The first in an autobiographical trilogy from Finnish writer Pirkko Saisio, translated by Mia Spangenberg, Lowest Common Denominator:
1streading.wordpress.com/2026/06/09/l...
The first in an autobiographical trilogy from Finnish writer Pirkko Saisio, translated by Mia Spangenberg, Lowest Common Denominator:
1streading.wordpress.com/2026/06/09/l...
"I have so little sense of living what I’m living while I live it that I have to relive it to finally live it."
Humour so dark you don't know whether to laugh or flinch.
Highly recommended.
In case you missed it, my review of Rosalind Belben's 1979 novel Dreaming of Dead People.
1streading.wordpress.com/2026/06/05/d...
In it for the money : My Prizes—An Accounting by Thomas Bernhard roughghosts.com/2026/06/07/i...
New on the blog today, I've written about THE PASSENGER by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz (tr Philip Boehm).
A brilliant, gripping novel in which a Jewish man goes on the run to evade the Nazis following the Kristallnacht atrocities. So timely & chilling... 💙📚
jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/06/07/t...
For a novel written in the immediate aftermath of Kristallnacht, a state-sponsored wave of violence, vandalism and imprisonment of Jews that took place in November 1938, The Passenger feels remarka…
jacquiwine.wordpress.com
Joseph Schreiber
JacquiWine
In recent weeks, talk, at least in the literary circles I circle, has turned to literary prizes and prize winners, more explicitly to the question of the use of AI to at worst generate complete sto…
Pirrko Saisio is a prolific Finnish writer, particularly for the theatre, whose work goes back to the mid-seventies. Lowest Common Denominator, a 1998 novel and the first part of a trilogy, seems t…
Pirrko Saisio is a prolific Finnish writer, particularly for the theatre, whose work goes back to the mid-seventies. Lowest Common Denominator, a 1998 novel and the first part of a trilogy, seems t…
Dreaming of Dead People is the last of Rosalind Belben’s four 1970s novels, published in 1979 – it would be ten years until the next one. The novel is made up of six sections, connected by the narr…
Little Apple, a story of revenge centered around the Russian Civil War is a good example of Leo Perutz's particular magic, his pure narratives. There is always something pulling the reader along but never quite within reach.
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“Desire is stronger than everything.” —Annie Ernaux
