Paula learns how to cope with grief and live again after her partner dies in a car accident. Interesting main character is the dominant feature of this universal story about betrayal, grief and love...

Amos Oz is a great writer indeed! And this novel about the birth of Christianity and the foundation of the State of Israel more actual than ever.

I must say that I was reluctant to reading it at first. Glad I did! The pleasure of reading is anything but small.
It depicts simple people's life in post-war british suburbs that are about to be changed...

A wonderful novel about the three generations of an Irish family! Well written, great characters...

Middle aged divorced philosophy teacher decides to end his life in a year. As months go by his life takes a new turn... Aramburu is a great writer. I knew that since I've read "Patria"?

I really loved Shuggie Bain. Young Mungo is even better!

Scandinavian crime giction at its best.

Pandemics, isolation, descovering nature around us and all its wonders... Beautiful new book by Anaïs Barbeau!

Really wonderful Vivian Maier's fictional biography! Enjoyed it very much.

What will happen to a powerfull French family when their son is accused of rape? He claims that sex was consentual, she that it wasn't. Where's the truth?

Such a great book! Could not stop reading it. Action is set in an Indigenous village in northern Sweden. Someone has been killing Saami's reindeers for years and police does not seem to care...

Action is set in a catholic boarding school for girls in Rwanda during 1970s. Conflicts between Hutu majority and Tutsi minority are already in place. A snapshot of racial conflifcts that will lead to a terrible genocide in 1994.

OK if you want to read something easy-going and fun, but avoid if you are looking for something more serious.

Belfast, 1941, Luftwaffe's bombarding the city four days in a row. Sisters Audrey and Emma, as well as all the other habitants of the city, just try to survive. An excellent novel indeed.

In her new novel, with autobiographical elements, Camille Laurens writes about the experience of growing up as a girl in a family that wanted a boy. While retelling Laurence Barraqué's childhood, adolescence and motherhood, Laurens gives an overview of the changing place of women in Western societies since 1970s

I love this Elena Ferrante's coming-of-age novel set in 1990's Naples. Highly recommended🙂

Twenty years old Galway-born Nora Barnacle meets young James Joyce in Dublin in 1906 and moves with him to Trieste. That's the beggining of their lifelong love story, retold from Nora's point of view in an amazing Nuala O'Connor's novel!

This short novel retells the story of Irish Magdalene laundaries. During the 1980s, Bill Furlong, coal merchant, makes a delivery in local convent and discovers something that was supposed to be hidden.

Twenty years after her husband's death, Brigitte Giraud retells the last days of his life and thinks about different "what if..." that maybe could have changed the course of events and prevented the accident to take place. Heartbreaking and powerfull... Goncourt prize well deserved.

I really don't have anything bad against this book, but somehow I didn't like it that much. I expexted more from a Goncourt prize winner.

Wish you all a lot of moments like this in 2023!

Melchor Marín, policeman from Cercas's previous novel "Terra alta", is back! Someone's blackmailing the mayor of Barcelona and he's investigating the case. "Independance" combines crime fiction, political thriller and a analysis of contemporary Catalonian society. Cercas is one of the best European novelist, no doubt about it!

I loved Pfeijffer's previous book, "La Superba", so I decided to read this one as soon as the Croatian translation was published. I did not regreat it even thought it has more than 550 pages. More a long essay on Europe's glorious pas and not so promising future then a novel. A part that I appreciate the most is a very lucid analysis of mass tourism and its impact on everyday life in European cities.

Sorj Chalandon, in this autobiographical novel, writes about the Klaus Barbie's process and his own father's past. Horrors of the Second World War, collaboration among them, start to resurface...
Excellent, powerfull, a must read!

Marta Barone goes in search of her father, after his death. While telling the story of his secret lives, Barone describes one of the darkest periods of Italian history. Very powerfull and emotional autobiographical text!

Police detective in a remote Spanish region called Terra Alta investigates the murder of a local elderly businessman and his wife while struggling with his personal issues. Highly recommended!

This is the best book I've read recently! A story about Shuggie's growing up in Glasgow during the 1980s with his alcoholic mother. Wonderful, sad, touching, well written text on destroyed childhood, povery, abuse, addiction and the last years of working-class Glasgow. Booker prize well deserved!

Very emotional and powerfull story about growing up in Scarbourough's immigrant community. By going back and forth in time, this novels tells a story about migrants frim Trinidad to Canada and their sens of belonging. Loved it!

I saw the movie few months ago and I loved it so much that I have decided to read the short novel too. And it's even better than the movie! Has few layers of meaning that are not present in a film. I love all Elena Ferrante's novel but could say this is my favourite. She writes about motherhood in a way that is so unique, so rare and so true😍

Anonymus woman kept a diary from April to June 1945 in Berlin and describes everyday life after the Russian troupes envaded the city. Hunger, omnipresent death, mass raping of German women... Strong narrative voice retells the horrors with a dose of humour. A must read for those who are interested in WWII.

After marring Thomas, Almanda starts living with Innu family and shares their nomadic life until it was no longer possible. A novel based on Michel Jean's great- grandmother's life story. Beautiful book and touching representation of innu traditions, values and way of living.

Javier Cercas tries to find an answer to the question why three Republican soldiers saved frankist politician's life at the end of the Spanish civil war. He starts an investigation in archives, libraries and searchs for living witnesses...

After getting injured at the Eastern front in 1943, 24-year-old Veit Kolbe falls in love with Margotwhile recovering in Austrian mountains. A year passes by and he needs to get back to the front... Horrors of war seen from the perspective of a Wermacht soldier. Captivating, profound and poetic anti-war novel.

I wanted to read this novel for ages but never did it. I bought a copy in Ferrara few weeks aho, as a souvenir, and finally read it. In a day. A real masterpiece!

Javier Cercas's great-uncle died at the age of 19 during the Spanish civil war. He was a frankist and a member of Falanga. Cercas has spent years searching for documents and witnesses who still remember Manuel Mena, trying to understand how he ended up on a wrong side of history.

Rural Ireland, 1950s, snowy winter, murdered priest, family secrets... perfect ingredients for a perfect crime fiction. John Banville at his best!

Bassam and Rami lost their daughters in the Middle East conflicts. One is Palestinian and the other Israeli. Two men, united by grief, become friends. Their lives will nevee be the same. McCann has written an extraordinary texts that combines fictional and non fictional elements.

Another excellent Cognetti's novel on finding fullfilement and hapiness in mountains... Pure joy☕🍪📚 Paolo Cognetti is definitly my favorite Contemporary Italian writer!

Excellent novel! Raising environmental awarness is only one of its fortes.

Odile's dream comes true when she becomes a librarian at the American library in Paris. But her life, as well as those of her family members, friends and collegues, soon becomes extremely difficult, after the occupion of France. Decades later, her teenage neighbour Lily would like to know why Odile moved to Montana after the WWII.

Loïc spends few weeks in his grandmother's house and discovers the hidden family secrets. Everything changed when the Nazis arrived at the village in 1943...

Trina narrates her life story: life in a small village in Italian Alto Adige region, fascism, surviving the WWII, daugher's disapearence, destruction of her village... Fascinating and very well written story!

Frances, a 7 years old girl, moves to her aunt and senile grandfather's house after losing her father. While she tries to adjust to her new life, family secrets from the past are beeing revealed.

Loved it, loved it! Paolo, a 40 something tv producer from Milan, suddenly loses his fiancée. He spends weeks sitting in his car in front of his daughter's school while she's in there and tries to face the tragedy that has just happened. Very powrefull and extremely well written novel!

While telling the story of her life Annie Ernaux sketches the half century of French/European/World history. This novels is the key of her "oeuvre". If you like Ernaux's style or auto(socio)biographies, you shouldn't miss this one!

Mischka is living the last months of her life in a care home and struggling with aphasia. Her last wish is to see the couple that saved her during the WWII and thank them. Very short but extremely touching and profound prose.

After a shipwreck, group of slaves from Madagascar tries to survive on a small sandy island in the middle of the Indian ocean. This excellent graphic novel adresses the issue of slavery, an embarrassing chapter of 18th century history.

After 40 years and many ups and downs Ana and Zeno can finally be happy together❤

85 years old Gerda spends the lasts months of her life in a care home for eldery people and reflects on years that have passed in a blink of an eye. This graphic novel is so profound, sad, funny, touching and full of life at the same time. It adresses the issue we are likely to ignore and are afraid of: growing old and dying. A must read!

This novel is quite different, but equally great, from two previous Slimani's novels. She tells a story, partly autobiographical, about a French woman Mathilde and her Maroccan husband Amine who try to survive the turbulent 1950's in Marocco when the colonial regime came to its end. Slimani is an excellent storyteller and definitly one of the best contemporary French writers!