Reviews

Heart Lamp — Banu Mushtaq, Translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi

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One of the most inventive and profound aspects of Heart Lamp is how Mushtaq layers these multiple points of view: in “Black Cobras” alone there are at least six, most of them the perspectives of women and girls. A few stories are told in the first person, but most of the time the close third-person narrator moves between those who have all the power and those who have none.

Places in the Dark – Lidmila Kábrtová

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Why bother being good when paradise was never promised?

Wickerwork – Christian Lehnert

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Nature crafts its own metaphors

The Porno President – Bruna Kalil Othero

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“Tits or ass?” Othero’s novel urges us to consider this question in today’s political landscape

Tamangur – Leta Semadeni

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The novel is a portrait of growing up and growing old, twin phenomena that run in the same direction yet seem somehow opposed

The Equestrian Turtle and Other Poems – César Moro

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Through a surrealist style, the poet plunges us into the complexities of a homoerotic love and into the depths of his symbolism.

Fresh, Green Life — Sebastian Castillo

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But whether or not the narrator evolves is irrelevant. It’s his daydreaming that propels the narrative and engages the reader. Not just because of long sentences, or languid interiority, but because the narrator actually reveals himself through his delusions.

A Prague Flâneur – Vítězslav Nezval

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Prague surpasses its “practical necessity” and expands into a dynamic host for memories

We Are Green and Trembling – Gabriela Cabezón Cámara

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Erauso is the stranger in this world and he, the conquistador, becomes a subject in the dominion of this new world

Flesh and Blood – Ma Xiaotao

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Ma makes the case that rénlún is insufficient for determining real, lived human relationships.