#RivetingReviews September 2024 – Introduction by West Camel

Welcome to the autumn quarter’s #RivetingReviews. 

As September draws to a close and squalls of wet weather drench London, making getting to the surfeit of literary events the new season brings a rather damp endeavour, we are showering you, our loyal readers, with a bunch of new reviews. 

Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp and the team at World Kid Lit round off World Kid Lit Month with reviews of five original and thought-provoking picture books from across Europe. 

We’re in France with Paul Burke to find out his thoughts on Virginie Despentes’ new e-pistolary [sic] novel responding to the #MeToo movement. And we’re in Slovakia with Ursula Phillips to find out about traditional bonnet-making and the histories of the bonnet-makers.  

Darcy Hurford takes us to Lithuania to explore a collection of chapbooks from Strangers Press, while Petar Penda returns to review a novel written in Macedonian about Italy and Croatia by a Slovenian resident – who else but Istros could be the publisher of such a book. 

Germany is represented by Mandy Wight, who takes on Katja Oskamp’s new short-story cycle; while I return to Italy and my Natalia Ginzburg obsession with my review of a perfect pair of novellas about sadness. 

We’re in Poland for our poetry this time – with a selection of poems by Aneta Kamińska co-translated by our very own Anna Blasiak alongside Bohdan Piasecki. 

But it’s Iceland that takes the prize for the most mentions this time around. Ewa Sherman is almost rhapsodic about Jón Kalman Stefánsson’s saga-like epic; Sonja van der Westhuizen may or may not be triggered by a feminist medical horror; and Barry Forshaw returns with a brace of books by Ragnar Jónasson – one in partnership with the Icelandic prime minister! 

We hope you enjoy our thoughts and reflections on this smorgasbord of European writing. If you’re tempted to buy any of the books, please do so via our dedicated Bookshop.org page, as the few pennies this pays us help to continue publishing this reviews. 

Our next reviews will be published in December. If you’d like to write something for us, please get in touch at reviews@eurolitnetwork.com.

Have a great literary autumn! 

West Camel