unnamed narrator wandering through the streets of London. She retraces the steps she took with her mother during their last visit together before her mother’s death. As she ambles along, recognizing familiar haunts, she describes her quirky parents with loving tenderness, events in her childhood, and lists the accumulated jumble of possessions in her parents’ home. But she always returns to her primary focus—to portray her mother in all her delightful idiosyncrasies.

The narrator’s mother, Natalie McCracken, suffers from a life-long, chronic disability that gradually renders her immobile. But she never lets that deter her. She has opinions on just about everything and stubbornly refuses to concede defeat even when the situation calls for it. She is portrayed as a flurry of mental and physical activity in spite of her mobility challenges. The narrator describes her zipping through the streets of London on her scooter. What emerges from this loving portrayal is a strong, fiercely determined, witty, eccentric, and doggedly private woman who embraces life with relish.

Threaded throughout this portrayal of her mother, Elizabeth McCracken, spontaneously tosses out tips on writing with tongue in cheek humor. She interrogates the issue of genre, blurring the distinction between memoir and fiction. She adamantly denies she is writing a memoir but then seems to scramble back toward it while suggesting fiction seldom differs from autobiography.

In this strange hybrid of a book, peppered with a delightful sense of humor, Elizabeth McCracken has painted a vivid portrait of an extraordinary woman who may—or may not be—her beloved mother. Whether the portrait is real or fictional is beside the point. What matters is McCracken has vividly captured a woman with an indomitable spirit. And she has accomplished what may or may not be a tribute to her actual mother without dipping her toe in maudlin sentimentality.

Clytemnestra

Costanza Casati

Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati retells the story of Clytemnestra from her childhood until she murders Agamemnon upon his return from the Trojan war. Clytemnestra is portrayed as a fierce warrior, navigating her journey through the male-dominated world of Ancient Greece. She is a staunch defender of those who are unable to defend themselves and is unafraid to challenge male figures in positions of authority.

Weaving in and out of Clytemnestra’s story are stories from Greek mythology. These are told from Clytemnestra’s point of view. Even prominent male figures in Greek mythology, including Agamemnon, Achilles, and Odysseus, are seen through Clytemnestra’s lens. Male heroes who usually take center stage in Greek mythology are relegated to the sidelines. Furthermore, Clytemnestra strips them of their heroic aura by describing them as power-hungry, blood-thirsty, compassionless misogynists.

In Clytemnestra, Casati has depicted a fiery female protagonist who exercises agency. She wields the mantle of power after Agamemnon goes off to war. She transgresses socially gendered norms of behavior in Ancient Greece by seizing a role for herself generally assigned to males. Not surprisingly, she is surrounded by men who want her to crawl back into restrictive woman-space. But she is defiant. Her all-consuming, palpable focus is to seek revenge for the death of her daughter and, in that, she usurps a traditionally male role since Greek mythology is replete with males who seek vengeance for the death of a relative. Her strength and ferocity are reminiscent of Medea, another female figure in Greek mythology who usurped the male role in seeking vengeance for an injustice.

Casati’s diction is clear and accessible. Her knowledge of Greek mythology is extensive. Her characters are believable. The qualities of her male characters reflect what we know about them from mythology. And her feminist portrayal of Clytemnestra is fresh and does a great deal to redeem a much-maligned female figure in Greek mythology.

An engaging retelling that breathes fresh life into an otherwise marginalized figure in Greek mythology.

Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East

Amanda H. Podany

Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East by Amanda H. Podany covers 3,000 years of the history of regions that used cuneiform writing. Those regions are ancient Iraq (Mesopotamia), Syria, parts of Turkey (Anatolia), northern parts of the Levant (the eastern Mediterranean coastal lands), parts of Iran (Elam and later Persia), regions in Egypt, Bahrain (Dilmun), the Lake Van region (Urartu), and the southern Levant. Included in this expansive study is a fascinating exploration of the development of written language from proto-cuneiform to Aramaic and all the various languages and permutations in between.

This sweeping history begins in Uruk (southern Iraq) around the year 3500 BCE and concludes in 323 BCE with a scribe in Uruk in whose home archaeologists unearthed cuneiform tablets copied from far older texts in Sumerian and Akkadian, both of which were dying languages at the time. Dr. Podany imagines a touching scene as this conscientious scribe authenticates his copy of the original tablet: “In accordance with the (original) tablet. Duplicate written and checked and properly executed.” It was signed by “Rimat-Anu, [son of] Shamash-iddin, descendent of Shangu-Ninurta.” Rimat-Anu dates the copy and identifies the city as Uruk. It is in Uruk that Dr. Podany begins her study, and it is in Uruk she ends it—a fitting end since Uruk is the oldest city on earth and the birthplace of advances in law, science, technology, and art.

Dr. Podany invites us to travel with her through time as she knocks on the doors of homes and palaces to learn how people lived, what they did, what they ate, what games they played, what they traded, what they built, what wars they fought, and which gods they worshiped. She deconstructs information derived from surviving cuneiform tablets and cylinder seals. Many of the tablets consist of contracts and trade deals. One of the most memorable contracts was drawn up in Emar in the 13thC BCE and duly signed by witnesses. It includes children’s clay footprints of the young siblings sold into slavery because their parents could no longer afford to feed them during a devastating famine.

With Dr. Podany as our guide, we learn about the lives and activities of kings and queens, priests and priestesses. We also glimpse into the lives of ordinary people—the weavers, scribes, tradesmen, slaves, and inn keepers. Her tone is engaging and conversational. She derives some fascinating insights about the period through her analysis of even the smallest smidgen of a cuneiform tablet. She breathes life into her characters who emerge as very relatable—an administrator, thousands of years ago, making a mistake in adding up totals of deliveries or a scholar including marginalia when copying the words from an ancient text.

The breadth and scope of the scholarship is impressive and extensively researched. It is thoughtful, engaging, accessible, and full of invaluable insights about a fascinating time and place and the people who inhabited it. Included in the study are photographs of tablets, statues, and seals; maps; footnotes; an extensive bibliography; and a detailed index.

Dr. Podany takes us on a fascinating jaunt through history. Her study is highly recommended for those interested in the history of the ancient Near East.

The Dance Tree

Kiran Millwood Hargrave

The Dance Tree by Kiran Millwood Hargrave is set in a European village near Strasbourg in the early 16th century. The central character is Lisbet—young, married, and pregnant. As the story unfolds, we learn Lisbet’s previous twelve pregnancies have all resulted in miscarriages. Lisbet mourns her loss and commemorates it by fastening ribbons and small tokens on to a large tree deep in the forest. She consoles herself by retreating to this private, sacred space. She also finds consolation by tenderly nurturing bees to provide the family with a livelihood. Lisbet lives with her husband and mother-in-law. They are soon joined by Agnethe, Lisbet’s sister-in-law, who returns after performing seven years penance in a monastery for an apparent sin, the nature of which remains concealed until later in the novel. Meanwhile, Lisbet’s husband is threatened with the loss of his beehives and has to travel to Heidelberg to plead his case, leaving the three women alone.

Against the backdrop of a starving, poverty-stricken community and the repressive stranglehold of the church, a woman starts dancing non-stop in the market square. Soon she is joined by other women until there are so many that the city council fears mass hysteria. It harasses the women, persecutes them, imprisons them, and kills them. The situation deteriorates. Thrown into the mix are complications encompassing illicit relationships, a city council member who claims to be doing God’s work as he terrorizes the people, and Turkish musicians who are called upon to play for the dancing women in an attempt to cure them of their mania.

The novel’s strength lies in evoking the sights, sounds, and smells of a 16th century European village where superstitions run rampant fueled by fears promulgated by the church. The struggles and challenges faced by the villagers as they try to eke out a living for themselves and their children is effectively captured. Lisbet’s care of the bees is described in vivid detail. But the novel is weak in character development. The characters lack subtlety and nuance. They are either wholly good, like Lisbet and her cohorts; or wholly wicked, like Plater, the evil council man. The themes of misogyny, bigotry, racism, and the church’s abuse of authority all conclude in what feels like a hurried and improbable tying of loose ends.

Elena Knows

Claudia Piñeiro,

Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro, translated from Spanish by Frances Riddle, is a short novel packing a powerful punch. It unfolds in Buenos Aires during the course of one day.

The central character is Elena, a sixty-three-year-old woman suffering from a crippling case of Parkinson’s. Her daughter, Rita, is her caregiver. The novel opens with an apparent suicide. Rita has been found hanging in the belfry at the church. Elena is convinced her daughter did not commit suicide and insists the police investigate the death as a murder. When the police and the priest fail to take her seriously, Elena embarks on journey to solicit the help of Isabel, a woman she met briefly twenty years earlier through her daughter.

The novel is in three sections, Morning, Midday, Afternoon—the times of the day governing Elena’s medication schedule. Since her limbs are completely inert without her medication, Elena has to time her mobility according to when she can take her next medication. She has to wait for however long it takes for the medication to activate her body to follow the signals coming from her brain. Even with medication, she achieves barely a modicum of mobility in her limbs. She personifies the disease as the whore that has invaded her body.

Piñeiro’s portrayal of Elena as she struggles with her disease is particularly poignant and effective. Elena sets off on her quest to solicit the help of Isabel. She treks through the streets of Buenos Aires, painstakingly putting one foot in front of the other. Her body is so debilitated as a result of the disease that she can no longer lift her head up. She navigates the streets by eyeing the pavement and the shoes of passers-by. Even the simplest movements are plagued with a mental and physical struggle that can be overcome only with a Herculean effort. After an arduous train journey followed by a taxi ride, Elena reaches Isabel’s home. Isabel invites her in only to disclose shocking information that completely shatter’s Elena’s perspective.

The novel is peppered with flashbacks which reveal the contentious relationship between Elena and her daughter. They bicker and they fight. Her daughter expresses the burdens that come with taking care of her mother’s every physical need, including her hygiene. Rita complains about her mother’s smell, her appearance, and her inability to control her drooling. And for her part, Elena is cantankerous and irritable and physically helpless.

The novel tackles a number of difficult issues including the overwhelming burden of caregiving for the incapacitated; the agony of a crippling disease; bureaucratic obstacles; mother-daughter relationships; the meaning of motherhood; and control—or lack of control—over one’s body. Elena has lost physical control of her body. And Isabel and Rita also suffer from loss of control over their bodies. But theirs is manifested through social and religious restrictions that exercise power over their bodies and are no less damaging than the disease that plagues Elena.

This is a powerful, sensitive portrayal of the deleterious impact on lives and perspectives that can ensue when physical, social, or religious forces beyond our control exercise power over our bodies.

Enheduana: The Complete Poems of the World's First Known Author

Sophus Helle, translator

Enheduana: The Complete Poems of the World’s First Author, translated by Sophus Helle, provides a fascinating glimpse into the poetry of Enheduana, a Sumerian princess in ancient Mesopotamia. This remarkable woman lived around 2300 BCE. She was the daughter of Sargon of Akkad and served as the high priestess in the temple at Ur in southern Iraq. Included in this collection are Enheduana’s The Exaltation of Inanna, The Hymn to Inanna, The Temple Hymns, and a series of fragmentary hymns.

The world’s oldest known author lived in turbulent times. Enheduana’s father founded the first empire by uniting the neighboring city states under his rule. He installed his daughter as the high priestess of Ur, the largest city in the empire. Her position as high priestess of Ur’s largest temple endowed her with political and spiritual power. Opposition to Sargon from neighboring cities was immense. Leaders of the city states resented his rule and revolted at every opportunity. As part of the ruling family, Enheduana witnessed wars and tremendous upheaval.

Enheduana’s hymns are not hymns in the traditional sense. Their function was to enlist the help of fickle and unreliable gods in achieving specific goals. Enheduana focuses her hymns on the goddess Inanna. She lavishes Inanna with praise for her strength, acknowledges her ferocity, and pleads for her help in re-installing her in the temple at Ur after she had been unceremoniously ousted of her position by Lugul-Ane, a usurper who seized power in Ur.

Enheduana’s poetry is rich with imagery. She speaks in metaphors and similes, leaping from one image to the next. She is fluent and articulate. Her words are vibrant and pulsate with intensity and passion. The Exaltation to Inanna is particularly powerful as Enheduana bemoans her plight as an exile and tries to convince Inanna she has the power and the authority to come to her aid.

Just as he did in Gilgamesh: A New Translation of the Ancient Epic, Sophus Helle has performed an outstanding service in translating, commenting, and interpreting the words of these very ancient poems of the world’s first known author. Helle breathes life into Enheduana’s words and times. He argues the concept of authorship was not as we know it today. Instead, it emerged from dialogue and collaboration as authors and singers created a text through an interplay of voices. He explores Enheduana’s influence and legacy. He delves into the discovery of the Enheduana tablets, attributing much of the credit of their discovery to Katherine Woolley and not to her husband, Leonard Woolley. Katherine was also instrumental in securing funding for the excavation that unearthed these treasures.

Helle’s insights are inspiring; his enthusiasm for the hymns and their author is infectious. He includes comprehensive notes on each of the hymns, an extensive bibliography, a glossary, and an index.

A remarkable piece of scholarship. Sophus Helle is to be applauded for providing an accessible translation and thought-provoking analysis of the eloquent and powerful poetry of the world’s first known author who just happens to be a woman. It is strangely wonderful to read her words coming to us from nearly 4,000 years ago.