Europe through literature discussion

I will fill in the categories as I go and of course I go for a blackout :)))

16/25
B1 = a fantasy novel
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (Wales) (4 stars)
The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke (Germany) (4.5 stars)

B2 = from a country in the Alps
The Green Cockatoo by Arthur Schnitzler (Austria)

B3 = originally written in a Finno-ugrian language
Norma by Sofi Oksanen (Finland/Estonia) (3.5 stars)

B4 = a title written by a Nobel Prize winner
Himmerlandsvolk by Johannes V Jensen (Denmark)

B5 = a group read
In Search of a Name: A Novel by Marjolijn van Heemstra (NL) (4 stars)

I1 = a crime novel
The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (4.5 stars) (UK)
The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (4.5 stars) (UK)
Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith (4.5 stars) (UK)
Lethal White by Robert Galbraith (5 stars) (UK)
Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith (5 stars) (UK)

I2 = free choice
Penelope, die Listenreiche by Gohar Markosjan-Kasper (Armenia) (4 stars)
Life Stories by Nora Ikstena (Latvia)

I3 = from a country with shores along the Atlantic Ocean
Last Night in Nuuk by Niviaq Korneliussen (Greenland)
The Gathering by Anne Enright (Ireland)

I4 = originally written in a Scandinavian language
A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen (Norway) (a re-read and still 5 stars)
but also planned:
Codex 1962 by the one and only Sjón (Iceland)

I5 = a title second in the polls of 2021
The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz (Poland)

N1 = originally written in a Slavic language
Internat by Serhiy Zhadan(Ukraine) (5 stars)
Stanislaw Assejew: In Isolation (texts from the Donbass) (Ukraine)

N2 = a poetry collection
a poetry collection by Sappho (Greece) or:
How the Earth Carries Us (Lithuania) or:
Knochenflöte by Gintaras Grajauskas (Lithuania)

N3 = a non-fiction title
Lingo: Around Europe in Sixty Languages by Gaston Dorren (4.5 stars)

N4 = a science fiction novel
Solaris by Stanisław Lem (Poland)

N5 = from the Balkans
Srdan Valjarevic: Como. 30 Tage. (Serbia) (5 stars)
Dubravka Ugrešić: The Culture of Lies: Antipolitical Essays (ex-Yugoslavia)

G1 = a(n) (auto)biography
De reis van Syntax Bosselman by Arend van Dam (the Netherlands)

G2 = originally written in a Roman / Romance language
Serge by Yasmina Reza (French)

G3 = a book with a reference to a European island
Les Liaisons Culinaires by Andreas Staikos (Greece) (3 stars)
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak (UK)

G4 = from a country with shores along the North Sea
The Land of Short Sentences by Stine Pilgaard (DK)
Spring by Ali Smith (UK)

G5 = a historical novel
The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk (PL)

O1 = a non-fiction referring to European history
The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe by Charles Nicholl (on the secret service of Elizabethan England) (UK) (4 stars)
Dacia felix: Das antike Rumänien im Brennpunkt der Kulturen by Kai Brodersen (on Romania in the ancient world/antiquity)

O2 = from a country along the shores of the Danube
Life Begins on Friday by Ioana Pârvulescu (Romania) (5 stars)
Bessarabian Stamps: Stories by Oleg Woolf (Moldova, 0,57km of shoreline)

O3 = originally written in a minority language (e.g. in Gaelic)
Matti Aikio: In Reindeer Hide (Sami writer from Norway) or:
Herta Müller: Nadirs (German-speaking writer from Romania)

O4 = a children's book
Tonke Dragt: De brief voor de koning (the Netherlands ) (5 stars)
Tonke Dragt: The Song of Seven or: The Towers of February (the Netherlands)
Thorbjørn Egner: Die Rauber von Kardemomme (Norway)

O5 = a graphic novel
Comédie française - Voyages dans l'antichambre du pouvoir by Mathieu Sapin (France)

Additional titles:
Filip Florian: Little Fingers
Ioana Pârvulescu: Inocenții
Jelena Lengold: Fairground Magician
Alma Lazarevska: Death in the Museum of Modern Art
Olja Savičević Ivančević: Farewell Cowboy

I think I am going to be brave and and try my hand at the Arend van Dam as part of the Eurolanguages Challenge. I had a quick glance through the blurb, and I virtually read it as if it is in Afrikaans. So maybe not that brave ;,>)

Wayne wrote: "I think I am going to be brave and and try my hand at the Arend van Dam as part of the Eurolanguages Challenge. I had a quick glance through the blurb, and I virtually read it as if it is in Afrika..."

Yes, of course - great idea!!
BTW I have so far made the opposite experience, i.e. have read blurbs in Afrikaans and thought it was a kind of Dutch :))) And of course it will be an adventure into a different language :)))

Something interesting to nibble on when you have a chance https://theconversation.com/more-than...

Wayne wrote: "Something interesting to nibble on when you have a chance https://theconversation.com/more-than..."

Dankie! :))

Dis 'n plesier

:)))

There are still 5 categories not filled in but the rest is at least planned and with only a few exceptions the titles are all on my shelves :)) I'm looking forward to this challenge.

I adore Howl's Moving Castle! Enjoy your selection.

Carolien wrote: "I adore Howl's Moving Castle! Enjoy your selection."

I will probably start with Howl's Moving Castle as it falls into the category of a "cosy read" :)

Let me know what you think of Sjón's book! I read "The Blue Fox" a couple years ago and looooved it, but later I read "The Whispering Muse" and was a little disappointed. I'd like to know whether Codex is worth checking out :P

So far, I read Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was which I thought was amazingly crafted and I also read From the Mouth of the Whale which was a great read for me, too. I have not yet read The Whispering Muse but read The Blue Fox which I remember I could not really make head or tail of, so it is on my re-read TBR :)
I have already read a few pages into CoDex 1962: A Trilogy to see whether I would like it - it is quite a tome for Sjón standards. It is weird but as he knows how to spin a yarn, I am looking forward to this read later in the year and will definitely report back :))

I finished the German edition of Lingo: A Language Spotter's Guide to Europe by Gaston Dorren. This is an excellent introduction into the many languages spoken in Europe. In short chapters Dorren focusses on 67 languages (he even has a chapter on sign language(s)). He focusses on what he thinks might be interesting for the reader to know about the respective language so that after finishing the book the reader has a deeper understanding of how the languages spoken in Europe came into being, developed, influence each other and sometimes disappear again.

After having written three highly recommendable novels that focus on 20th century Estonian history Sofi Oksanen has turned to the issue of surrogate motherhood and Norma is the first of at least two of her more recent novels to deal with this subject. For me it was a 3.5 star read. The novel starts off quite promising as a sort of a crime story: Norma's mother is said to have committed suicide but Norma is not really convinced that this is what really happened, so she tries to find out the truth about her mother's death. What put me slightly off is that Oksanen mixed in some elements of magic realism. Though I normally like magic realism a lot, it did not work out for me in combination with this crime story and I found it a bit odd.

Orgeluse wrote: "So far, I read Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was which I thought was amazingly crafted and I also read From the Mouth of the Whale which was a great read for me, too...."

Thank you! I hear "Moonstone" is his most popular book. My library doesn't have that one but I think there is "From the Mouth of the Whale" so I will check that one out!

I finished Howl’s Moving Castle at the very end of 2021 so as not to cheat on this challenge I decided to read The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke to fit B1.
Cornelia Funke writes fantasy novels for children / young adults and became famous for her Inkheart - Trilogy. Apart from an interesting plot The Thief Lord deals with the question of whether or not it is fun to grow up. Needless to say the children envy the adults their adulthood and vice versa in this novel.

I have just finished Serge by Yasmina Reza for the category of "in a Romance language". Ever since I read The God of Carnage (later turned into a film with Jodie Foster and Christopher Waltz) I am a big fan of this French writer! Serge is one of her recent works in prose. I was hooked because the core of this novel is about a visit of three Jewish-French siblings in their 50s to today's Auschwitz. The site is described in great detail and indeed very accurately. The novel in my view shows how Auschwitz still resonates and still has an impact even on the third generation after the actual murders of family members in the concentration camp. It depicts the broken relationships in a Jewish-French family and focuses on the generation of the victims' children (today in their 80s and actually the grandparents) and grandchildren (today in their 50s and now the parent generation). Although the family is simply a mess and the story is really rather sad, the description does not lack a certain humour that is typical of this author and that I like very much.

I have started Nora Ikstena's Life Stories with the result that the first story was already so offputting that I was quite happy that Wayne suggested a buddy read for Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's House :))))
It fits at least two categories so I will decide later where to put it...

Finished The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith aka J.K. Rowling.
I feel I am pretty late to the party when it comes to reading this crime series but I am happy to finally have discovered it.
Having devoured the Harry Potter Series 15 years ago up to the last installment in 2007 I was determined not to read anything else by her that would not be fantasy :)))
But I can say it is a solid crime story with the focus more on the character building of the detective and his secretary and their relationship than on the plot which is perfectly fine with me. I will probably also try the next installment as this was a solid 3.5 star read.

Orgeluse wrote: "Finished The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith aka J.K. Rowling.
I feel I am pretty late to the party when it comes to reading this crime series but I am happy to..."

Mmmm, I did not know about this at all. About 15 minutes ago I took the last Harry Potter off the shelf, in anticipation of finishing Daniel Silva's The Kill Artist. I have read and liked J.K. Rowlings The Casual Vacancy, so now I am going to add Robert Galbraight to the TBR list. Thanks

You're welcome! Looking forward to what you think of it :))

I have started In Isolation: Dispatches from Occupied Donbas by Станіслав Асєєв today and wish I had read this earlier, though this won't change anything and I am somehow lost for words...
This is a collection of articles by Stanislaw Assejew (German spelling) who was born in Donezk in 1989. He published these articles on life in the occupied Donbas region from 2015-2017 under a pseudonym for Ukrainian media outlets. He was imprisoned for 962 days by separatists (hence the German title In Isolation) and released in 2019. These essays make it very clear that the Russian invasion into Ukraine that is happening right now has at least been planned for the last decade...

Orgeluse wrote: "I have started In Isolation: Dispatches from Occupied Donbas by Станіслав Асєєв today and wish I had read this earlier, though this won't change anything and I am ..."

I've had Your Ad Could Go Here: Stories which we read last year in my mind all week. I'm going to find this one as well. Just incredibly sad and horrified.

I was thinking about these stories, too.
Another good book about the mindset in today's Russia is Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets by Svetlana Alexievich, the nobel prize winner from Belarus.

Orgeluse wrote: "I have started In Isolation: Dispatches from Occupied Donbas by Станіслав Асєєв today and wish I had read this earlier, though this won't change anything and I am ..."

Looks like a very interesting book to read; thanks for bringing it to our attention! Am completely despondent in light of what has been happening this week. I took out Andrei Kourkov's Ukraine Diaries at my library today, and should probably pick up Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West from my shelves. I bought it last year but haven't read it yet.

Valerie wrote: "Orgeluse wrote: "I have started In Isolation: Dispatches from Occupied Donbas by Станіслав Асєєв today and wish I had read this earlier, though this won't change a..."

The book on Putin sounds interesting! Thanks for mentioning it! As far as Andrey Kurkov is concerned, I can recommend his Death and the Penguin. It is serious but comical at the same time.

Orgeluse wrote: "Valerie wrote: "Orgeluse wrote: "I have started In Isolation: Dispatches from Occupied Donbas by Станіслав Асєєв today and wish I had read this earlier, though thi..."

I read Kourkov's novel years and years ago but don't remember much about it so it is definitely due for a reread.

I read A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen to tick off the sixth "square" (I4: originally written in a Scandinavian language) as a buddy read in the buddy read section. Though a re-read it still remains a 5 star read!

I have had the following three books from the Balkan in the post today:
Farewell, Cowboy by Olja Savičević Ivančević (a novel from Croatia)
Death in the Museum of Modern Art by Alma Lazarevska (a short story collection from Bosnia)
Fairground Magician by Jelena Lengold (a short story collection from Serbia which won the European Prize for Literature 2011)

So I have a good choice of titles for N 5 :))

Orgeluse wrote: "I have had the following three books from the Balkan in the post today:
Farewell, Cowboy by Olja Savičević Ivančević (a novel from Croatia)
[book:Death in the Museum..."
Oooh have not heard of any of these, will have to check them out, as I am reading Balkan for this...

Orgeluse wrote: "I have had the following three books from the Balkan in the post today:
Farewell, Cowboy by Olja Savičević Ivančević (a novel from Croatia)
[book:Death in the Museum..."

These all look interesting! Not good for my TBR, but thank you so much for sharing!

I have just updated my bingo as I finished the group read (B5) and the children's book (B4) - the latter also the group read ;). My thoughts on both titles can be found in the respective threads...

I have finished The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe by Charles Nicholl which investigates the death of Renaissance playwright but also spy for the Elizabethan secret service Christopher Marlowe. In contrast to the widely known story of Marlowe having been killed in a pub fight at random because of his choleric temperament, Nicholl examines Marlowe's death on the basis of the presently available historical documents. He depicts in great detail the situation in Elizabethan England with the focus on the underlying fight between the Protestants and the Catholics, he very elaborately outlines the different historical figures Marlowe was surrounded by and his reconstruction of the events leading to Marlowe's death and the assumed reasons for the secret service to get rid off Marlowe as a secret agent make a highly recommendable read.

In place of Nora Ikstena's depressing Life Stories I also finished Penelope, die Listenreiche by Armenian author Gohar Markosjan-Kasper. The novel which was originally written in Russian but is helas not available in English follows modern Penelope on her Odyssee through Erewan in search of a hot bath. Hilariously written it depicts what life was like in the 90s in Armenia and is highly recommendable for those who can get hold of a copy!

I finished Serhiy Zhadan's latest novel Internat which is in my opinion his best novel so far. We read his novel Mesopotamia in this group as a group read only at the end of last year.

The novel is set in an unnamed city in eastern Ukraine. Teacher Pascha goes to fetch his nephew from a boarding school in a neighbouring city. The problem is that this neighbouring city is already highly affected by war with the national army in the middle of retreating and the other army already approaching fast. So Pascha has to work his way through chaos and he experiences the slim line between life and death.
The novel was first published in 2017 which goes to show that the war in eastern Ukraine has been going on for more than just 100 days...

You're making good progress, Orgeluse! Some interesting reads so far. I must see if I can get Internat.

I have just finished category N5 (from the Balkans) by reading Como. 30 Tage. by Serbian writer Srdan Valjarevic.
I came across this novel, published in 2006, by chance as it has only recently (2021) been translated from the Serbian. The story is told in 30 chapters in which the narrator recounts the 30 days he was allowed to spend in a private Villa on Lake Como in the 1990s thanks to a "Rockefeller scholarship".
In the Villa, which is surrounded by private ground and even displays a private hill, a group of mainly elderly, high ranking scholars from all over the world are spending their time and scholarships in a highly exclusive environment to do their research and also the narrator, a young Serbian writer, is supposed to write in his apartment in the villa. But instead of working and socializing with the other guests at meals and in the evenings, he uses his time to recover from the hardships of his life in war-torn Serbia by drinking, sleeping late and spending the evenings in the village pubs at the bottom of the hill as he feels more drawn to the "ordinary" villagers than to the artificial world of the villa.
The style of the novel is laconic and for most parts unemotional, the proceedings in the villa are told from the distance the narrator keeps to the rest of the guests and we do not get to know anything about the narrator's life back in Serbia or what he might have experienced in the war. Nevertheless, we get the picture of a man who seizes his opportunity to get some peace and quiet and who resists being corrupted by the luxury of the Villa by simply doing "his thing" and although I would have wished for a more critical approach to certain aspects concerning some of the other characters it is exactly this uncritical depiction that makes the narrator "authentic" and leaves the readers to form their own opinions and made this novel a 5-star- read for me!

As the year is ending it is time to take stock with this bingo :)
I managed to fill in 16 squares, some of them with more than just one title (maybe this would also be an idea for a challenge :)).
I did not read the play by Arthur Schnitzler but as Austria is on our agenda in 2023, I might give it a go then.
As my summer holidays went bust I also did not manage to read Himmerlandsvolkwhich was scheduled for July/August.
I came across an interesting title from Greenland Last Night in Nuuk and as Greenland politically still belongs to Denmark I wanted to sneek it in. It was first written in the author's inuit language before she later translated it into English herself.
I still have two Polish "heavyweights" on my TBR: The Street of Crocodiles and The Books of Jacob, both books for me are "winter books" so I might get to them at the beginning of 2023.
I did not read Solaris and I think it is because I saw the movie and also a theatre production so I did not have the motivation to read the actual book anymore.
Nevertheless I enjoyed this bingo very much - I am always surprised at what books cross one's way in the course of a year and am looking forward to the next bingo :).