Tag: literature in translation

#BookReview Red Is My Heart by Antoine Laurain and Le Sonneur @BelgraviaB

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Red Is My Heart CoverAbout the Book

How can you mend a broken heart?

Do you write a letter to the woman who left you – and post it to an imaginary address? Buy a new watch, to reset your life? Or get rid of the jacket you wore every time you argued, because it was in some way … responsible?

Combining the wry musings of a rejected lover with playful drawings in just three colours – red, black and white – bestselling author of The Red Notebook, Antoine Laurain, and renowned street artist Le Sonneur have created a striking addition to the literature of unrequited love. Sharp, yet warm, whimsical and deeply Parisian, this is a must for all Antoine Laurain fans.

Format: Paperback (192 pages)         Publisher: Gallic Books
Publication date: 18th January 2022 Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Literature in Translation
ISBN13: 9781913547189

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My Review

Red Is My Heart is one of those books that looks simple on the surface but repays a slow reading to appreciate its subtlety. The musings of the narrator following the end of a love affair are communicated in a reflective manner but with a wry humour and incorporating subtle wordplay, skilfully preserved in the translation by Jane Aitken. One of my favourite examples was the narrator’s cheeky comment about the book’s illustrator, street artist Le Sonneur, ‘His art does not last and serves no purpose’.

The narrator finds reminders of lost love in everyday objects such as a watch, a ‘his and hers’ keyring or a jacket. Through some sort of twisted or desperate logic he blames the latter for the failure of their love affair.  He even clings to the memory of their relationship through the unlikely vehicle of an airport tannoy announcement. The book also details the slow, painful process of discarding memories of a relationship whether that’s in the form or photographs or gifts.

There’s very little text, some pages containing only a single paragraph or a few sentences. However, what text there is uses different fonts, different sizes of text, words in bold, etc. to reinforce the meaning of the prose. Some of the text is printed upside down or at right angles meaning the reader has to physically manipulate the book to read the words. This is definitely not a book that could be appreciated in digital format!

The illustrations are a brilliant companion to the text, especially striking because of their use of only the colours black, white and red. The illustrations pick up on elements in the narrator’s musings – such as a ladder – or act as metaphors for separation, such as the scattered pieces of a jigsaw puzzle or a small, lone figure looking out from a balcony surrounded by a sea of houses. The repeated motif of a red dot that gets smaller and smaller, always remaining out of reach, seems to reflect the growing distance between the narrator and his lost love.  Does the quirky keypad on a door and a red dot that increases in size towards the end of the book suggest the possibility of a new relationship?  Perhaps he was wise after all to give away that unlucky jacket!

Leaving aside the writing and illustrations, Red Is My Heart is a work of art in itself, from the embossed front and back covers to the French fold jacket. My thanks to Isabelle at Gallic Books for my advance review copy of this little gem of a book.

In three words: Touching, playful, imaginative

Try something similar: Together by Luke Adam Hawker

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About the Author

Pascal Ito © Flammarion

Antoine Laurain is the bestselling author of six previous novels, including The President’s Hat, a Waterstones Book Club pick which won the Prix Landerneau and the Prix Relay des Voyageurs, and was adapted for television, and The Red Notebook, which featured in the Duchess of Cornwall’s Reading Room, an Instagram book club with over 100k followers. His novels have been translated into more than twenty languages, including Arabic and Korean.  A writer, journalist and antique collector, he lives in Paris.

Connect with Antoine
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About the Illustrator

Le Sonneur is a contemporary Parisian artist. His work tells the story of Paris and the people who live there. His artwork is often placed in public spaces with an invitation to passers-by to interact with the work, for example by picking up a key or calling a telephone number. As well as in Paris, his work has been exhibited in Tokyo, Berlin, Melbourne and Dubai. (Photo/bio: Publisher author page)

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#BookReview A Memory for Murder (Selma Falck, 3) by Anne Holt @CorvusBooks @ReadersFirst1

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A Memory for MurderAbout the Book

When former high-powered lawyer turned PI Selma Falck is shot and her oldest friend, a junior MP, is killed in a sniper attack, everyone – including the police – assume that Selma was the prime target.

But when two other people with connections to the MP are also found murdered, it becomes clear that there is a wider conspiracy at play.

As Selma sets out to avenge her friend’s death, and discover the truth behind the conspiracy, her own life is threatened once again. Only this time, the danger may be closer to home than she could possibly have realised…

Format: Hardcover (432 pages)           Publisher: Corvus
Publication date: 4th November 2021 Genre: Crime, Literature in Translation

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My Review

A Memory For Murder (translated from the Norwegian by Anne Bruce) is the first book I’ve read by Anne Holt but, on the strength of this one, it certainly won’t be the last!  Although it’s the third in the author’s Selma Falck series, I didn’t feel at a disadvantage from not having read the previous books. True, there are a few references to events in the earlier books (A Grave For Two and A Necessary Death) but if anything it made me even keener to read them at some point.

I really enjoyed getting to know Selma Falck, even if she’s described as being ‘seldom completely herself’. A former lawyer turned private investigator, she’s also been variously a world class handball player, a social media star and a (mostly reformed) gambling addict. She’s also a grandmother eager to be allowed a closer relationship with her grandson, and that forms a key part of her motivation for finding out exactly who was the target of the sniper attack – her or her friend? – who was responsible and why they did it.

Safe to say, there are plenty of twists and turns in a plot which encompasses stalking, government malpractice, contingency planning, adoption, child welfare policy, investigative journalism and much, much more.  It might seem too many topics to cram into one book and still keep the plot moving along and the reader engaged, but Anne Holt manages it – and how! Frequently introducing new characters and different points of view shouldn’t work either, but it does; it’s just more people to either suspect or wonder how they fit into the story. Oh, and never has a round object or an emoji etched in dust been more chilling.

I thought A Memory For Murder was terrific and I simply raced through the pages, admiring the way the author brought all the different threads together to reveal a final picture that’s a good deal darker than you might have expected.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of Corvus and Readers First.

In three words: Gripping, clever, suspenseful

Try something similar: A Better Part of Valor by Gary Corbin

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Anne HoltAbout the Author

Anne Holt is Norway’s bestselling female crime writer. She spent two years working for the Oslo Police Department before founding her own law firm and serving as Norway’s Minster for Justice between 1996 and 1997. She is published in 30 languages with over 7 million copies of her books sold. (Photo/bio credit: Publisher author page)

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