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Inadvertently, I‘ve read several books about traumatic childhood sexual abuse this year. All have been absolutely heartbreaking and horrific. I‘m so glad survivors are able to name their abusers (often family) and bring awareness, and in many cases justice. Sad Tiger is different for me because it is translated, originally published in France. Sinno also examines literature, namely Lolita, as a way to make sense of the trauma. Graphic, triggering.

This is an autobiographical story about rape. From a very young age the French author was raped by her stepfather. It took her years to speak up and she still is so scarred. Neige Sinno makes perfectly clear why such an experience will always stick with you. She uses many literary works to emphasize her feelings.
It is very hard to read but I couldn‘t look away. Highly recommended with a huge trigger warning.

📸 Korakuen, Okayama, Japan

Powerful memoir exploring the authors sexual abuse as a child. I continue to not be a fan of memoirs, for some reason they never land for me personally, thus the “so-so” from me. But it is interesting to hear from a survivor about her thoughts and emotions while going through the abuse and the court trial many years later. #nba #translated #memoir

It‘s National Book Awards shortlist day! Though they call them finalists, but whatevs. Here‘s the shortlist for translated literature! Though I have read half of the longlist, I‘ve only read the tagged from this shortlist. My hold for The Remembered Soldier literally came in while I was making this graphic. 😂

My Storygraph recap for September! Not as much reading as I would have liked (life gets busy sometimes). Two children's books in my top three, and Sad Tiger, a non-fiction book about Neige Sinno's experience and inner thoughts as a victim of child abuse.

This book I didn‘t want to pick up quickly became a book I could not put down, as Neige details her 7 years of sexual abuse and rape and the hands of her stepfather. The writing it superb and the balance is excellent, as she pulls in the aftermath, the trial, and evaluations of literary works dealing with child rape. I‘m halfway through the #NBAlonglist for translated lit and this is my clear winner thus far as well as on my best of the year list.

Excellent testimony in which Neige Sinno reflects on her experience as a victim of sexual abuse as a child. What happened, her attempts to understand what happened, how to write about it, how she looked for answers in literature, the continuous impact on her life, etc. This book contains a lot of thoughts, very well explored, on a very difficult subject. Very interesting!