This years sees the fifth year of Peirene press publishing the wonderful novellas in translation and on this #translationthurs , I m setting a challenge for you all .They publish three books a year and each year has a theme for the three books that year .I for one have loved every single book I have read from them ,Meike seems to have a real talent to bring three books on a theme every year that although different show different sides of the theme of the year and how this theme can be viewed around europe . Any way its been five years since ,I read the first three books from Peirene so I’ve decide this December I ‘m going to revisit those first three books on the theme of female voices and review them again , to see if time has change my view of them but also to see if the five years since I reviewed them if this blogger has changed in the way I look at books ! I would love for some of my fellow bloggers to join in with just one or even all of the books , for the first time or just to revisit them like my self .The first three are beside the sea by Veronique Olmi which has since been a play .Stone in a landslide by Maria Barbel , any one that has read this blog or followed me on twitter for any time know this is my all time favourite from Peirene , a classic of Catalan fiction and will tie nicely with the two recent books from there I have read .Lastly portrait of the mother as a young woman , a one sentence book that follows a young woman on one afternoon in Rome in 1943 .So just read and post over December if we use a hashtag of #peirene5 then we can see them on twitter .
What is your favourite book from Peirene press !! ?
I have all three of these, Stu, but I’ve never read them, so I shall join you. My favourite Peirene book? The Mussell Feast. Taught and tense.
I enjoyed mussell feast such shame it took so long to come out here at time it would been so much more powerful it time just after the wall fell
Yes, good point.
As I’ve been vaguely intending to re-read my Peirene collection, I’ll join in. Give me a nudge if I seem to have forgotten by December! My favourite has always been Portrait of the Mother, with its Woolf-style stream of consciousness, so it’ll be interesting to see if I still feel that way.
Yes a modern take on modernism with nod to Joyce in the title as well
I loved Beside The Sea …so powerful
Five years? Wow! I can’t believe it is that long. For me, I don’t think anything will ever top ‘Beside the Sea’. I still think about it regularly.
I’m with Jackie on this one, though I also loved The Mussel Feast, which I’ve read twice.
I’ve just purchase my first Pereine Press book – can’t wait to read it!
Oh which ?
“Chasing the King of Hearts”!
Very touching book
My favourite is Alois Hotschnig’s Maybe This Time but Beside the Sea is a close second. I still have a good number of Peirene titles to read so I will sit this one out and cheer you all on!
I haven’t read any of the first series, so would love to join in, I’ve loved them all The Mussel Feast and Mr Darwin’s Gardener spring to mind as favourites, both so unique and more than just a story, like a rose, things of beauty with thorns.
Like Sakura, I still have other Peirene novellas to try so I’ll commit to reading The Dead Lake in December to complete this year’s coming-of-age series. I love what Peirene Press do, so I’ll be keeping an eye out for your reviews.
It’s very difficult to pick a favourite Pei book, but I have a soft spot for the eerie mood of Maybe This Time.
I’m a Peirene Books Virgin! So if you suggest where I’m best to start I’d happily give it a go!
Five years already – here’s to many more! Beside the Sea is one of the most moving and horrifying books I’ve ever read, so that one certainly sticks in my mind, but I also liked The Dead Like, Sea of Ink… and there are a couple I haven’t read yet and am planning to read for German Literature Month.
That means I’ve been meaning to read Beside the Sea for 5 years… I’ve read their recent releases: The Dead Lake and the Blue Room, and liked both, but can’t pick a favorite yet. Hope I can get to Beside the Sea this December and look forward to your posts about the books.
My favourite is ‘Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman’, one I’ve read several times already 🙂 Not sure I’ll be able to get to any in December, but I’ll give it a go 😉