BookBlast Substack

Cecilia Sala creates an unflinching portrait of young generations in Iran, Ukraine, Afghanistan fighting for
change in THE FIRE, « Immersive & original » New York Times Book Review. Come join our book club discussion @hatchards piccadilly 6pm Mon 13 April linktr.ee/bookblast

My Women Yuliia Iliukha Review My Women by Yuliia Iliukha, translated by Hanna Leliv, is a powerful and critically acclaimed collection of short fiction that shines a spotlight on the experiences of women during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The world is experiencing the highest number of active conflicts since 1946, with women and girls being disproportionately impacted by war, and excluded from peace decision-making, according to UN Women. My Women was selected as BBC Book of the Year 2024 in Ukraine and shortlisted for the EBRD Literature Prize 2025. It has been published in the US, France, Italy, Sweden and several other European countries.

My Women Yuliia Iliukha Review

My Women by Yuliia Iliukha, translated by Hanna Leliv, is a powerful and critically acclaimed collection of short fiction that shines a spotlight on the experiences of women during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The world is experiencing the highest number of…

A fascist’s library

Does he even know what a library is? Other than this kind of course! 🤯

Lázár Nelio Biedermann Review An unusual and engrossing intergenerational saga, Nelio Biedermann’s debut novel, Lázár, follows the fate of an aristocratic family living on an estate in Southern Hungary, from the beginning of the twentieth century and the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to the 1956 uprising. Biedermann was only twenty two years old when he wrote it and is being heralded as a…

Lázár Nelio Biedermann Review

An unusual and engrossing intergenerational saga, Nelio Biedermann’s debut novel, Lázár, follows the fate of an aristocratic family living on an estate in Southern Hungary, from the beginning of the twentieth century and the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to…

Ooh lookie here folks - this is a fantastic prize! And for those of you who do not know, Sigrid Rausing is the genuinely inspirational force behind @grantamag.bsky.social so when it comes to authenticity amidst all the white noise online, you can’t get much better! 👀🥳🌹

Reading Around the World Top 5 Books of the Month Our Reading Around the World Top 5 Books of the Month come from France and the Congo, Iran, Suriname and the Netherlands, India, Spain. Ève Guerra, Shahnrush Parsipur, Astrid Roemer, Vivek Shanbhag and Sara Torres all write from the edges of dominant culture and challenge power structures as they explore identity through innovative storytelling from outside the literary mainstream. Repatriation…

Reading Around the World Top 5 Books of the Month

Our Reading Around the World Top 5 Books of the Month come from France and the Congo, Iran, Suriname and the Netherlands, India, Spain. Ève Guerra, Shahnrush Parsipur, Astrid Roemer, Vivek Shanbhag and Sara Torres all write from the edges of…

Angst Hélène Cixous Review Hélène Cixous is best known in the Anglophone world for her 1976 essay The Laugh of the Medusa (Le Rire de la Méduse), in which she laid out a roadmap for a new kind of women’s writing (écriture feminine): a writing that springs from the female body and sexuality, unbound by the ‘phallocentric’ worldview which has shaped the Western canon.

Angst Hélène Cixous Review

Hélène Cixous is best known in the Anglophone world for her 1976 essay The Laugh of the Medusa (Le Rire de la Méduse), in which she laid out a roadmap for a new kind of women’s writing (écriture feminine): a writing that springs from the female body and sexuality,…

« A powerful, unflinching portrait of a generation fighting for change in Iran, Afghanistan, Ukraine »
How is Gen Z living with war, repression, revolution & fighting for freedom?
Join us 6pm Mon 13 April to discuss The Fire by Cecilia Sala @europaeditions.bsky.social
Tix www.linktr.ee/bookblast

Pusscat at work BookBlasting!

Thanks for the follows folks, appreciated! 👏🌞

Hey @blueskystarterpack.com please add: go.bsky.app/2A2RSFc thanks a million! :)

It will be a good discussion! Looking forward to seeing everyone :)

Lovers of Franz K Burhan Sönmez Review | BookBlast® BookBlast review of Lovers of Franz K by Burhan Sönmez. It's a literary crime novel; a creative resurrection; a metafictional kaleidoscope where Poe meets Kafka whose bureaucracy is refracted through ...

Our book club pick for 9 March at Hatchards, Piccadilly 6pm Tickets link in bio. See you there!
Lovers of Franz K Burhan Sönmez Review bookblast.org/blog/lovers-...

Reading Around the World Top 5 Books of the Month 5 books, 5 countries: Russia, Spain, Algeria, Norway and Iraq (via the UK) set the scene. What links these works is a shared desire for clarity. Stepanova dismantles memory; García Llovet stalks the edges of crime; Khatibi writes with hindsight of the sociological and political; Hjorth worries at family trauma like a dog with a bone; Haddad traces power where death, identity and money collide.

Reading Around the World Top 5 Books of the Month

5 books, 5 countries: Russia, Spain, Algeria, Norway and Iraq (via the UK) set the scene. What links these works is a shared desire for clarity. Stepanova dismantles memory; García Llovet stalks the edges of crime; Khatibi writes with hindsight of…

Layered, reflective, heartfelt - essential reading! 📚🙌

Daniel Pennac’s READS LIKE A NOVEL tr. Dan Gunn with a Gilbert & George art cover is well worth reading ! 😉🙌

Good to see Daniel Pennac’s READS LIKE A NOVEL included, tr. Dan Gunn, published when I was an editor at a publisher working especially on French translations into English - the Gilbert & George art cover a canny move! 😉🙌

Lookie here folks! 👀 This is a seriously clever literary whodunnit on many levels. Grab yr tickets and see you on Mon 9 Feb 6pm Hatchards Piccadilly 🗣️📚 👏

East Asian Literature Leads the Way Taiwan, Korea & Japan Spotlight East Asian literature is redefining the global canon. While the United States slides into a form of governance that resembles authoritarian farce — tariffs yoyoing up and down, economic policy underpinned by punishment, leadership reduced to a reality TV show staged in Gotham — its closest ally is following on obediently. Britain is playing its usual role of being America's poodle while the mainstream Media promotes Nigel Farage who is obligingly on standby with power-hungry Tories joining his political masquerade.

East Asian Literature Leads the Way Taiwan, Korea & Japan Spotlight

East Asian literature is redefining the global canon. While the United States slides into a form of governance that resembles authoritarian farce — tariffs yoyoing up and down, economic policy underpinned by punishment, leadership…

Charlie Coombe & Tina Kover Translator Interview In this translator interview for BookBlast Diary, Charlie Coombe and Tina Kover talk language, literature, inspiration, success and more. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Charlie Coombe (CC): I have been a translator for eighteen years, and a literary translator for about fourteen of those. I am a full-time paid house and pet sitter, so most of the time I am living in other people’s houses, pretending their pets are my pets.

Charlie Coombe & Tina Kover Translator Interview

In this translator interview for BookBlast Diary, Charlie Coombe and Tina Kover talk language, literature, inspiration, success and more. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Charlie Coombe (CC): I have been a translator for eighteen years, and a…

Not your usual book club read! Imagine being in the shoes of those in the dinghy in November 2021 when 27 drowned?

Join us 6pm Monday 9 February @hatchards to discuss SMALL BOAT by Vincent Delecroix with translator Helen Stevenson

#bookclub #shortlist
#internationalbookerprize

Hmm they look kinda sinister?

Earliest Stories 1880-1882, Anton Chekhov (eds) Rosamund Bartlett, Elena Michajlowska Review Anton Chekhov’s short stories are staples of English literature degrees and creative writing courses alike, routinely held up as an example of “show, don’t tell.” Revered as a master of psychological realism, he demonstrates how to be morally serious without sermonising. A bridge between nineteenth-century realism and literary modernism, Chekhov made minimalism a staple of good literature; that of le non-dit…

Earliest Stories 1880-1882, Anton Chekhov (eds) Rosamund Bartlett, Elena Michajlowska Review

Anton Chekhov’s short stories are staples of English literature degrees and creative writing courses alike, routinely held up as an example of “show, don’t tell.” Revered as a master of psychological…

Reviews Small Boat

Who’s responsible for migrants drowning in the Channel? The author of Small Boat compels us to imagine ourselves being in the dinghy then the freezing sea…. Join us & @helenstevenson.bsky.social @hoperoadpublish.bsky.social 6pm Mon 9 February @hatchards.bsky.social
Tickets via linktr.ee/bookblast

Do join us if you can for our next #TranslationBookClub hosted by @bookblast.org's Georgia de Chamberet (9th Feb) to discuss Vincent Delecroix's International Booker Prize-shortlisted #SmallBoat translated by Helen Stevenson and published by @hoperoadpublish.bsky.social - all welcome!

Based on a real event, Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix is written through the POV of a French coastguard employee who let migrants sink in a dinghy in the Channel - 27 died.
Join us at our book club 6pm Monday 9 Feb @hatchardspiccadilly to discuss this brief, powerful novel tickets via link in bio

Roll up roll up folks! Hard to better this moving, thought provoking read. Looking forward to the discussion 9/2 👏

It will be a good discussion! 😉👏📚🥂

Reading Around the World Top 5 Books of the Month Greetings readers! Here are Our Top 5 Books of the Month from around the world to kick off the new year, to refresh perspectives and remind us why cultural literacy isn’t a luxury, but a necessity. Palestine Minus One: Stories from the Eve of the Nakba Edited by Basma Ghalayini A prequel to the publisher’s acclaimed 2019 collection Palestine +100…

Reading Around the World Top 5 Books of the Month

Greetings readers! Here are Our Top 5 Books of the Month from around the world to kick off the new year, to refresh perspectives and remind us why cultural literacy isn’t a luxury, but a necessity. Palestine Minus One: Stories from the Eve of the…

BookBlast Book Club, Hatchards, Spring 2026 News The BookBlast® Translation Book Club meets in person at 6pm on the second Monday of each month at Hatchards, Piccadilly, to discuss engaging, well-written fiction in translation from the past decade, offering thought-provoking reads that illuminate global cultures. Surprise guests include translators, publishers, editors or authors who sometimes join in, offering insights into their work and experiences. Who better to introduce readers to cultures from around the world than leading writers translated into English?

BookBlast Book Club, Hatchards, Spring 2026 News

The BookBlast® Translation Book Club meets in person at 6pm on the second Monday of each month at Hatchards, Piccadilly, to discuss engaging, well-written fiction in translation from the past decade, offering thought-provoking reads that illuminate…

Far by rosa ribas

Far translated by Charlotte Coombe, is a dark, satirical, very Spanish love story with echoes of Claudia Piñeiro and JG Ballard,” Sam Jones, The Guardian
Check out the BookBlast Diary review of FAR by Rosa Ribas @foundryeditions.bsky.social
Join our book club 6pm Mon 12 Jan @hatchards to discuss it