Introducing New-To-Me Writers: Elif Shafak and Bernardine Evaristo

January has been a good month for reading discoveries. I began the year with two books in a row by authors previously unknown to me and whose backlists I will happily work my way through in the near future: Elif Shafak and Bernardine Evaristo, both English writers who draw from their experience and/or heritage in other cultures. You can listen to a Guardian Books podcast in which Shafak speaks with interviewer Claire Armitstead about her writing in general, this astonishing novel in particular, and, courageously, about Turkey’s treatment of novelists.  Thanks to my friend and occasional commenter here, Brenda, for alerting me to this podcast. I haven’t yet heard Evaristo speak, but if I do, I’ll come back and link here — or, if you can recommend a link, I’d appreciate your sharing it with us.

I’m going to continue the practice I began last year of posting my current reading on Instagram, where my comments will rarely offer much summary or overview but instead reflect my impressions at the first few chapters or perhaps share a passage or two, or even several pages, I was particularly struck by. I posted this, for example, about 10 Minutes, 38 Seconds in This Strange World.

And in tandem with the Instagram posts, I’m also going to continue hand-writing my responses to the books I read — and of sharing photographs of those pages without a word-processed transcription. I won’t belabour the point here, but I suppose I see value both in the hand-writing itself and in the engagement of the reader with the challenges of letters formed idiosyncratically. . . .As always, though, if you can’t make out letters or words or sentences or whole passages, let me know in the comments below and I’ll happily decipher for you.

I do apologize, though, for the problems I was having with my fountain pen in the entry above. The ink wasn’t drawing properly, and when I got it flowing again, I traced over the letters. So I’m going to make an exception right after declaring my basic principle, and I’ll transcribe those first few lines.

Bought, trade paperback NYC: Black Cat P, 2019 Read early January

Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other

Two great books in a row — and both by female British writers from different cultural heritages, Shafik from Turkey and Evaristo, born in . . . . 

and from there, I’ll let you read as you wish, on your own. . .  You might also be interested in what I posted on IGhere and here.

That’s it for this morning. . .

Since I read these two books, I’ve also read — and will post about, very soon — Oyinkan Braithwaite’s My Sister the Serial Killer,  Melissa Harrison’s Clay, and Kate Hamer’s The Doll Funeral, and I’m currently reading Marlena de Blasi’s That Summer in Sicily to Paul while he cooks our dinners, Tessa Hadley’s Late in the Day to myself, and, when my granddaughter arrives here after school today, we’ll pick up where we left off a few weeks ago in Catherine Gilbert Murdock’s The Book of Boy (luckily the Eleven has a very good memory for narrative). . . . What can I say? I’m Frances and I’m a book addict. . . .

And you? How has your reading year begun? Have you read either of these two books? Or might you, now that I’ve told you something of them? Any questions for me about them?