A boxing glove hit my stomach at full speed. It left me with a sick feeling and a painful head. The glove came with a name and the hand in it came with a name. ‘A dry white season’ and ‘André Brink’. The South African writer Brink passed away in 2015 when he was on … Continue reading Review A DRY WHITE SEASON
Review LA PESTE
The Algerian / French writer Albert Camus wrote a few classics and became an important voice in the literary world of the northern hemisphere. He was born in Mondovi (nowadays Dréan) in the northeastern corner of Algeria in the year 1913 in a pied-noir family. Shortly after the Second World War he published his La … Continue reading Review LA PESTE
Review OPERATIE LAAT NIETS IN LEVEN
Two Dutch journalists, Arnold Karskens and Henk Willem Smits, focus in this book on the Dutch businessman Guus Kouwenhoven (or mr. Gus). What is so special about this man that two journalist have followed this man over a period of many years, have delved into archives, have talked with the man himself and many others? … Continue reading Review OPERATIE LAAT NIETS IN LEVEN
Review AMERICANAH
It took me a long time to read this book. This was not due to this novel, but due to many other activities I was involved in. So this reading journey became a kind of hurdle jump with me falling in between the hurdles. This novel by the acclaimed author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is woven … Continue reading Review AMERICANAH
Les Rwandais ne veulent pas être otages de leur passé »
The Rwandan novelist Scholastique Mukasonga writes about the events that took place 25 years ago in Rwanda. The death of unnumerous people. Women, men, children. The year 1994 is etched in our collective memory, but is not just 194, years before and years after lives were torn apart and dumped on the graveyard of history, … Continue reading Les Rwandais ne veulent pas être otages de leur passé »
In Laila Lalami’s novel, immigrants are fully-realized people—and so are racists
Leaving one’s place. Moving from one town to another town. Leaving one culture and settling in another. One country behind your back and in front of you a new country with new cultures. For the Rabat-born writer Laila Lalami crossing borders borders has been part of her life. She left Morocco to study in the … Continue reading In Laila Lalami’s novel, immigrants are fully-realized people—and so are racists
books touched by Africa 