Un cerc în iarbă - Oek de Jong

My rating: 4 out of 5 Book review: Although it took me some days to finish this book, I enjoyed every bit of it (except, maybe, the political stuff). It is such a dense prose that I couldn't read more than a chapter at a time, as it claimed quite an effort from my brain cells. I had to dwell on...

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The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton

My rating: 2 out of 5 Book review: The Forgotten Garden was rather disappointing, as I was sure that I would love this book. Secrets, mystery, a hidden garden...these are ingredients that I love. Just not the most fortunate use for them in this plot.  For one thing, this book should...

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The Noodle Maker - Ma Jian

My rating: 4 out of 5 Book review: The Noodle Maker was a pleasant surprise for me. It consists of several loosely interconnected short stories,  sometimes with a touch of surreal, often with a delicious dark humor, and mostly absurd. A satire of the Chinese society affected by the Open...

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Post Office - Charles Bukowski

My rating: 3 out of 5 Book review: Post Office was Bukowski's first novel, written at the age of 49. However, this was not his first work - throughout the years, he had published poetry and short stories. Yet, only at 49 he decided to dedicate himself to writing and finally quit working at the...

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The Palace of Dreams - Ismail Kadaré

My rating: 5 out of 5 Book review:  I wonder why so few people have read this novel, because it's quite amazing. I can't say that it's completely original, because it reminded me of Kafka (The Castle) and Saramago (All the Names), but imagining an institution where people's dreams are analyzed......

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As God Commands - Niccolò Ammaniti

My rating: 5 out of 5 Book review: This was quite a powerful story, like a tornado sweeping off the outside world and leaving nothing but me and this book. At first, the violence made it a little hard to read (I was not sure if I would finish it), but eventually I was so immersed in the story...

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The Tenant - Roland Topor

Rating: 5 out of 5 Book review: The Tenant or The Chimerical Lodger is still vivid in my mind - the book made quite a powerful impression on me. Although the beginning was rather slow, with depictions of mundane activities which seemed redundant, the strange happenings were not long overdue and...

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House of the Sleeping Beauties - Yasunari Kawabata

Rating: 4 out of 5 Book review: I value the books whose plot has managed to stay etched in my mind. Some of the novels I've read are pleasant, but they are soon forgotten. The ones that shape me and teach me are the most valued, of course; but I keep a special place for those that I remember....

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The Story of My Baldness - Marek van der Jagt

My rating: 4 out of 5 Book review: From the first page, I said to myself: I'll love this novel! Which was almost true. This is the kind of book that you browse in a bookstore and immediately decide to buy (if you are not averse to coming-of-age novels, that is). The writing is juicy, witty and...

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Under the Glacier - Halldór Laxness

My rating: 5 out of 5 Book review: Here's an Icelandic writer of which I've heard nothing about, despite the fact that he won the Nobel prize for literature. I found the book by chance, the synopsis sounded interesting enough, so I began reading and... helplessly fell in love with the novel.  This...

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