Looking to add to Asia and South Pacific collections? University of Hawai’i Press is renowned for predominantly publishing nonfiction from or about Hawai’i, Asia, and the South Pacific, and is a consistent resource for a diverse array of memoir, biography, and academic titles in translation. In fact, their publishing team will release seven translated titles … Continue reading Publisher Spotlight: University of Hawai’i Press
It’s hard for the average Western middle-class child, ensconced in relative safety, to imagine what it must be like to live in a country that is experiencing a revolution. ‘Dear World: A Syrian Girl's Story of War and Plea for Peace’ by Bana Alabed, is a short, compelling book written by a mother and daughter … Continue reading Dear World: A Syrian Girl’s Story of War and Plea for Peace
Andrea Lingenfelter’s translation of Mian Mian’s Candy is like reading Kathy Acker—it’s disgusting but also accessible in the sense that it’s like reading the work of a rock star. It’s unwilling to be understood, but the questions it poses about conformity and overindulgence makes for a rewarding read. Hong, the protagonist, narrates her story with … Continue reading International Banned Book Review: Candy by Mian Mian
I was back visiting one of my favorite countries, Lebanon, when I purchased The Silence and the Roar in a chic mall in Beirut in 2013. My friend was downstairs purchasing a pair of Valentino boots and I was browsing the newly translated offerings in English from Arabic when I came across Nihad Sirees’ … Continue reading The Silence and the Roar
Parisian teenager Lou has an IQ of 160, OCD tendencies, and a mother who has suffered from depression for years. But Lou is about to change her life-and that of her parents-all because of a school project about homeless teens. While doing research, Lou meets No, a teenage girl living on the streets. As their … Continue reading USBBY Outstanding International Book Pick: No and Me by Delphine de Vigan
Lament for Syria by Amineh Abou Kerech Syrian doves croon above my head their call cries in my eyes. I’m trying to design a country that will go with my poetry and not get in the way when I’m thinking, where soldiers don’t walk over my face. I’m trying to design a country which … Continue reading “Lament for Syria”
'Breaking Knees': Sixty-three Very Short Stories from Syria is not about refugees or civil war. Nor do the stories involve terrorists. Conversely, Zakaria Tamer’s very short tales take place behind the front door, in living rooms and over coffee, between neighbors, and, most importantly, between the sheets. Relationships between women and men lay at … Continue reading Breaking Knees
Riad Sattouf's The Arab of the Future, a widely acclaimed graphic novel published first in French and then in translation in English, German, Spanish, Portuguese and several other languages, is a work of extraordinary candour. Sattouf, who has a Syrian father and a French mother, shows minimal restraint when he portrays in pictures and … Continue reading The Arab of the Future
For such a small collection of stories, Folktales from Syria packs an interesting punch for an English reader. Beginning with an introduction by Andrea Rugh, this collection works to inform and educate the reader as much as it does to entertain. In the Preface, Rugh takes the reader through her meeting with Samir Tahhan, … Continue reading Folktales from Syria
'[...] she held out a hand above my head. "Do you swear by God that you'll tell the world what I have to say?" she asked. "I swear." "Swear by the thing you hold most dearly deep in your heart." I swore quietly, and as her palm came down on my head … Continue reading The Crossing: My Journey to the Shattered Heart of Syria
