Most stories are about individuals caught in the politics of their surroundings — it’s just more obvious when it’s about Palestine.
We The Animals – Justin Torres
This world, through which the reader all-too-quickly passes, is etched cleanly and sparsely, and nonetheless seems complete. Description, dialogue, and the narrator’s own youthful viewpoint create a realm almost tangible, both in the squalor of the low points and the beauty of their family’s wary intimacy.
Humiliation – Wayne Koestenbaum
Humiliation provides no solutions, and there is no satisfying sense of resolution, but as an exploration of an unwieldy concept, it is disarmingly vulnerable, and as eloquent as it is revealing.
Animalinside – Laszlo Krasznahorkai and Max Neumann
At times, I felt menaced by the narrator’s belligerence; at other times, I struggled to take his delusions of aggression seriously.
Albahari’s skill in immersing the reader in this grim conclusion justifies the energy required to follow the story, which at times feels like listening to a friend breathlessly recount a particularly confusing dream.
Portraits of a Marriage – Sándor Márai
“Spanning late fin de siècle Budapest to the conclusion of World War II, Sándor Márai’s Portraits of a Marriage focuses on the insurmountable effect of class on relationships and the tension rippling across Europe during this period.”