The Literary Fiction Shelf

A Bach Concert
Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu, author
Olga Rogozenco, illustrator
Gabi Reigh, translator
Center for Romanian Studies
c/o Histria Books
www.histriabooks.com
9781592111701, $29.99, HC, 244pp

https://www.amazon.com/Bach-Concert-Classics-Romanian-Literature/dp/1592111= 70X

Synopsis: One of the first successful novels written by a female author in = Romania, Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu's "A Bach Concert" remains a classic wo=
rk of Romanian literature. Originally published in 1927 in Romanian, the no= vel follows the life of the Hallipa family. The main plot revolves around a=
Bach concert organized by Elena Hallipa-Draganescu for the elite society o=
f Bucharest. It's a story of high society intrigue, family tragedy, East Eu= ropean urban life after World War I, and culture. Published for the first t= ime in English, Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu's realistic novel will delight i=
ts readers with stories of this long-forgotten era.

Critique: Featuring illustrations by Olga Rogozenco and ably translated int=
o English by Gabi Reigh, "A Bach Concert" by Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu wil=
l prove to be of particular appeal to readers with an interest in World War=
I historical romance fiction. A 'time lost' classic that is now brought ba=
ck into print for a new generation of appreciative readers, "A Bach Concert=
" is highly recommended for community and academic library Literary Fiction=
collections. It should be noted that "A Bach Concert" is also available fo=
r personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).

Editorial Note #1: Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu was born in 1876 in Galati, R= omania. After her marriage with General Nicolae Papadat at only 20 years ol=
d, her literary career was stalled because of frequent military relocations=
and the need to care for her three children. She started publishing storie=
s in literary magazines and in 1919 she published her first novel. Unfortun= ately, after a long life filled with literary accomplishments and collabora= tions, she died forgotten by her friends and former colleagues at the age o=
f 79.

Editorial Note #2: Gabi Reigh won the Stephen Spender Prize for poetry tran= slation in 2017, which inspired her to translate more Romanian literature. =
As part of her Interbellum Series project, she has translated interwar nove= ls, poetry, and drama by Lucian Blaga, Liviu Rebreanu, and Mihail Sebastian=
, including The Town with Acacia Trees, which received a PEN Translates awa= rd. She has also translated of The Illuminated Burrow by Max Blecher (2022)=
..

Editorial Note #3: Olga Rogozenco is a talented young artist from the Repub= lic of Moldova.

The Last Pomegranate Tree
Bachtyar Ali, author
Kareem Abdulrahman, translator
Archipelago Books
232 Third Street #A111, Brooklyn, NY 11215
https://archipelagobooks.org
9781953861405, $24.00, PB, 321pp

https://www.amazon.com/Last-Pomegranate-Tree-Ali-Bachtyar/dp/1953861407

Synopsis: "Whenever he told lies, the birds would fly away. It had been tha=
t way since he was a child. Whenever he told a lie, something strange would=
happen."

So begins Bachtyar Ali's novel "The Last Pomegranate", a phantasmagoric war= ren of fact, fabrication, and mystical allegory, set in the aftermath of Sa= ddam Hussein's rule and Iraq's Kurdish conflict.

Muzafar-i Subhdam, a peshmerga fighter, has spent the last twenty-one years=
imprisoned in a desert yearning for his son, Saryas, who was only a few da=
ys old when Muzafar was captured. Upon his release, Muzafar begins a franti=
c search, only to learn that Saryas was one of three identical boys who bec= ame enmeshed in each other's lives as war mutilated the region.

An inlet to the recesses of a terrifying historical moment, and a philosoph= ical journey of formidable depths, "The Last Pomegranate" interrogates the = origins and reverberations of atrocity while also probing, with a graceful = intelligence, unforgettable acts of mercy.

Critique: A deftly scripted chronicle of war and an a memorable story of lo=
ve between a father and his son from one of Iraq's most celebrated contempo= rary writers,"The Last Pomegranate" by Bachtyar Ali (and ably translated fr=
om Kardish into English by Abdulrahman) is an eloquent and deftly crafted w= ork of literature that will linger in the mind and memory of the reader lon=
g after the book has been finished and set back upon the shelf. While readi=
ly available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $= 9.99) from Archipelago Books, "The Last Pomegranate Tree" is an especially = and unreservedly recommended addition to both community and academic librar=
y Literary Fiction collections.

Editorial Note #1: Bachtyar Ali (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachtyar_Ali=
) is one of the most prominent contemporary authors and poets from Iraqi Ku= rdistan. He has written over 40 books of fiction, poetry, and criticism, in= cluding 12 novels, and has been widely translated, a renown very few author=
s writing in the Kurdish language enjoy. In 2017, he was awarded the Nelly = Sachs Prize, joining past recipients such as Milan Kundera, Margaret Atwood=
and Javier Mar=C2=A1as. He is the first author writing in a non-European l= anguage to do so. In 2009, Ali received the first HARDI Literature Prize, p= art of the largest cultural festival in the Kurdish part of Iraq. In 2014, =
he was also awarded the newly established Sherko Bekas Literature Prize.

Editorial Note #2: Currently residing in London, Kareem Abdulrahman is a tr= anslator who has also worked as a Kurdish media and political analyst for t=
he BBC. His translation of Bakhtiyar Ali's "I Stared at the Night of the Ci= ty" was the first Kurdish novel to be translated into English. (https://www= ..catranslation.org/person/kareem-abdulrahman)

What We Don't Talk About
James Janko
University of Wisconsin Press
728 State Street, Suite 443, Madison, WI 53706-1418
www.uwpress.wisc.edu
9780299340049, $17.95, PB, 224pp

https://www.amazon.com/What-We-Dont-Talk-About/dp/029934004X

Synopsis: Orville, Illinois, is bucolic, charming, and almost Norman Rockwe= llesque -- if you're white. But like many midwestern cities in the 1960s, i=
t is a "sundown" town, a place where Black Americans are prohibited from en= tering or remaining after dark.

The town's most adventurous woman, Cassie Zeul, is an outcast because she h=
as no husband and takes an occasional lover. Her son, Gus, guided by Sister=
Damien, aspires to be a priest, but he is increasingly overwhelmed by his = infatuation with Pat Lemkey -- who is herself drawn to Jenny Biel, consider=
ed by many to be the most beautiful girl in town.

Gus's best friend, Fenza Ryzchik Jr., a somewhat notorious bully desperate = for his father's attention, hates "colored people," doesn't think he knows = any, and is certain he can convince Jenny to marry him one day -- without r= ealizing that her devout mother has been passing for white her entire life.=
Events come to a head when a visiting nun from the South brings an African=
American friend with her to Midnight Mass one Christmas Eve.

Critique: With its theme of prejudice, privilege and power in Midwest Ameri= ca, "What We Don't Talk About" by James Janko is a timely (given the presen=
t and pressing social issues of being Black in America) and a deftly crafte=
d novel by an author with a genuine flair for revealing the dramatic in the=
mundane. With a special appeal to readers with an interest in small town b= ased race relations historical fiction, "What We Don't Talk About" is one o=
f those thought-provoking works of literary fiction that will linger in the=
mind and memory of the reader long after the book has been finished and se=
t back upon the shelf. While highly recommended for both community and acad= emic library collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists tha=
t "What We Don't Talk About" is also available in a digital book format (Ki= ndle, $17.050.

Editorial Note: James Janko (https://jamesjanko.com) is also the author of = Buffalo Boy and Geronimo and The Clubhouse Thief. His short stories have be=
en published in The Sun, Massachusetts Review, and Eureka Literary Magazine=
, among others.

About The Victor Of The Cold War And The Emperor's New Clothes
Avrora Kepler
Brown Dog Books
9781839523663, $21.67, PB, 278pp

https://www.amazon.com/ABOUT-VICTOR-COLD-EMPERORS-CLOTHES/dp/1839523662

Synopsis: "About The Victor Of The Cold War And The Emperor's New Clothes" =
by Avrora Kepler is the story of Raya -- a naive but spirited girl growing =
up in Warsaw Pact Eastern Europe.

As a young adult in the nineties, she buys a one-way ticket to the United S= tates, eager to pursue opportunities away from Eastern Europe's disintegrat= ing society. What Raya discovers, however, is that the black and white pola= rity in Cold War Europe was just an illusion, and that one hemisphere is by=
no means better than the one she left behind.

Inspired by true events, "About the Victor of the Cold War and the Emperor'=
s New Clothes" is a novel set in one of the most defining periods of the tw= entieth century and offers a unique perspective on capitalism as the perfec=
t economic solution to modern civilization's prosperity.

Author Avrora Kepler's novel is also about one girl's quest for the truth a= midst the noise of mass media and political doctrines, as she experiences l= ife on both sides of the Iron Curtain, from one extreme ideology to another=
, in search for the answer to a utopian society.

Critique: An entertaining, thought-provoking, inherently interesting read f= rom cover to cover, "About The Victor Of The Cold War And The Emperor's New=
Clothes" is an extraordinary novel and one that is unreservedly recommende=
d for community and academic library Contemporary Literary Fiction collecti= ons. It should be noted for personal reading lists that it is also readily = available in a digital book format (Kindle, $1.99).

Orphans of Canland
Daniel Vitale
Strij Publishing
www.danielvitale.com
9798986355306, $28.00, HC, 360pp

https://www.amazon.com/Orphans-Canland-Daniel-Vitale/dp/B0BMNW4V71

Synopsis: It's the year 2088, decades after an environmental collapse, and = the dust has settled on America. The eco-totalitarian organization, WORLD, = has reconfigured society with the intention of restoring nature. Twelve-yea= r-old eternal optimist Tristan Weekes lives in what he believes must be par= adise: Canland, an agrarian California desert-greening project. However, Tr= istan's life-defining medical condition, analgesia, prevents him from feeli=
ng physical pain, leaving his brain's stress centers unresponsive to everyt= hing from ego-blows to heat waves.

Well-intended, curious, and wielding a stunning vocabulary, Tristan loves t=
o listen to the subversive theories spouted by his older brother, Dylan, a = drug-addicted satellite hacker. He also wants to prove his independence to = his mother, Helena, a powerful population control-extremist. Meanwhile, all=
around him, the survivors of the environmental collapse are just working t= oward a better tomorrow. But when a slew of violent acts befalls Canland, T= ristan must confront certain truths about the community he loves-including = his family's secrets, his own involvement in the horrors enacted by WORLD, = and the debts that are owed to the orphans of Canland.

Critique: "Orphans of Canland" is a deftly crafted work of dystopian litera=
ry fiction, set against the backdrop of a frighteningly plausible future. I=
n this original and compelling novel, author Daniel Vitale explores the fat=
e of our planet, the nature of family, and the duty of science, as "Orphans=
of Canland" asks of the reader -- What does it mean to belong on Earth? Wh= ile especially and unreservedly recommended for community and academic libr= ary Dystopian Fiction collection, it should be noted for personal reading l= ists that "Orphans of Canland" is also available in a paperback edition (97= 98986355313, $14.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $8.99).

Editorial Note: Daniel Vitale (https://www.danielvitale.com) is a writer an=
d graduate of Amherst College. Orphans of Canland is his first novel.

EDITOR'S NOTE:

The Midwest Book Review is an organization of volunteers committed to promo= ting literacy, library usage, and small press publishing. We accept no fund=
s from authors or publishers. Full permission is given to post any of these=
reviews on thematically appropriate websites, newsgroups, listserves, inte= rnet discussion groups, organizational newsletters, or to interested indivi= duals. Please give the Midwest Book Review a credit line when doing so.

The Midwest Book Review publishes the monthly book review magazines "Califo= rnia Bookwatch", "Internet Bookwatch", "Children's Bookwatch", "MBR Bookwat= ch", "Reviewer's Bookwatch", and "Small Press Bookwatch". All are available=
for free on the Midwest Book Review website at www (dot) midwestbookreview=
(dot) com

Anyone wanting to submit books for review consideration can send them to:

James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive
Oregon, WI 53575-1129

To submit reviews of any fiction or non-fiction books, email them to Frugal= muse (at) aol (dot) com (Be sure to include the book title, author, publish= er, publisher address, publisher website/phone number, 13-digit ISBN number=
, and list price).

James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review

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