This is an archived issue of Belletrista. If you are looking for the current issue, you can find it here
Belletrista - A site promoting translated women authored literature from around the world
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Finnish author Riikka Pulkkinen makes her English debut with her second novel, True. Read the first chapter here!

...A "subtly sophisticated gem of a novel" is how Joyce Nickel describes Mary Horlock's The Book of Lies. Read more...

The recent Bellweather Prize winning novel, Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron, is reviewed by Judy Lim

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Reviews
Click on 'Reviews' to see the full list of this issue's reviews...
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BITE YOUR TONGUE
Francesca Rendle-Short

Bite Your Tongue is part memoir, part fictionalised memories of Australian writer Francesca Rendle-Short, who is trying to make sense of a childhood lived in the overpowering shadow of her mother Angel. Angel was a Christian moral crusader…
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Reviewed by Charlotte Simpson
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HOW TO STOP LOVING SOMEONE
Joan Connor

This book of short stories by award-winning author Joan Connor is a bit like an Oreo cookie: there are many parts to enjoy. If the filling is too sweet, chase it with the plainer, more serious biscuit part. If the chocolate biscuit is too dark, then skim the frosting off with your teeth and …
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Reviewed by Kathleen Ambrogi
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JUDITH'S SISTER
Lisa Tremblay

The nameless narrator (let's call her Miss X) of this engaging rite-of-passage novel is a twelve-year-old Catholic girl growing up in a small rural town in Quebec. Her stoic father works in the timber industry and …
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Reviewed by Dorothy Dudek Vinicombe
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BESIDE THE SEA
Véronique Olmi
Translated from the French by Adriana Hunter

Beside the Sea is a small novel that conforms perfectly to Peirene Press' ambition to publish books that can be read in the same time it takes to watch a film. Despite its brevity, Olmi's book is a powerful examination of the demands of motherhood, and a melancholy look at what it means to love in a frightening world.
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Reviewed by Andy Barnes


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Sudha Balagopal invites readers into the world of South Indian Carnatic music in the seven short stories of her debut collection. Amanda Meale reviews it for us. image Included with this review is a performance by veena virtuoso Nirmala Rajasekar
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