Mandy Wight

#ReadingWales26 : Selected Stories by Rhys Davies-Library of Wales Rhys Davies (1901- 1978) was born in the Rhondda, and though he lived most of his adult life in London, his novels and short stories are set mostly in the pit villages and surrounding countryside o…

I loved this collection of short stories by Rhys Davies read for #ReadingWales26. He's truly a master of the form.
peakreads.wordpress.com/2026/03/11/r...

Returning to New Caledonia- Frapper l’epopee by Alice Zeniter I really enjoyed Alice Zeniter’s prize-winning novel The Art of Losing, so I’ve been looking forward to reading her next book, Frapper l’épopée. All the more so, as it’s set in the French overseas …

I enjoyed Alice Zeniter's latest novel, set in la Nouvelle Caledonie, a Pacific archipelago and French overseas territory, exploring questions of identity and belonging. peakreads.wordpress.com/2026/03/07/r...

The Nights are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar translated by Ruth Martin. In February 2024 I attended a book launch at London’s Goethe Institut where Shida Bazyar and her translator, Ruth Martin, presented her debut novel Sisters in Arms. I really enjoyed this book and w…

So pleased Shida Bazyar's novel about Iran translated by Ruth Martin @dances-with-voles.bsky.social is longlisted for the International Booker prize 2026. It couldn't be more timely. peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/08/08/t...

The Rarest Fruit by Gaёlle Bélem translated by Karen Fleetwood and Laetitia Saint-Loubert, published by Bullaun Press. I’ve got a faible for Bullaun Press, an Irish independent press publishing literature in translation. I’ve reviewed several of their books here on Peak Reads (Forgottenness, Without Waking Up, What…

Find out all about the gorgeous vanilla plant in this fascinating book from @bullaunpress.bsky.social #readindies peakreads.wordpress.com/2026/02/24/t...

Forgottenness by Tanja Maljartschuk, translated by Zenia Tompkins. There are two parallel stories in Tanja Maljartschuk’s novel Forgottenness. It’s the story of Viacheslav Lypynskyi, born in 1882, an important figure in the early 20th century struggle for Ukrainia…

On this, the 4th anniversary of Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine, I’m recommending this book by Tanja Maljartschuk @bullaunpress.bsky.social
peakreads.wordpress.com/2024/03/22/f...

Reminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev by Maxim Gorky, translated from the Russian by Bryan Karetnyk It was the name Tolstoy that drew my attention to this title. I read War and Peace as a young person and it’s one of the great works of world literature that I often think about rereading. This edi…

I read this book for #readindies in fabulous translation by @bskaret.bsky.social peakreads.wordpress.com/2026/02/21/r...

The Hunger of Women by Marosia Castaldi translated from the Italian by Jamie Richards Rosa, the protagonist of this novel, likes to cook. At the start of this first person narrative she makes simple (by Italian standards) meals for her daughter, and neighbour, Tina. We learn she’s r…

I read this for #readindies month and felt rather overwhelmed by the food : peakreads.wordpress.com/2026/02/16/t...

The Door by Magda Szabo This is the first book I’ve read by Hungarian writer Marta Szabó. First published in Hungary in 1987, the novel was translated into English by Len Rix in 2005, and published in this Vintage edition…

This is a compelling account of a relationship between two woman, not to mention a beautifully observed portrait of their beloved dog Viola peakreads.wordpress.com/2026/02/12/t...

Dead and Alive- Essays by Zadie Smith I’ve only dipped my toe into the essay form up till now, the sum total of my essay reading being Jenny Erpenbeck’s Not a Novel, reviewed here at Peak Reads, and A Memoir of My Former Self by Hilary…

I loved this wide-ranging collection of essays by Zadie Smith -the clarity of her thought and writing, peakreads.wordpress.com/2026/02/05/d...

Life in Spite of Everything-Tales from the Ukrainian East by Victoria Donovan. Victoria Donovan first visited the Donbas area in Eastern Ukraine in 2019, and found herself going back there time and again. Originally from Cardiff, she felt some affinity to the landscape in the…

I learned so much about Donbas and Ukraine’s eastern regions from
this wonderful book, thank you @victoriadonovan.bsky.social peakreads.wordpress.com/2026/01/09/l...

The River and the Sea - Asymptote I lived for a few years as a child by the small Franconian river called the Regnitz. We were moved there in 1951, from a camp for Displaced Persons to the four new tower blocks by the river. We were f...

I am so thrilled to be reading Life in Spite of Everything @victoriadonovan.bsky.social and to be learning again about Mariupol and the Azovstal steelworks, first encountered in the work of Natascha Wodin www.asymptotejournal.com/fiction/the-...

Mother Mary Comes To Me by Arundhati Roy Arundhati Roy’s most recent book is a memoir of her mother, Mary Roy, who died in 2022. Mary Roy was a formidable and extraordinary woman, who founded and led a progressive school in Kerala, India,…

This wonderful memoir is definitely one of my top books of 2025:
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/12/20/m...

German Lit Month 2025 Week 4-Das Liebespaar des Jahrhunderts-The Couple of the Century by Julia Schoch. This week is supposed to be about writers from the former GDR. I can’t really categorise Julia Schoch as such. She was in her mid-teens at the time of reunification, and so has lived most of her li…

It's week 4 of #GermanLitMonth2025 peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/11/24/g...

German Lit Month 2025-Mann vom Meer-Thomas Mann, Man of the Sea, by Volker Weidermann. Here I am again, reading around the great Thomas Mann, rather than tackling the work itself. But I couldn’t resist this book, recommended by danares.mag-blog, as I very much enjoyed Volker Weiderma…

Week 3 of #GermanLitMonth and I'm reading Volker Weidermann on Thomas Mann: peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/11/20/m...

German Lit Month 2025- Week 3- Thomas Mann. Der Zauberberg, die ganze Geschichte by Norman Ohler. It feels like Thomas Mann has been on my mind this whole past year—not surprisingly, as 2025 is the 150th anniversary since his birth, and readers have been looking again at the man and his work. F…

It's Thomas Mann week in #germanlitmonth and I've read Norman Ohler's book on 'The Magic Mountain'

peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/11/17/g...

The Garden Against Time by Olivia Laing. Contrary to what the title suggests, this is not just a book about gardens or gardening. It is certainly both those things. But it’s also an exploration of cultural, literary and political ideas ar…

I loved this book about gardens and so much more : peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/11/10/t...

German Lit Month 2025- Week 2- The City-Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman by FC Delius, translated by Jamie Bulloch What better book to suit this week’s German Lit Month theme than this short novella, set in Rome? It takes place over one hour in January 1943 and is an inner monologue told by a young woman walkin…

In week 2 of #germanlitmonth it's all about The City. I've read this beautiful novella set in Rome by FCDelius translated by Jamie Bulloch :
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/11/10/g...

German Literature Month XV- Inheritance ( Erbgut) by Marlen Hobrack Many of us in mid-life go through the sad business of clearing out a deceased parent’s home. Few will encounter a challenge as overwhelming as that faced by Marlen Hobrack when her mother died: she…

My first book for #germanlitmonth. I've not followed the suggested schedule as this was calling me from the bookcase and I'm so pleased to have read it: peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/11/03/g...

Good and Evil and Other Stories by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell. I’ve admired Samanta Schweblin’s previous writing—the novella Fever Dream, the short story collection A Mouthful of Birds, then the novel Little Eyes and the short stories Seven Empty Houses both r…

I've just read the latest unsettling collection from Samanta Schweblin:
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/10/20/g...

L’Art de Perdre-The Art of Losing by Alice Zeniter translated by Frank Wyne. This multi-generational family novel tells the story of a family’s transition from Algeria to France in 1962 when Algeria gained independence from France. The novel spans the period from the early …

I can't remember what put me onto this novel but having read it I'm a dedicated Alice Zeniter fan and eagerly waiting for more work of hers to be translated @terribleman.com peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/10/16/l...

Endling by Maria Reva This engaging novel, long listed for the Booker Prize 2025, tells the story of three women working for the Romeo meets Yulia Bridal Agency in Ukraine. They meet just days before the full-scale inva…

'Endling' by Maria Reva is about snails and brides and how to write about war. It's a great and a sobering read :
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/09/28/e...

To Calais in Ordinary Time by James Meek. I’m not a great reader of historical fiction, though I hugely enjoyed Daniel Kehlmann’s Tyll,  and Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy. Those novels were set in the Thirty Years’ War of the 1600…

The world of 1348 is not as far away as you might think: peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/09/16/t...

The Life, Old Age and Death of a Working-Class Woman by Didier Eribon, translated by Michael Lucey. Didier Eribon is probably best known to Anglophone readers for his memoir Return to Reims. There, he writes about his re-engagement with his family after decades of estrangement, in which he moved …

I've just read this moving account of Didier Eribon's mother in old age-her time in a nursing home, their relationship, his appreciation of what she did for him: peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/09/05/t...

I’ve read that- loved it! Any other recommendations?

Me too! What do you recommend next?

The City and the House by Natalia Ginzburg translated by Dick Davis-Women in Translation Month 2025. I have to say that when I started reading this novel for Women in Translation Month, I did think the unthinkable: can one have a little too much of Natalia Ginzburg? It’s been, after all, barely tw…

Sorry-just one day late for August's #Womenintranslation25 month- Natalia Ginzburg's last novel: peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/09/01/t...

Feet in Chains by Kate Roberts, translated by Katie Gramich, read for Women in Translation Month 2025. The Welsh writer Kate Roberts was born in Caernarfonshire in 1891 and brought up in the slate-quarrying area of North-West Wales. She knew well, therefore, the landscape and the world of the quarry…

I enjoyed this translation from Welsh of Kate Roberts’ Feet in Chains read for #WITMonth2025
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/08/28/f...

Currently - Germany: United and Divided - BBC Sounds Historian Katja Hoyer investigates East German disillusion 35 years after reunification.

Katja Hoyer visits Guben in East Germany to see if differences still persist between East and West
http//:www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002hkw3?partner=uk.co.bbc

The Heart by Maylis de Kerangal, translated by Sam Taylor. I chose this novel for WITMonth because I loved Eastbound by Maylis de Kerangal, translated by Jessica Moore. The Heart touched me even more and in a more profound place. It’s not a romance, as yo…

I've just read this moving novel for #WITMonth in stunning translation by Sam Taylor: peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/08/24/t...

I visited Hay last week and just had to stock up on Welsh writing.