Claire McAlpine 📚
banner
clairewords.bsky.social
Claire McAlpine 📚
@clairewords.bsky.social
Reads, Reviews at Word by Word
Enjoys women in translation, Irish Lit, Nature Writing, Creative Non-fiction
Adoptee
In France via London via NZ of Ireland, Scotland.

www.clairemcalpine.com
"a quiet novel of beauty focused on character, suffused with a sense of place, set in the countryside & Zanzibar’s old town.
Gurnah makes mild commentary on the destructive influence of tourism & white savourism on Tanzanian & Zanzibari life & culture.."

@hararereview.bsky.social

wp.me/pfI155-169
Theft x Abdulrazak Gurnah
304 pp. March 18, 2025, Bloomsbury Publishing/Riverhead Books. Fiction. Karim is born out of a loveless marriage. His mother Raya consents to marrying a much older man to protect her family’s honou…
wp.me
November 9, 2025 at 6:24 AM
With the winner announced Monday 10 Nov, I gather thoughts on Flashlight by #SusanChoi

An eye-opening, consciousness raising novel of cross cultural marriage, complex identity, ambiguous nationality and those who take advantage of one to educate the other.

📚💙

clairemcalpine.com/2025/11/08/f...
Flashlight by Susan Choi
As I mentioned in the Booker Prize shortlist post, this is one of the two shortlisted novels I’m reading before the winner announcement on Nov 10. Cross Cultural Relationships, Identity and B…
clairemcalpine.com
November 8, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Reposted by Claire McAlpine 📚
Finished this incredible novel.

At times it was like reading 2 different books, the 1st half was multicultural domestic fiction, while the 2nd half was suspenseful, true crime, as the characters diverged into separate timelines.

Not surprised to find a bibliography at the end. Loved it!
November 3, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Reposted by Claire McAlpine 📚
My new blog post on one of the best books I've read this year - INDEPENDENT PEOPLE by Haldór Laxness. Translated from the Icelandic by J.A. Thompson. 🐑❄️👻
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/11/07/i...
Independent People – Haldór Laxness (tr. J. A. Thompson)
Two years ago, I read and loved Salka Valka, the novel that introduced me to the magic of Haldór Laxness and found a place on My Best Books of 2023 list. Regarded as one of the greatest writers of …
readersretreat2017.wordpress.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:54 AM
Reposted by Claire McAlpine 📚
Artist Helen Ahpornsiri creates intricate collage artworks created with real pressed flowers and leaves. #WomensArt #Autumn #Fall
November 6, 2025 at 5:18 AM
Reposted by Claire McAlpine 📚
Great review here of Djinns by #FatmaAydemir

"I was struck by how powerfully the novel was capturing the inner struggles of Kurdish-Turkish immigrant who was at the end of his migration journey in Germany towards permanent return to his home country in Turkey."

nfaydh.blogspot.com/2025/09/book...
Book Review: Fatma Aydemir’s Djinns. Migration, Identity, and generational memory
A friend recommended and lent me her copy of Fatma Aydemir’s Djinns  . Once I started, I was struck by how powerfully the novel was captur...
nfaydh.blogspot.com
November 4, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Reposted by Claire McAlpine 📚
14 titles have been longlisted for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2025 chosen from 145 entries in 34 languages.

A mix of genres on the list, 10 languages, 2 Nobel Prize winners, poetry, fiction, biography, short stories.

Winner announced 27 November

clairemcalpine.com/2025/11/04/w...
Warwick Prize for Women in Translation longlist 2025
Fourteen titles have been longlisted for the 8th annual award of the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation. The 2025 competition received a total of 145 eligible entries from 34 languages. The lon…
clairemcalpine.com
November 4, 2025 at 6:21 AM
Reposted by Claire McAlpine 📚
Check out my blog post for the list of all 14 books alongside brief summary descriptions of each title, the language it has been translated from and the country the author represents.

#womenintranslation
#warwickprize2025

@womenintranslation.bsky.social
💙📚
November 4, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Great review here of Djinns by #FatmaAydemir

"I was struck by how powerfully the novel was capturing the inner struggles of Kurdish-Turkish immigrant who was at the end of his migration journey in Germany towards permanent return to his home country in Turkey."

nfaydh.blogspot.com/2025/09/book...
Book Review: Fatma Aydemir’s Djinns. Migration, Identity, and generational memory
A friend recommended and lent me her copy of Fatma Aydemir’s Djinns  . Once I started, I was struck by how powerfully the novel was captur...
nfaydh.blogspot.com
November 4, 2025 at 9:52 AM
14 titles have been longlisted for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2025 chosen from 145 entries in 34 languages.

A mix of genres on the list, 10 languages, 2 Nobel Prize winners, poetry, fiction, biography, short stories.

Winner announced 27 November

clairemcalpine.com/2025/11/04/w...
Warwick Prize for Women in Translation longlist 2025
Fourteen titles have been longlisted for the 8th annual award of the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation. The 2025 competition received a total of 145 eligible entries from 34 languages. The lon…
clairemcalpine.com
November 4, 2025 at 6:21 AM
Reposted by Claire McAlpine 📚
With the #bookerprize winner announcement only a week away on Nov 10, I take another look at the six novels on the shortlist and decide to read two of them.

Any favourites to win?

Seems like very mixed opinions out there, no clear winner.

clairemcalpine.com/2025/11/03/b...
Booker Prize Shortlist 2025
The winner of the Booker Prize 2005 will be announced on Monday November 10. I only read one novel from the longlist, Love Forms by Trinidad and Tobagan author Claire Adam (my review here). Initial…
clairemcalpine.com
November 3, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Reposted by Claire McAlpine 📚
Announcing the longlist for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2025! Featuring 10 languages, 12 publishers, 4 collections of poetry - and much more. The longlist travels from Argentina to South Korea, from Haiti to Romania, from Sweden to Slovenia.
tinyurl.com/4cu8sdv9
October 24, 2025 at 2:19 PM
With the #bookerprize winner announcement only a week away on Nov 10, I take another look at the six novels on the shortlist and decide to read two of them.

Any favourites to win?

Seems like very mixed opinions out there, no clear winner.

clairemcalpine.com/2025/11/03/b...
Booker Prize Shortlist 2025
The winner of the Booker Prize 2005 will be announced on Monday November 10. I only read one novel from the longlist, Love Forms by Trinidad and Tobagan author Claire Adam (my review here). Initial…
clairemcalpine.com
November 3, 2025 at 12:29 PM
This wkd I'm finishing Flashlight by #SusanChoi

I'm enjoying the way the characters were initially in proximity and now live apart, rarely interacting, yet remain intertwined.

The cross cultural family dynamic and the complexity of each character's past contributing to their separation.
November 1, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Slow reading Cemetery Journeys of #MarianaEnriquez this mth was mesmerising.

Riveting essays, a memoir-like travel diary + history via 21 cemeteries on 4 continents, recalling the past & learning cultural inclinations.

Somebody Is Walking On Your Grave #RIPxx 🪦

clairemcalpine.com/2025/10/31/s...
Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave by Mariana Enriquez tr. Megan McDowell #RIPxx
My Cemetery Journeys Argentinian author Mariana Enríqeuz is known for unconventional and sociopolitical stories of the macabre, amid contemporary Argentina. Her stories are populated by unruly teen…
clairemcalpine.com
October 31, 2025 at 3:44 PM
That's my weekend reading sorted.

Three authors I've read previously & loved.

I plan to read these together, their novels on motherhood & loss, from 3 different cultural perspectives.

The Mother #yvvetteedwards (UK)
Mother to Mother #sindiwemagona (Sth Africa)
The Mothers #britbennett (US)
October 24, 2025 at 6:21 PM
A #BookerPrize for
Children's literature 8-12yrs

‘an award that will champion future classics written for children; a social intervention designed to inspire more young people to read; & a seed from which we hope future generations of lifelong readers will grow'

thebookerprizes.com/the-children...
The Children’s Booker Prize | The Booker Prizes
The prize, to be awarded annually from 2027 and supported by AKO Foundation, will celebrate the best contemporary fiction for children aged eight to 12 years old
thebookerprizes.com
October 24, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Reposted by Claire McAlpine 📚
Widowed, Ettie moves from the village to Iza's Budapest apartment; she struggles to find her place amid a modern lifestyle.

Mother daughter tension; a subtly observed decline, hastened by modernity, having it all and losing purpose.

Iza's Ballad by #MagdaSzabo

clairemcalpine.com/2025/10/23/i...
Iza’s Ballad by Magda Szabó (Hungary) tr. George Szirtes
A few catch up reviews from August 2025’s Women in Translation month. I realised I’ve mentioned them elsewhere but not here. The link above has a summary of all the novels I read during…
clairemcalpine.com
October 23, 2025 at 7:51 AM
It's Irish Book Week & today's prompt is:

- a book set in Northern Ireland

so I chose Factory Girls by #MichelleGallen a novel I loved as much as her debut Big Girl,Small Town.

#FactoryGirls won the Comedy Women in Print Prize UK/Ireland

#irishbookweek

clairemcalpine.com/2023/03/01/f...
Factory Girls by Michelle Gallen
It’s the first day of March and the beginning of Reading Ireland Month 2023, which I am kicking off with a review of a work of comedy by Michelle Gallen originally published in 2022. Women Wr…
clairemcalpine.com
October 23, 2025 at 7:31 PM
#YvvetteEdwards The Mother is so good, an astute profile of an angry, grieving mother sitting through the trial of the boy accused of murdering her son, unable to understand the behaviour of her husband or the world girls like Sweetie inhabit.

It's her 2nd novel and I don't want it to end...so
October 23, 2025 at 11:26 AM
Widowed, Ettie moves from the village to Iza's Budapest apartment; she struggles to find her place amid a modern lifestyle.

Mother daughter tension; a subtly observed decline, hastened by modernity, having it all and losing purpose.

Iza's Ballad by #MagdaSzabo

clairemcalpine.com/2025/10/23/i...
Iza’s Ballad by Magda Szabó (Hungary) tr. George Szirtes
A few catch up reviews from August 2025’s Women in Translation month. I realised I’ve mentioned them elsewhere but not here. The link above has a summary of all the novels I read during…
clairemcalpine.com
October 23, 2025 at 7:51 AM
#ElaineFeeney 'Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way' was an excellent absorbing read, with further depths if the reader is interested, something I discovered after I searched for the origin of the title.

"Don’t tell me how to feel or how to react, let me experience my madness as I must.”

#Sophocles
October 22, 2025 at 8:53 AM
I'm currently reading The Mother by Yvvette Edwards

I plan to read these 3 together, by authors from the UK, Sth Africa & US all of whom I have read a previous work of theirs & loved.

The Mothers #YvetteEdwards
Mother to Mother #SindiweMagona
The Mothers #BritBennett

The What Ifs of life & loss.
October 22, 2025 at 7:33 AM
Reposted by Claire McAlpine 📚
The compelling #truecrime story of Women of the Osage Nation in the early 20thC
4 sisters & their mother targeted for their wealth and inherited rights, the investigation that pursued the resolution through all the corruption and the wider conspiracy.
#davidgrann

clairemcalpine.com/2025/10/21/k...
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann (2017)
Around the time the Martin Scorsese film of this book came out, the author David Grann had a new nonfiction book coming out The Wager, A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder. The film about the Nat…
clairemcalpine.com
October 21, 2025 at 9:05 AM
The compelling #truecrime story of Women of the Osage Nation in the early 20thC
4 sisters & their mother targeted for their wealth and inherited rights, the investigation that pursued the resolution through all the corruption and the wider conspiracy.
#davidgrann

clairemcalpine.com/2025/10/21/k...
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann (2017)
Around the time the Martin Scorsese film of this book came out, the author David Grann had a new nonfiction book coming out The Wager, A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder. The film about the Nat…
clairemcalpine.com
October 21, 2025 at 9:05 AM