Brainstorming
Tonight, on the eve of International Women's Day, I decided to turn to my own bookshelves and take some inventory. (First problem: I need to buy more bookshelves.) I knew I wasn't understocked when it came to books by women writers, but I suspected my shelves were predominantly stocked with books written in English, or, at their most exotic, works translated from European languages.
As it turns out, predominantly doesn't begin to cover it. I am a certified bookaholic, but tonight I was dismayed to discover that my addiction has primarily consisted of devouring books written almost exclusively by Western writers. (I am currently enraptured by Elizabeth Jane Howard's Cazalet Chronicles) Given my deeply held belief that we are not only the stories we tell, but the stories we read, this represents nothing less than a gaping hole in my understanding of this world. I need to read more books written by women who live in places other than Europe and the U.S. And I need you to help me get started.
So today, in honor of International Women's Day, please post your favorite book written by a woman writer from a country other than your own on your She Writes page, and help me write my shopping list. (I'm going to start be revisiting Jean Casella's fabulous blogpost, "Lost (and Found) In Translation: Top Ten Books by International Women Writers," and by picking up the anthology co-edited by new She Writer Elizabeth Nunez, Stories from Blue Latitudes: Carribbean Women Writers At Home and Abroad). Tag it "international women", include it in your "what brings you here" feed, Tweet it, Facebook it, and through your example inspire everyone in your world to do the same.
Most powerful of all, however, if you can, do one, wonderful thing more: join me in buying a book, or borrowing a book (or a whole bunch of books) written by a woman from a country different from your own. She Writes has members from more than thirty countries, including Egypt, Columbia, Mexico, Iran, the Netherlands, Germany and Qatar. We are international in our membership, and tomorrow we should be international in our spirit and our actions. I know that many other actions will be taking place tomorrow to honor the day -- please share your participation in them with our community, too. Days like tomorrow are good days. They are days that raise our consciousness and call us to act. I, for one, am looking forward to connecting with women around the world by supporting their efforts as writers, and learning from their stories. I hope you will, too.
Great idea! Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels, Canadian poet.
i recommend Let Me Tell You Where I've Been: New Writing by Women of the Iranian Diaspora, edited by Persis M. Karim.
Great idea, Kamy, thanks!
I would like to recommend a couple of older novels (but they're still among the best I've ever read):
- Fiona Kidman (New Zealand), "The Book of Secrets"
- Arundhati Roy (India), "The God of Small Things"
plus some very inspiring autobiographies:
- Fiona Kidman (New Zealand), "At the End of Darwin Road" (part 1), "Beside the Dark Pool" (part 2)
- Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Somalia/Netherlands), "Infidel"
- Rebiya Kadeer (Uigur Region, China), "Dragon Fighter: One Woman's Epic Struggle for Peace with China"
Woodpecker Pointby Carmel Bird
Anita Amirrezvani's The Blood of Flowers, Anchee Min's Red Azalea, Edwidge Danticat's Eyes, Breath, Memory and Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John.
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"Now They Call Me Infidel" by Nonie Darwish is an amazing book.
Cassandra by Christa Wolf
Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie
I guess being French, I would need to recommend books by other women than French women... So first of all,The Inheritance of Loss, by Kieran Desai. But I agree with Marjorie about Simone Schwarz-Bart, although I only read her in French...
One of my favorite books by a woman who was not born in the United States (and who wrote in French) was Bridge of Beyond by Simone Schwartz-Bart published in the late 1960s, I believe.
Whenever I mentioned the title and author's last name to learned professors in my MFA program (men), they asked: You mean, Andre? I said: No, I mean Simone, his wife from Guadeloupe. Although it has had its critics, I think it illustrates superbly the strength and complexity of women.
"In the Country of my Skull" by Antjie Krog -- an unforgettable and unrelenting up-close view of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa.
I recommend Wislawa Szymborska's poetry if you haven't yet read her!
Will recommend two books of poetry: Ramblings Through the Attic of Thought by E. Joyce Moore available on Amazon, and Space for Fragile Things by Tzynya Pinchback an e-book http:/
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. A MUST!
First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung ~ she lives in D.C. now, but her story takes place far from the United States...if you haven't read it already...you are quite the book junkie too, so you may have!
No More Room For Burials, by Feryal Ali Gauhar, from Lahore, Pakistan. A moving and illuminating novel about the borders between Pakistan and Afghanistan and the effects of the war on women. Soon to be published in USA by Akashic Press.
Chandra Talpade Mohanty's Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity
The Bone People, by Keri Hulme, a Maori writer from New Zealand. A first novel, it won the 1985 Booker Prize. Unforgettable!
I would recommend Ines of My Soul, by Isabelle Allende. A fantastic account of one woman's critical role in 16th-century Chile.
I am a huge fan of the German holocaust victim, Etty Hillesum, whose diaries kept during wartime when she was in Holland, were turned into a book called "An Interrupted Life." This is a large-spirited, life-loving young girl on the fast track to non-denominational sainthood. She got there. You will love her.