Welcome to Litsy!

#AlphabetGame @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
Letter E

A poetic, uncompromising story about four young people growing up poor in Port Louis, Mauritius. The underbelly of a seemingly idyllic tourist paradise. Translated from the French by Jeffrey Zuckerman.

TW: Sexual violence
I started this book on a bus ride and I was quickly drawn in this unfamiliar, foreign world with an intensity that made me oblivious to the bustling chaos around me. Although, it is written from a young adult's perspective, the writing is deep enough to make you forget that. The characters are overwrought with struggle of staying afloat in a leaden world. Dichotomies are littered throughout the pages. 👇🏽

August is Women in Translation Month! I‘m going to attempt to post about a different book each day. 📚
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This is a hidden gem that deserves more attention It‘s four interwoven monologues from teens from an impoverished neighborhood in Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius. It will kick your heart in the teeth in the best way. I am so glad I read it. It came out in 2016 from those rock stars at Deep Vellum. #womenintranslationmonth🖤📚🖤

"Her eyes are so deep and their echoes so metallic that I have trouble meeting her gaze. They go beyond this house, beyond Port Louis, beyond the present. Her eyes see into tomorrow, and tomorrow doesn't exist."

"All around, the doors shut with the violence of a maimed laugh."

"I take her balled-up fists and open them up. Her hand is studded with small red crescents, as if the new moon had trampled over it."

"Miracle of my life. The flame trees are in bloom. Thousands of red lips have gorged on the tree, then blossomed all at once. The lychee trees disappear under their fruit. An almost indecent explosion of color, as if shutters have opened onto a body of pure light."

"One day we wake up and the future has disappeared. The sky hides the windows. Night makes its way into our bodies and refuses to leave."

Mind blowingly good. This reads like poetry. Short, insightful and raw as only the hardest truths can be.

Eve is a child and then later a teenager in a poor and violent place - thin and vulnerable and alone, humanity batters and abuses her. We see her story, her community from her perspective and three others, all of whom are in peril. Devi understands surviving when life is rock hard - this is a unique perspective on poverty and victimhood
*TW*

#bookmail

A delivery from Abebooks - exciting because I couldn‘t find these in NZ or new online. I love this site - and a note if you‘re in the Southern Hemisphere - filter your search to UK bookshops because the postage is so much cheaper than from the US.

@batsy when I first started following you on GR I noted some of your 5 star reads to add to my TBR - so these are two of them. Truly #blameitonbatsy 😂

We had the best time collaborating with Jenny of the @ReadingEnvy podcast. We chatted about some of our favorite books of the year, including some that didn't make it on to the podcast. It's the perfect wrap up to your end of year reading. Check it out.

https://www.readingwomenpodcast.com/blog/2017/11/29/ep-345-reading-envy

Congrats on your Litsy milestone, @BarbaraBB and thank you for the #giveaway! This by Mauritian writer Ananda Devi (translated from French by Jeffrey Zuckerman) was one of my favourites that I read in early 2017 and it still remains one of the best I've read this year. I wrote a longer review here http://www.full-stop.net/2017/03/28/reviews/subashini-navaratnam/eve-out-of-her-...

Thank you for the chance to win some books! 💜

A different read for me. Educational in the way that it introduced me to Mauritius and to a Mauritian author. 4 teenagers from an impoverished part of Port Louis trying to survive.

Excited about this one. Kamil from WhatKamilReads brought it to my attention via booktube. Mauritian Author👍🏽

The best book I've read in 2017 so far. The rhythm and lyricism of her prose, the description of lives you rarely see in what's usually praised in "serious literature", and the fierce, memorable characters. The images in this book have stayed with me. #TGIFGiveaway

Thanks @Liberty

So hard to choose the #BestofMay. I rated 10 books (out of 30) with 5 stars in Goodreads this month, which I will will link to in comments. Eve Out of Her Ruins is probably the one that will have the longest impact on me. @RealLifeReading

I still don't understand this power I have. My hair is so wild that all of my combs break trying to tame it. The combs are afraid of my hair. The rest of me is a plank, with outlines of shapes and occasional curves, but nothing terribly attractive. My features are bunched up in the middle of my face, which is shaped like a triangle. I look like a comic-strip mouse.
Maybe that's why men set traps for me. Maybe that's why I fall into them.

The taste of her mouth wasn't like those of men. It was so gentle that I closed my eyes and savoured it like candied papaya. I inhaled it deep into my mouth.
Outside the purview of men, we became happy, playful, for a few minutes. A warm perfume wafted from her navel. We teetered on tiptoes. It was so strange. We were smiling like drowned souls finally at peace. We danced on a tightrope that stretched from her heart to mine.
#queerbooks

Went into my local indie, opened a random book to a random page, and was drawn in immediately. I love when that happens ❤️

As far as I can tell, the book features the interrelated stories of four characters who live on the island nation of Mauritius. I can't wait to dive in!

Alternating POV between four young teenagers who are so real my heart breaks. The poverty and violence of their home, the slums of Mauritius, brands them all, but in unique ways: these are individuals. Knowing them has enlarged me. Gorgeous prose, translated from French by Jeffrey Zuckerman, lightens this fierce, short novel. #queerbooks #translation #SouthAsianDiaspora #lgbtq

I wipe my neck. The coarse feel of it surprises me. The lack of hair makes me feel more naked than ever. Then I remember: my mother sheared it off. When I saw myself in the mirror, I saw that I had a lioness's head. I had a mane of hunger.

I am Saad, and I am my name. I enter sadness's downpour. I am the only person who can walk under a cloud of his own name.
[...]
It's raining. It's raining in my head. It's raining everywhere in my secrets. You could say I'm crying, but that isn't true.

Afternoon reading. ❤️📚🐾 #catsoflitsy

#womenintranslation #aprilbookshowers
@RealLifeReading
Another thanks to litsy, I would never have picked this up without seeing it on here, especially @shawnmooney divine posts. It was awesome.

@shawnmooney I was so excited to get this all the way from Japan today! Thank you so much! People in the Litsy community are truly remarkable 🤗

(I'm just not over this book!)

Distinct voices, a beautiful translation, asking important questions about identity inside poverty. I'd love to see this one on the Man Booker International Prize list (where half the money goes to the translator.) Also checks off another African location - Mauritius, with a native female author!

While there were many stand-alone sentences that made me gasp and/or tugged on my heart, I did not like this book. The two central female characters moved me, but the characters of the men were incoherent. The writing was my biggest problem: the accumulation of emphatically poetic declaration after emphatically poetic declaration in lieu of more standard narration and characterization repulsed me by the end. I did finish, but unenjoyably so.

(All the words)

"the laughter of women is laughter in this lost place, laughter that opens up a small part of paradise so we don't drown ourselves."

Artwork by Mauritian artist "guimero64" - more of this artist's work can be seen here: http://guimero64.deviantart.com/art/Return-518836433.

This movie looks to be directly related to this book

So many passages in here that are just amazing. Marked them all to go back too, when I've got over the story.
Sad, heart-breaking tale that really hits a punch for such a short book.
@shawnmooney

There are so many wonderful quotes in this book.

Oooh, so interesting! Apparently, de Chazal (1902-1981) was a Mauritian "writer, painter, and visionary."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_de_Chazal

#currentlyreading thanks to @shawnmooney prompting!
Ohhh, the prose in this so far.

Short but packs a punch. This book about four teens living in a rough Mauritius neighborhood focuses heavily on themes of hopelessness and gendered violence. I was surprised how much was packed in this short book. The language is poetic.
Why I read it: #readharder 5000 miles away, and @shawnmooney suggested a little read along. I'm glad I picked it up!

This book is a gut punch.

Weekend goals @shawnmooney

"The urban night swells, elastic, around me. The salty air from the Caudan waterfront scrapes my wounds and my skin, but I go on."