PositiveThe Observer (UK)Shree is an excellent observer of women’s inner lives ... I find the translation to be excessively loyal to the Hindi version ... You can hear the Hindi and the English is broken. It is confusing and can make it appear as if the writer is ridiculing the Hindi characters ... Let me take this space to recognise Shree for the labour of writing itself, and for solving the difficulties of sentences, paragraphs, tone and characters for 30 years. She is a prose stylist trying to make her point in Hindi. This book, this Booker, has come at last, and for me it has come as a breath of fresh air.
Amina Cain
PositiveThe Observer (UK)A chain of images moving fast, compiled to create a heightened, artful experience for the reader ... The book is, at best, a journal where Cain is trying to figure out how to write her next novel.
Annie Ernaux, trans. by Alison L. Strayer
RaveThe Guardian (UK)Like Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary, Ernaux’s affair should be counted as one of the great liaisons of literature. She writes honest, deeply felt books ... She is on her knees from the first page, in the throes of a lust she wants to cultivate and grow. You feel as if her heart is in your hands ... The quality that distinguishes Ernaux’s writing on sex from others in her milieu is the total absence of shame ... Simple Passion was a cleverly crafted memoir; Getting Lost is a large chunk of her life and the more interesting version of the affair.
Marie Ndiaye
PositiveThe New York Times Book Reviewa sensual portrayal of the indispensable place of talented cooks in the world of the French bourgeoisie. NDiaye’s heroine doesn’t wield overt power over this class, but instead commits herself to delivering savory before sugar, invention and technique before pleasure.
