On Translation Browsing a Copenhagen airport bookstore, a translator picks up a book. The journey between that impulse and his eventual translation of the memoir into English was both emotional and serendipitous. In the summer of 2016 I was passing through Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen with my wife, on our way home after a visit with family. We stopped to browse the bookstore, and I noticed a reprint of a book by Danish author Tove Ditlevsen called Gift, which had first been published in 1971. I hadn’t read much of her work, but I knew she was a big name, so I bought it, even though the cover was strange, a psychedelic skull on a gray background. It did not take more than a couple of sittings to devour this memoir of Tove Ditlevsen’s life from the ages of about twenty-three to thirty-five. It chronicles her rise as a best-selling author, while she also had four failed marriages, two back-alley abortions, and a five-year near-fatal addiction to the opioid Demerol. I distinctly remember laying the book down after the final page and thinking to myself, I think this is a masterpiece. This was an intuitive judgment, not a conclusion I had come to after analyzing the text. But looking back now, I think what caused me to deem this work a masterpiece is the combination of Ditlevsen’s writing style, which is concise, honest, and ironic, combined with the content of her story, which through her many troubling experiences pulls back the... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2021-04-06 13:12:22 UTC ]
From a memoir on the Afro Latinx experience in the U.S. to a graphic novel about crying, here's what we're reading in June. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-06-10 22:12:36 UTC ]
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As a city kid, veterinarian Amy Attas had big dreams of roaming the countryside healing animals a la the classic “All Creatures Great and Small.” Continue reading at ABC News
[ ABC News | 2024-06-10 13:18:31 UTC ]
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Jill Ciment’s 1996 memoir “Half a Life” described her teenage affair with the man she eventually married. Her new memoir, “Consent,” dramatically revises some details. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-06-10 09:02:59 UTC ]
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In his memoir “The Friday Afternoon Club,” the Hollywood hyphenate Griffin Dunne, best known for his role in Martin Scorsese’s “After Hours,” recounts his privileged upbringing. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-06-09 09:02:20 UTC ]
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The journalist on throwing up at school, his admiration for aid workers, and not being there for President BushBorn in Lancashire, Clive Myrie, 59 studied law before gaining a place on the BBC’s journalism trainee scheme. He became a foreign correspondent, winning a Peabody award in 2017 for his... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-06-08 08:30:40 UTC ]
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There are times when a writer encounters the work of a contemporary at the ideal time. In my case, this writer was John Kaag and the book was his 2018 philosophical memoir Hiking with Nietzsche: On Becoming Who You Are. I had been studying philosophy in graduate school, but had left to pursue... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-06-07 08:55:26 UTC ]
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Ruth Whippman had three sons and a lot of questions. In her memoir “Boy Mom,” she hopes to offer parents some of the reporting she gathered on the road to understanding her children. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-06-06 13:28:10 UTC ]
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Pop culture feeds on romantic couplings, but we all know the truth about who keeps us alive. Our friends, what would ever we do without them? It is passionate platonic friendship that concerns Lilly Dancyger in her second book, First Love: Essays on Friendship. A collection of personal and... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-06-06 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Source Code: My Beginnings, out next year, will include ‘some of the tougher parts’ of the entrepreneur’s early lifeBill Gates has announced that he will be telling his “origin story” in a memoir due to be published next year.Source Code: My Beginnings will cover the businessman and... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-06-04 16:02:08 UTC ]
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Reading Anna Akbari’s memoir of online manipulation, you think you’ve seen it all — then you keep reading. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-06-04 14:30:08 UTC ]
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Two interlocking thrillers, demonic possession in the suburbs, a Cambodian memoir told through food, and more of today's best book deals. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-06-03 15:00:00 UTC ]
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“As I became more entrenched in the White nationalist movement, I gained more power to cause more harm to people and society in ways I came to deeply regret.” R. Derek Black on the extreme ideology of their upbringing and how young White nationalists are programmed to hate. | Lit Hub Memoir “I... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-30 10:30:30 UTC ]
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A tribute to Paul Auster, featuring Siri Hustvedt, Don DeLillo, JM Coetzee, and more. | Lit Hub “I’ve had to forgive myself for what I chose not to see. For choosing myself.” Nina St. Pierre on understanding and accepting a schizophrenic mother. | Lit Hub Memoir James Shapiro on Willa Cather and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-28 10:30:47 UTC ]
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Caleb Carr, a military historian and bestselling author of "The Alienist," made his last book a touching memoir of life and love with a feline companion. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-05-26 19:05:41 UTC ]
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This memoir by a gay Appalachian man is about reckoning with a homophobic family but one full of love, forgiveness, and understanding. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-05-24 13:00:00 UTC ]
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The events will showcase writers and speakers from countries in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa to UK audiences, and feature up-and-coming UK writers selected as part of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists 2023 list.This specially selected event series brings together our work with the... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2024-05-24 10:51:02 UTC ]
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I had a conversation recently with a friend whose debut memoir is coming out soon, about the dread he feels at the idea of his father reading his book. I think pretty much every memoirist faces a version of this critical moment—when we have to face the fact that all of the vulnerable, private... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-24 08:55:44 UTC ]
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Poets write some of the best memoirs, and this one will have you feeling like you're in each of these cities. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-05-22 11:00:00 UTC ]
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AudioFile recommends 10 excellent new audiobooks for spring, including masterful new works from Hanif Abdurraqib, Percival Everett, and more. Whether you’re looking for a memoir told in the author’s own voice or a fascinating novel performed by professional narrators, you’ll find something... Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2024-05-21 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Paul Scheer's memoir-in-essays, 'Joyful Recollections of Trauma,' centers largely around the abuse he and his mother suffered at the hands of his stepfather. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-05-21 10:00:29 UTC ]
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