Saturday, July 2, 2011

Europa Challenge 2011: My Dinner with Europa


Looking at my original list of books for the Europa Challenge 2011, I realized I had a theme going. In fact, the titles read like a night having friends over to dinner– or maybe even a date night. I’ve included the descriptions from the Europa Catalog, in case you’re interested!
  • Cooking with Fernet Branca (James Hamilton-Paterson): A delicious comedy of manners nominated for the 2004 MAN Booker Prize.
  • The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine (Alina Bronsky): Told with sly humor and an anthropologist’s eye for detail, The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine is the story of three unforgettable women whose destinies are tangled up in a family dynamic that is at turns hilarious and tragic.
  • The Proof of the Honey (Salwa Al Neimi): A bestseller throughout the Arab world, a tribute to sex, eroticism, language and liberty, The Proof of the Honey is a superb celebration of female pleasure.
  • Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio (Amara Lakhous): A shrewd mix of social satire and murder mystery.
I absolutely loved this idea, so I went through the catalog to see if I could find any other “courses” for my “dinner with Europa,” and I came up with these fantastic titles:
  • The Woman with the Bouquet (Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt): An exceptional collection by one of Europe’s most beloved authors.
  • Bone China (Roma Tearne): A beautifully crafted story of hope and survival set in Sri Lanka and England that will appeal to all readers of White Teeth and The Inheritance of Loss.
  • The Goodbye Kiss (Massimo Carlotto): After years on the run, he's back and willing to do anything to claw his way into respectable society.
Of course, they looked so interesting that I now want to read them all. So while I’ve committed to being a Europa Ami (4 books), I think it’s possible I may wind up a Europa Haver (7 books) when it’s all said and done!

Feel free to join me for dinner with Europa -- everyone's invited!

5 comments:

  1. Although the titles are new to me, the idea is very exciting! I love this publisher, which I think I recognize as having published The Elegance of The Hedgehog? I like books off the beaten path.

    Love how you made the analogy of going out to dinner with them, very clever, Col!

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  2. I hope you'll join, Bellezza. I love that Europa supports translations, so English speakers have access to a wider range of literature, so I'm happy to support them -- and I know I'll enjoy myself in the process!

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  3. I am a big fan of the Europa editions. I not only like the stories, but I just plain like the look of the books too :)

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  4. They are beautiful books, aren't they? The covers are always so clever!

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I absolutely love comments. Thanks for taking the time to share! Col