The Placa Reial is one of my favourite spots in Barcelona. I’m finishing Teresa Solana’s A Shortcut to Paradise. Some scenes take place there. I took this picture in May 2006.
Month: November 2010
Once finished my participation in the 2010 Global Reading Challenge, I welcome the 2011 Global Reading Challenge
The 2011 Global Reading Challenge is HERE. I have signed for the Medium Challenge. This Level requires me to read two novels from each of these continents in the course of 2011: Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, North America, South America (please include Central America where it is most convenient for you) and the Seventh Continent (here any participant can either choose Antarctica or his own ‘seventh’ setting, e.g. the sea, the space, a supernatural/paranormal world, history, the future – you name it). Try to find novels from fourteen different countries or states. From these pages I would like to encourage every reader to participate, it’s great fun and you can choose the level that may suit you best.
At this stage I’m trying to keep this challenge manageable in order to be able to reduce my TBR pile. I don’t know yet which books to choose, but from my shelves I can see, among others, at least:
Africa
– Devil’s Peak by Deon Meyer (South Africa)
– Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey ( Ghana)
Asia
– Inspector Sing Investigates: A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder by Shamini Flint (Malaysia)
– Murder at Mt Fuji by Shizuko Natsuki (Japan)
Australasia
– The Broken Shore by Peter Temple (Australia)
– Cemetery Lake by Paul Cleave (New Zealand)
Europe
– Entanglement by Zygmunt Miloszewski (Poland)
– Three Seconds by Roslund and Hellström (Sweden)
North America
– The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow (United Sates and Mexico)
– Bury Me Deep by Megan Abbot (United States)
South America
– The Lost Manuscript by Rubem Fonseca (Brazil)
– No One Loves a Policeman by Guillermo Orsi (Argentina)
The Seventh Continent
Here I don’t have many in my shelves, but I have some historical crime fiction books in my Wish List.
Antonio Ungar, Colombian writer
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Tres ataúdes blancos (Three White Coffins), a thriller set in a fictitious South America country called Miranda, by Colombian writer Antonio Ungar has won this year the XXVIII Premio Herralde de Novela.
More information in Anagrama Editorial, Revista de Letras and Wikipedia (in Spanish).
From the information I got it might be a good idea to keep track of him, but I have not seen any review of this book yet. He might be living in Manchester now-a-days.
2010 Global Reading Challenge – Wrap-up Post
I’ve made extremist in the 2010 Global Reading Challenge hosted by Dorte at DJ’S Krimiblog with the technical assistance of Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise. I’ve read three novels from each of these continents in 2010: Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, North America (incl. Central America), South America, two novels which are set in Antarctica plus a ‘wildcard’ novel (a novel from a place or period new to me). On top of that I restricted myself to crime fiction books from new-to-me authors, many of whom I wouldn’t have read otherwise. Dorte thank you very much for this terrific idea, it was great fun. This is the list of my 21 books:
Africa:
1. A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley (Botswana)
2. Like Clockwork by Margie Orford (South Africa)
3. Bait by Nick Brownlee (Kenya)
Asia:
4. The Gigolo Murder by Mehmet Murat Somer (Turkey)
5. Out by Natsuo Kirino (Japan)
6. Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong (China)
Australasia:
7. Dead Point by Peter Temple (Australia)
8. Overkill by Vanda Symon (New Zealand)
9. Gunshot Road by Adrian Hyland (Australia)
Europe:
10. Death Rites by Alicia Giménez- Bartlett (Spain)
11. Don’t Look Back by Karin Fossum (Norway)
12. Basic Shareholder by Petros Márkaris (Greece)
North America:
13. Havana Gold by Leonardo Padura (Cuba)
14. What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman (USA)
15. A Sweet Scent of Death by Guillermo Arriaga (Mexico)
South America:
16. Red April by Santiago Roncagliolo (Peru)
17. Thursday Night Widows by Claudia Piñeiro (Argentina)
18. Blood of the Wicked by Leighton Gage (Brazil)
Antarctica
19. Purgatory Road by Bob Reiss
20. In Cold Pursuit by Sarah Andrews
Wildcard
21. City of Silver by Annamaria Alfieri (Potosí 1650, now Bolivia)
Luz de Amanecer
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Reading City of Silver came to my mind a song I heard in the early seventies to Los Calchakis, a group of people who fled their countries (Paraguay, Chile and Argentina). The song is ‘Luz de Amanecer’ (Light of Dawn) by composer Carlos Ayala. It reads: ‘Voy subiendo a tu estatura, minero boliviano…, chicha que chicha, chicha mala, otros ya duermen tú trabajas, tu forma se gasta como una esperanza, coqueando, coqueando lo vas pasando. Pero un tierno amanecer te está esperando, minero boliviano, cuando despiertes tendrás tu paga. Coqueando, coqueando lo vas pasando. Coqueando y coqueando estás esperando tu libertad’.
A Crime is Afoot 