Hey guys, last two days you didn’t see me introducing any more author to you. I took these two days to recollect what entire month has offered me as a blogger, writer and most importantly as a bibliophile, a reader. It would not be a lie if I tell you that many of the authors I introduced you through my series ‘Kathaka’, were unknown names for me before I chose this theme. However, this entire month widened my eyes made me read about these 26 fabulous storytellers. Their lives, their style of writing, the time and place they lived in or living in. It was a wonderful journey to know a bit about all of these men and women. I am really looking forward to starting reading the books I mentioned. I wish for this TBR A to Z will become Book Review A to Z for 2019 challenge.
Time flies!!! This is what we all say every now and then; expresses our inability to keep track of the time when we are keeping a busy schedule, maintaining a balance of work, life, hobby and fun. This year’s April A to Z was the same experience for me. Constant juggle between tasks at work and a daily blog post schedule is a demanding routine. Thanks to the Sunday breaks, I was able to finish the Z post on the 30th of April as Sundays acted as a buffer when I missed a day to post. I am sure I would have left if just after the first week if my fantastic support network of Blogchatter wouldn’t be there. Their constant care, support and sharing what kept me going till Z post.
However, I am way behind in reading the amazing works produced by my fellow bloggers from our lovely community, I hope I will be able to catch up with all of their readings soon. Anagha’s ‘Sun Kissed & Minty Fresh… Life!’, People whom Trina met, Shalini’s kitchen stories with lots of olive green in them and Akshata’s “A slice of life through Myra’s eyes” were some of my favorites of these seasons. Yes, I am guilty as charged for not finishing all of their posts but the moments which I spent on these pages, they were satisfying. I seriously hope that my posts would have brought the same smile of satisfaction on at least one face.
If I compare this second year with 2017, which was my first attempt at any daily blogging challenge, I was a bit more prepared. However, as soon as we went in for the first few days, reality hit me hard. Having just a list of the authors and the book title by them is not enough. Reading about every writer’s life, their writing style, time and place they lived and then knowing about the book I chose was a task indeed. Thanks to Uncle Google I could get through it!!! For 2019, I think I should be more prepared for the research. Overall, it was a great experience to be part of this amazing journey. Once again, I would like to thank the entire Blogchatter team and our wonderful community. Hope you all will keep writing and spreading the love. See you soon.
Adding this to the amazing bucket of blogs at #BlogchatterA2Z.
Today, we are at the last stop of our A to Z journey of this 2018 challenge. I would like to introduce you all to Zakaria Tamer, who is a Syrian short story writer. Tamer, born on 2nd January 1931, is one of the most important and widely read and translated short story writer from Arab literary world. Tamer, also known as ‘little pea Ziad’ has been writing short stories since late 50’s and since then he has published eleven short story collections, two collections of satirical articles and several children’s books. Tamer is considered as an influential master of the Arabic-language short story. Tamer continued to teach himself with a voracious reading as he had to quit the school to support the family at the age of thirteen. He became interested in politics and was encouraged by contact with intellectuals to continue his education at night school. With this background, representing the very poor majority of men and women in Syria, with their joyless and restricted existence in his writing became his literary intention.
The book I would like to read and include in this TBR list is one of the two collections which got translated into English. Breaking Knees: Sixty-three Very Short Stories from Syria. As the title suggests, this book as sixty-three very short stories like flash fiction, which comment about corrupt, fearful lives under a violent dictatorship, it is possible to discern echoes of the storm that has brought Syria to near-disintegration. The stories in the book are Wry, satirical and bawdy, and are always informed by his dark view of humanity and of Syrian society in particular. Considering the current situation Syria, this book seems to be the amazing chance to have a sneak peek in Syrian society.
Born in November of 1972, Yiyun Li is a Chinese American writer who writes in English. After completing her graduation from Peking University in 1996, she moved to US and in 2000 earned her MS in immunology from University of Iowa. She took a turn towards creative writing by 2005 after completing her MFA degrees from the same university. Her short stories and essays have been published in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and Zoetrope: All-Story. A couple of stories from her first story collection ‘A Thousand Years of Good Prayers’ have been adapted by director Wayne Wang in to films.
Her latest story collection Gold boy, Emerald Girl is what I wish to include in my TBR. As the blurb of book says, stories are set in 21st century China where economic development has led to new situations unknown to previous decades: residents in a shabby apartment building witnessing in awe the real estate boom; a local entrepreneur-turned-philanthropist sheltering women in trouble in her mansion; a group of retired women discovering fame late in their lives as private investigators specialising in extramarital affairs; a young woman setting up a blog to publicise the alleged affair of her father.
Xue Yiwei, A Chinese – Canadian storyteller born and brought up in Hunan Province of China. But after his graduation in Computer Science at Beijing University, he studied English literature in Université de Montréal. He has authored 16 books including four novels and five story collections. These books have received him a great appreciation from Chinese people. This wide readership had taken his short story collections and essays in critics’ Top 10 lists in Asia. He moved to Montréal as a safe heaven to write his heart’s content as he couldn’t do the same after getting turned down by publishers for his novel Dr. Bethune’s Children because the attitude of the novel’s expatriate narrator was judged as harmful to China’s reputation. Though this was not the first case as he was walking the thin line between unfettered self-expression and maintaining a readership in China since 1989 when he started his literary career.
The book I am putting up on this TBR list is a short story collection titled Shenzheners. This is translated into English by Darryl Sterk is about people from Shenzhen city. Shenzhen is the young city in Hong Cong which got declared as Special Economic Zone in 1980 as an experiment to introduce capitalism to Communist China. A city in which everyone is a newcomer, Shenzhen has grown astronomically to become a major metropolitan centre. Hailed as a Chinese Dubliners, the original collection was named one of the Most Influential Chinese Books of the Year in 2013, with most of the stories appearing in Best Chinese Stories.
Wells Tower is an American short story writer who is born Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada on 14th April 1973 and grew up in Chapel hills, North Carolina. He splits his time between Chapel Hills, North Carolina and Brooklyn, New York. He has been quietly writing his short stories and publishing them over a past decade in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, McSweeney’s, Vice, Harper’s Magazine, A Public Space, Fence and other periodicals.
The blurb of Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned says “In the stories of Wells Tower, families fall apart and messily try to reassemble themselves. His version of America is touched with the seamy splendor of the dropout, the misfit: failed inventors, boozy dreamers, hapless fathers, wayward sons. Combining electric prose with savage wit, Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned is a major debut, announcing a voice we have not heard before.” With such strong praise and recommending, it is hard for me to ignore this book. This is the reason why I am including this book in my this A2Z short story TBR list.
V. S. Naipaul, Trinidad born, British – Indian author who is well known for his pessimistic novels set in developing countries and travel writings. In 2001, Naipaul was honored with Nobel Prize for literature “for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories”. Committee further added “Naipaul is a modern philosopher carrying on the tradition that started originally with Lettres persanes and Candide. In a vigilant style, which has been deservedly admired, he transforms rage into precision and allows events to speak with their own inherent irony.” Even though he was not confident about his skills as a writer, which lead to his impulsive trip to Spain.
Though there is a chance to look this collection as a novel as it describes various characters and events living in one neighborhood through the eyes of a boy. But while publishing this book, the publisher André Deutsch hesitated over publishing short stories by an unknown Trinidadian writer, as Naipaul then was. Deutsch thought a novel would have more success and encouraged Naipaul to write one. Deutsch published the Miguel Street after Naipaul’s two novels got published. 