Adventures in Reading

Readers may be interested in the following books which have been added to stock at Galway City Library:

Passion Perfect, by Annie Ernaux
Annie Ernaux has written eloquently about loss. Now she writes of another kind of loss, the loss of herself in a love and then the loss of the love itself. In spare, beautiful language, she writes of the end of an affair, the coming to terms with it’s close and with the person she has become because of it. A stunning story, despite its detachment and the careful exclusions of any excess, that pulsates with the very passion Ernaux so truthfully describes. Small, but abundantly wise.

Antichrista, by Amelie Nothomb
With their hoodies and their attitude, teenagers have become the terrifying, foul-mouthed behemoths of adult society. Blanche is just such a teenager. She is bad at friendship and good with books. Enter Christa, another precocious 16-year-old, but one with social skills. How can Blanche possibly interest her? Amélie Nothomb is an artist like no other. She emerges from the multitude thanks to the perfume of her authenticity, her audacity, her conscientiousness and a humility which for her is a mark of honour.

The Lost Grove, by Rafael Alberti
Autobiography of Rafael Alberti, writer and poet, whose life and work remained interconnected with profound social and political change that occurred in Spain throughout the 20th Century. This book evokes all the joys, the sorrows, the embarrassments, and the longings of a boy growing up, and it unashamedly presents all the pleasant and all the bitter reflections of a man looking back on himself as a youth. By turns reflective and confessional, Alberti's reminiscences recreate his strict Jesuit upbringing, adolescence and struggles as both painter and poet.