All posts by She Seeks Serene

My Journey of Reimagining Life, Love and Education

Books: 2022 Booker Prize Shortlist Announced

The Shortlist

Heaven

Told through the eyes of a 14-year-old boy subjected to relentless bullying, this is a haunting novel of the threat of violence that can stalk our teenage years. Translated by Samuel Bett and David Boyd.

By Mieko Kawakami

Translated by Samuel Bett David Boyd

Elena Knows

A unique story that interweaves crime fiction with intimate tales of morality and the search for individual freedom. Translated by Frances Riddle.

By Claudia Piñeiro

Translated by Frances Riddle

A New Name: Septology VI-VII

Jon Fosse delivers both a transcendent exploration of the human condition and a radically ‘other’ reading experience – incantatory, hypnotic, and utterly unique. Translated by Damion Searls.

By Jon Fosse

Translated by Damion Searls

Tomb of Sand

An urgent yet engaging protest against the destructive impact of borders, whether between religions, countries or genders. Translated by Daisy Rockwell.

By Geetanjali Shree

Translated by Daisy Rockwell

The Books of Jacob

Olga Tokarczuk’s portrayal of Enlightenment Europe on the cusp of precipitous change, searching for certainty and longing for transcendence. Translated by Jennifer Croft.

By Olga Tokarczuk

Translated by Jennifer Croft

Cursed Bunny

Bora Chung presents a genre-defying collection of short stories, which blur the lines between magical realism, horror and science fiction. Translated by Anton Hur.

By Bora Chung

Translated by Anton Hur

2022 Pen/Faulkner: Rabih Alameddine’s ‘The Wrong End Of The Telescope’

WINNER OF THE 2022 PEN/FAULKNER AWARD FOR FICTION

Mina Simpson, a Lebanese doctor, arrives at the infamous Moria refugee camp on Lesbos, Greece, after being urgently summoned for help by her friend who runs an NGO there. Alienated from her family except for her beloved brother, Mina has avoided being so close to her homeland for decades. But with a week off work and apart from her wife of thirty years, Mina hopes to accomplish something meaningful, among the abundance of Western volunteers who pose for selfies with beached dinghies and the camp’s children. Soon, a boat crosses bringing Sumaiya, a fiercely resolute Syrian matriarch with terminal liver cancer. Determined to protect her children and husband at all costs, Sumaiya refuses to alert her family to her diagnosis. Bonded together by Sumaiya’s secret, a deep connection sparks between the two women, and as Mina prepares a course of treatment with the limited resources on hand, she confronts the circumstances of the migrants’ displacement, as well as her own constraints in helping them.

Preview: New Scientist Magazine – April 9, 2022

COVER STORIES

  • FEATURES An extreme form of encryption could solve big data’s privacy problem
  • FEATURES The replication crisis has spread through science – can it be fixed?
  • FEATURES How fossil footprints are revealing the joy and fear of Stone Age life

Views: ‘Primal Survivor – Escape The Amazon’ (2022)

Survivalist Hazen Audel embarks on a risky journey to escape the Amazon rainforest and travel 500 miles to the Atlantic coast. Of course his voyage won’t be easy and he encounters some of the jungle’s most fascinating and frightening wildlife. From an Anteater and Anaconda to a Tarantula and Tailless Whip Scorpion, this thrilling journey will be one to remember. Join Hazen on this remarkable adventure in Primal Survivor: Escape The Amazon, premieres Thursday 14th April at 9pm, on National Geographic UK.

Travel & Culture: The Bordeaux Wine Region

The world’s finest wines, sweeping vineyards and fine food couple with a river valley dotted with castles. We sample the best Bordeaux then cruise the lovely Dordogne and Lot rivers with stops at chateaux, ancient watermills, and perched villages.

The wine regions of Bordeaux are a large number of wine growing areas, differing widely in size and sometimes overlapping, which lie within the overarching wine region of Bordeaux, centred on the city of  Bordeaux  and covering the whole area of the  Gironde  department  of  Aquitaine.

The Bordeaux region is naturally divided by the Gironde Estuary into a Left Bank area which includes the Médoc and Graves and a Right Bank area which includes the Libournais, Bourg and Blaye. The Médoc is itself divided into Haut-Médoc (the upstream or southern portion) and Bas-Médoc (the downstream or northern portion, often referred to simply as “Médoc”).

Front Covers: Romeing Magazine – April 2022