March Wrap Up Overview
Welcome to my March wrap up! I read a lot in March (I say that every month), and I was pleased with the quality overall. I was kindly gifted the entire Booker International longlist to read and review. This is without a doubt one of the coolest bookstagram perks I’ve ever enjoyed! As a result, there was lots of translated excellence in this month’s wrap up!
I also got invited to LibroFM‘s ALC programme in March. This offers reviewers the chance to listen to early audiobooks for free in exchange for a review. LibroFM are not international yet, just US and Canada, but they support indie bookshops with their service so definitely check them out! I have heard that they’re planning on expanding to the UK soon. Fingers crossed!
Please note, titles with an asterisk* were gifted by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I’m an affiliate for Blackwell’s, so this post contains affiliate links to their site.
You can find all of my reviews for March under my review hashtag on Instagram, but I’ll share some mini reviews for my favourites here. I am planning on writing a post about the full Booker International longlist/shortlist, so I’ll try to keep these brief!
March Standouts
The Eighth Life* by Nino Haratischvili (tr. Charlotte Collins & Ruth Martin)
This book utterly captivated me. It shot straight into the number two spot on my 2020 favourites list and is the jewel of my March wrap up. I have been SO happy to see so many people on Bookstagram buy and read this book on my recommendation. I think most people have loved it too! It’s an epic, sprawling. moving saga documenting the history of Georgia through the 20th century. Tied together by one family and a mysterious hot chocolate recipe, The Eighth Life is truly a masterpiece, and one I’ll be shouting about until the cows come home.
Buy The Eighth Life at Blackwell’s
Lanny by Max Porter
So many bookstagrammers have loved this book, and I’m happy to say that I loved it too! I was drawn in by the poetic prose which meanders up and down the page, captivated by the two protagonists, Lanny and Dead Papa Toothwort. Without a doubt one of the most vivid, sensory novels I’ve ever read, with unforgettable characters and urgent, energetic prose.
The Adventures of China Iron* by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara (tr. Fiona Mackintosh & Iona Macintyre)
Charco Press are a new-to-me publisher I discovered this year and I’m so impressed by their books (look out for a blog post on them!). The Adventures of China Iron is a queer retelling of the epic poem Martin Fíerro by José Hernández. It’s sensual and subversive, and deserves to be read multiple times to grasp and appreciate the many different layers. Don’t worry if you don’t know anything about the original poem. I didn’t either and it didn’t hinder my enjoyment one bit.
Buy The Adventures of China Iron at Blackwell’s
Tyll* by Daniel Kehlmann (tr. Ross Benjamin)
One of the only men on the International Booker longlist not to disappoint me. This book was so much fun! I was very impressed by Ross Benjamin’s translation, as humour is notoriously difficult to translate from language to language. But he pulls it off! Set during the Thirty Year War in Germany, I learned a lot from this book and it set me off researching the period on my own.
The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree* by Shokoofeh Azar (tr. Anonymous)
Spellbinding is the best word I can use to describe this book. It’s historical fiction blended with magical realism, à la Gabriel García Márquez and Isabel Allende. Steeped in Iranian folklore, Greengage Tree perfectly combines mythic elements with brutal historical fact. The translator chose to remain anonymous for their own safety, which just highlights the lengths translators are willing to go to bring books across borders. I hope this one wins the International Booker, given that The Eighth Life did not make the shortlist (I’m still bitter).
Buy The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree at Blackwell’s
Other books that I highly recommend from this month include How Much of These Hills Is Gold* by C Pam Zhang, Piranesi* by Susanna Clarke, and Wild Dog* by Serge Joncour (tr. Polly Mackintosh & Jane Aitken).
Reading Stats
Total books read: 24
Physical books: 21
Audiobooks gifted by LibroFM: 3
Total pages: 6376
Audiobooks – click through to see my reviews!
- The Bear by Andrew Krivak (narrated by Eric Jason Martin)
- These Ghosts Are Family by Maisy Card (narrated by Karl O’Brian Williams)
- Tigers, Not Daughters by Samantha Mabry (narrated by Luis Moreno)
In March I visited two new countries for my reading the world challenge:
- Georgia (The Eighth Life* by Nino Haratischvili)
- South Africa (Red Dog* by Willem Anker)
I also revisited:
- Turkey
- Iran
- Argentina
- Spain
- Jamaica
- France
- Norway
- Germany
- South Korea
- UK
- US
In terms of translations, I read 11 translated books to 13 originally published in English.
- Turkish (Mark David Wyers)
- Afrikaans (Michiel Heyns)
- Persian (Anonymous)
- Two Spanish (Fiona Mackintosh & Iona Macintyre and Sophie Hughes & Margaret Jull Costa)
- Two German (Charlotte Collins & Ruth Martin and Ross Benjamin)
- Two French (Jennifer Higgins & Sophie Lewis and Polly Mackintosh & Jane Aitken)
- Norwegian (Damion Searles)
- Korean (Chi-Young Kim)
That’s it for my March wrap up! You can keep up with my reading the world efforts on Instagram by looking under my hashtag #AbReadsAroundTheWorld, while I post reviews for most books I read over there, on The StoryGraph, and Goodreads.
If you missed my February wrap up, you can check that out here!