Howling Frog Books

 The Chess Set in the Mirror, by Massimo Bontempelli I've spent all week being sick and writing up the Germany trip, but now that I've got the posts written, they need photos. o.O  That will take a while.  So here's my first summer book!   I was so attracted by the title that I actually purchased the book, which was published in Italian in 1922.  It's a classic of Italian children's literature (or so they tell me), and Bontempelli himself was a prolific and famous Italian writer.  Apparently he also coined the term 'magical realism.'  Which this story isn't; it's just straight up fantasy. Narrated in the first person, Bontempelli describes the time that he was ten years old and was locked in an empty room as a punishment.  He notices a chess set in front of a mirror, but he can't see himself reflected, and as he bobs around trying to get high enough to see himself, the reflected chess set seems to come alive.  He is invited into the mirr...

The Scapegoat, by Sophia Nikolaidou In 1948, an over-eager American journalist reporting on the Greek civil war was pulled out of the bay, murdered.  The American government threatened to withdraw aid unless the killer was found immediately, and so the Greek police decided who did it.  Manolis Gris, a junior reporter, spent 12 years in jail. In 2010, Minas Georgiou is the smartest, and most disaffected, kid at his high school.  Everybody is preparing for the exams, but he doesn't want to go to university or ever take another exam again.  (After all, the Greek economy is in freefall, and there doesn't seem to be much point in anything.)  The maverick teacher at the school gives Minas an assignment: instead of exam prep, investigate the Gris case, and give a presentation on it. The story of the Gris case is presented in a mosaic made of testimonies from the people involved -- almost everyone, except Gris himself.  Blended with the old stories, we see Minas fi...

Purge, by Sofi Oksanen This was a pretty harrowing novel, folks.  It was interesting, and well-written, but I don't think I'll be revisiting it and it should maybe come with a warning on the cover. Aliide Truu, an old woman, lives in her farmhouse on the edge of the Estonian forest.  It's 1992, and an unknown young woman shows up in front of her house.   Zara is running from the terrifying men who captured and trafficked her, but she also has a reason for searching out this particular house. Neither of the women want to tell their stories, but they each need to find out who the other is.  The reader, meanwhile, is given access to chapters of their histories; Aliide remembers successive waves of German and Soviet occupation, her sister's marriage to the man Aliide loved, and just what she did to survive , and to get what she wanted.  Zara grew up in Vladivostok, surrounded by her mother's and grandmother's memories and fears.  When she wanted to ...

The Teacher of Cheops, by Albert Salvadó Literary works by Andorran writers that are translated into English are not thick on the ground, since the principality of Andorra only has about 77,000 people (according to a quick check on Wikipedia).  My town has more people than that, and it has several authors -- but I bet none of them are translated into another language.  So I lifted a page from Ann Morgan's "Year of Reading the World" list , and read Albert Salvadó, who has one novel translated into English from the original Catalan.  And it's a historical novel about ancient Egypt! This is the life story of Sedum, born into slavery, whose single goal in life is to become free and bequeath that freedom to his children.  He becomes a junior accountant for the Pharaoh Huni and becomes free while still a young man.  Surviving the intricacies of Pharaoh's court is tricky even for a junior accountant, but Sedum rises during Snefru's reign, even becoming a tuto...