Look! A Red Feather!

THE GAP OF TIME - Jeanette Winterson

The Hogarth Shakespeare series will launch in October 2015 with The Gap of Time – Jeanette Winterson’s reinvention of The Winter’s Tale. This major international project will see Shakespeare’s plays reimagined by some of today’s bestselling and most celebrated writers. The books will be true to the spirit of the original plays, while giving authors an exciting opportunity to do something new.

Winterson said of The Winter’s Tale: ‘All of us have talismanic texts that we have carried around and that carry us around. I have worked with The Winter’s Tale in many disguises for many years. This is a brilliant opportunity to work with it in its own right. And I love cover-versions.’

Other writers involved in the project and whose books will appear in 2016: Tracy Chevalier, who will be retelling Othello, Gillian Flynn (Hamlet), Margaret Atwood (The Tempest). 

Lavender in My Dreams...

"He turned and saw me, my wings exposed. He paled. For reasons even I remain unsure of, I dropped to my knees, raised my chin, and opened my mouth. For a moment he stood unmoving, possibly awestruck by the close proximity of the blooms of my lips. Then he held up a paper-thin wafer and brought it to my mouth. I reached up and touched it with my tongue."

I had no idea this book would turn out to be so wonderful. In fact, I can't remember having read a more beautiful book in the recent years and the term "magical realism" is highlighted once more as one of my favorite styles of writing. It is Leslye Walton's debut novel, which appeared in 2014 and named by Publishers Weekly as "entrancing and sumptuously written." 

"The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender" is the story of a simple girl... who is born with wings. She is not a bird, nor and angel, but not quite human. The first half of the book is dedicated to presenting the lives of Ava's mother and grandmother, their struggle to "fit in", to face sadness and love that is not shared. The second part of the novel presents in more detail Ava's life and her attempts to reveal herself to the world. 

"I often thought I was going crazy- or maybe not going but already there. As if my future was only a locked room with white painted walls and white painted floors, with no windows or doors or any means to escape. A place where I opened my mouth to scream but no sound came out."

Real human love goes hand in hand with religious love, or does it? Obsession can lead you to commit the unthinkable and still, what I wished to happen all along the novel happens in the end and both Ava and me have felt liberated... Love is truly the one and only miracle. It is definitely a mesmerizing read! 

"Love makes us such fools!" 

Japanese Summer Is Here...

As usual, I decided to join Bellezza's Challenge and this summer I will be reading these four supposedly great books. I am a fan of Kawabata's work, so I am looking forward to his last piece of writing "Dandelions"; two months ago I read Kawakami's "Strange Weather in Tokyo" and I really enjoyed it, so I am quite eager to discover a new novel "Nishino's ten loves"; "The Pillow Book" should be the 'kinky book" of the summer and I am also planning on rediscovering Tanizaki with his "Some prefer nettles". Will you care to join us? You only have to read one book written by a Japanese writer till January 2016.

The Old Man of the Moon

'Our passion was so great. Will the Old Man understand and help us once again?'

The Old Man of the Moon is Shen Fu's intimate and moving account of his marriage - from early passion to the trials of poverty and separation - and his great, enduring love for his wife in eighteenth-century China.  In Chinese mythology the Old Man of the Moon is the God of Marriage, meant to bring people together. This small gem speaks for itself...

 

"All things are like spring dreams, passing with no trace."

"She was too sensitive to be completely happy in life."

"True respect comes from the heart, not from empty words."

"Most arguments people have begin with a joke."

"One who has seen the ocean cannot desire a stream."