The first in my choice of older women in fiction around the world in the UK is Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor. Published in 1971, in this delightful novel Elizabeth Taylor does a great job of respecting older people and sympathetically revealing the challenges they face. She doesn’t lump all older people together, … Continue reading Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
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Is there any hope?
This is my final week as guest blogger on this site. The focus this week is on older women in fiction from the UK. There are more than enough books to fill the days. To introduce them I want to consider some of the ageist and sexist assumptions that shape how older women are represented … Continue reading Is there any hope?
An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine
This is the second older woman from the Middle East. Aaliya is the creation of Rabih Alameddine, who is of Lebanese origin. He writes in English. He has chosen a poignant title, for around the world older women are made to feel unnecessary. This has been going on for centuries, think of the legend of … Continue reading An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine
The Woman from Tantoura by Radwa Ashour
Of all the novels I have read about older women this has aroused the strongest emotions in me. The woman, Ruqayya, 70, has held the grief of her family as well as her own suffering since she was 12. Ruqayya was born in a village that was claimed for the new state of Israel, and … Continue reading The Woman from Tantoura by Radwa Ashour
Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun by Sarah Ladipo Manyika
Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun is the longest title in the series on older Women in fiction around the world. The novel brings you a woman of 75, living in San Francisco and of Nigerian origin. The author Sarah Ladipo Manyika was born in 1968 and raised in Nigeria. She taught English … Continue reading Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun by Sarah Ladipo Manyika
The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso
The African/Middle East section of older women around the world begins here, in South Africa, more specifically, in post-Apartheid South Africa. I found The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso in a list of recommended books by women of colour. It features a feud between two older women so here's a novel with not one but two … Continue reading The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso
The story so far
This is the story so far in my August sojourn among older women in fiction around the world. We are well into the month and just starting week three. In the first two weeks I have selected some fiction from North America and was gratified by the readership and comments on the posts. I moved … Continue reading The story so far
#WorldKidLit Wednesday: Ms. Ice Sandwich
What? A fiction title for grown-ups on #WorldKidLit Wednesday? Yes, Ms. Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami, translated from Japanese by Louise Heal Kawai, works as adult, young adult, AND middle grade reading. Why? This slim import from the U.K.’s Pushkin Press, released Stateside by Penguin Random House, features a fourth-grade boy as main character and … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Ms. Ice Sandwich
The Little Old Lady who Broke all the Rules by Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg
I like the way the translated version of the title sets up a tension between the image of a biddable older woman and breaking the rules. All the best titles hold some contradictions I believe. And here is an older woman, not the stereotype of the little old lady, who is not afraid to stand … Continue reading The Little Old Lady who Broke all the Rules by Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg
The Door by Magda Szabo
The third of the European novels in this August series of older women in fiction around the world is from Hungary, where the author lived between 1917 and 2007. Her work was not published during the Stalinist years. The title sets up the barrier between the narrator and the woman who lives behind the door. … Continue reading The Door by Magda Szabo
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 