March 2014 Wrap-Up

March is, of course, Independent Foreign Fiction Prize month, and once the longlist was announced, I leapt straight into it (luckily, I'd already finished seven of them...).  Still, with enforced waits owing to library lists and delivery times from overseas, it was a good job I had a few other books to tide me over ;)

The stats?  This way...

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Total Books Read: 17
Year-to-Date: 34

New: 12

Rereads: 5

From the Shelves: 6
Review Copies: 7

From the Library: 3

On the Kindle: 3 (2 review copies)

Novels: 11

Novellas: 3
Short Stories: 2
Non-Fiction: 1

Non-English Language: 14 (5 Japanese, 2 Korean, Russian, Swedish, Icelandic, Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew, French, Spanish)

In Original Language: 0

Aussie Author Challenge: 0 (0/3)

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Books reviewed in March were:

1) Ekaterini by Marija Knežević
2) The Good Life Elsewhere by Vladimir Lorchenkov
3) No One Writes Back by Jang Eun-jin
4) Butterflies in November by Auður Ava Olafsdóttir
5) Captain of the Steppe by Oleg Pavlov
6) The Dark Road by Ma Jian
7) Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain-Fournier

Tony's Turkey for March is:
Auður Ava Olafsdóttir's Butterflies in November

While Butterflies in November wasn't an awful book, it simply wasn't what I would have expected from one on the IFFP longlist - slightly disappointing.

Tony's Recommendation for March is:

Alain-Fournier's Le Grand Meaulnes

Not many reviews to choose from in March, and to be honest there weren't really many strong candidates.  Honorable mentions go to Vladimir Lorchenkov and (especially) Jang Eun-jin, but Le Grand Meaulnes was really in a class of its own this month...

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Looking ahead to April, there'll be the rest of my IFFP reviews (although the reading should all be done by now); in fact, there'll be a lot of posts going up as I read a heap of books in March.  Something to look forward to, then ;)