I'm reading it right now in Italian and i really like it.

Lovely intro. I agree with your reaction to the magical realism comment. Great selection of books. The only one I've read is Nadja , which I very much enjoyed. Many folks have recommended The Hearing Trumpet to me . I need to.get to that soon. 😍

The beginning is a long way of saying magical realism came from a European literary tradition. There are also, ghast, lots of european descended people in Latin America. I don’t why we need to tip toe around some silly tweet or silly people in general.

Hi, I'm new on your channel. I'm listening to english youtube videos to improve my english, and as I love and study Italian Literature, I was attracted by your video's topic. SO, what to say... As others said in the comments, just Svevo, Calvino and maybe Tabucchi can be considered "classic italian literature", in the sense that they're anthologized in literature books. Anyway, that doesen't matter: actually, one my opinion one of the biggest problems of people studying Literature is that we consider and read and are only into classical authors. Maybe we should figure out what literature is telling us in the present time, in the present society. And as a matter of fact, it's interesting that both Ferrante and Cognetti talk about relations and bounds between humans who share their path during life. I don't really love Camilleri, because I'm definetly not into crime books, and I didn't even knew that historical fiction you named in the video. What else... regardless I'm an italian literature student and I would be supposed to love him, I don't really like Calvino. I don't know why: I'm aware of the incredible contribute he gave to literature in the last century (he literally made history of important movements like neorealism, in the first part of his carreer), but every time I try to read his books, I kinda get bored. Finally, I loved Svevo's masterpiece "Zeno's Conscience": it is the "culprit" of my passion for literature, and of my mother's passion too! Bye Bye.

Actual reviews start at 7:25

Thanks a lot for advicing a Catalan book, great review. The book is awesome. Have you ever read Victor Català? She’s another great Catalan writer who had to hide under a male name.

I miss watch your videos. Now i find you because I am looking for surrealist novels. 💝

Loved Grotesque and have just re-read a second time. It is great to hear another readers thoughts about the book

this book was so good and i really loved it, but the ending made me so upset 😭

Really appreciated this review! Thank you!

Best review on this

I am 70% done with this book, It's so freaking slow and most of time nothing is really going on and when something happens it's predictable because its already told multiple times beforehand in book. Also I don't usually read female authors mostly because of their extremely stretched storylines and character drama as explained by female authors (cough* jane austen) and to me this book suffers from same character drama.

Loved The Boy Who Stole Attila’s Horse; thanks for the video, i was glad to find someone talking about it!

I do find it odd that every review I have come across of this book seems to purposefully skirt around the peadophilia and sexual abuse described in this book. He isn't charged with 'sexual misconduct', he's charged with raping children he adopted. Why isn't anyone saying this straight out! He's a vile main character that turned my stomach and yet every review is referring to him in a neutral way...really strange.

seemed like the book was bleh which is sad, ive been trying to find some good thriller / fictional japanese translated books but i will steer clear of this one lol

Great video! I stumbled upon it while looking for something on Bataille and you definitely made me want to read this text, especially this edition with the essays you mentioned. Also, I must say that your brief erotic "visualization" was beautiful and very sexy. I will surely explore your channel.

Just finished "people from my neighborhood" and its definitely something to read!! I did enjoy how the short stories gave you a lot of insight about the characters and also noticed how we never got to know the narrator..... it was still weird to read sometimes LOL!

im really glad i watched this video because there arent many people out there who know these type of books exist and i have now experienced other peoples thoughts on these books which i absolutely have really engaged to, but nevermoor has exceeded my expectations and is currently my top most favourite book that i recommend to others who have similar taste type. These are enjoyable to me not only because of the character development and their own environmental personalities, but also because it gives the readers great imaginations of their own included to the story. In my opinion, books that give the reader their own experiences of imagery in their minds are the best because it also helps develop young intelligence and determination into a more understandable feature of maturity. ( from my own experiences reading these books and similar kinds).

this video is almost 5 years old now, have you read A Little Life?? thanks for this review! :)

I love Alberto Moravia but i think english people don't like him

Are you really sure about the polar bear explorers club? I have read it before, and there is some near death and injury moments, I would say that the book is for 11-12

Have you read Senilità from Italo svevo? Please review it i wanted to read it so badly but not sure it it does justice

I’ve been waiting to watch this video for so long! But only wanted to watch after I’d read the book. Great review :) x

I couldn't agree with you more. Although I think cultural appropriation is a must-do if we're going to become a global culture. So I might not be the intended audience of your critique at all.

Just read Dancer from the Dance and everything you said.. YES! Exactly my feelings.

I am from india ,came here to find. Something about surrealism but now I am like ..Wow I like this british accent 😘

Thank you for the explanation.

This sounds like a perfect video to recommend during an announcement for Women-In-Translation later this summer! *ahem* ;D

A very pertinent discussion now with all the othering going on... interesting to contemplate how books play their part for one side or the other. Thank you for pinning all this up to gaze at :)

I think Parviz Ghazi Saeed's books are the best fantasy stories ever written. The books are awesome and every moment and every chapters of books are incredible. I would definitely recommend his books, because it keeps you reading without ever wanting to put the book done. By end of the books you come to love the characters and want to read more. If you haven't read any of Parviz Ghazi Saeed's books you are missing out on the best series. www.amazon.com/s?i=digital-text&rh=p_27%3AParviz+Ghaazi+Saeed&s=relevancerank&text=Parviz+Ghaazi+Saeed&ref=dp_byline_sr_ebooks_1

Any suggestions for kids My son is starting Japanese language mostly motivated by manga and anime. Would be great to get him some other options

Asian chick Knows something I don't Hurting Fortune Cookies Vintage Foreign So, how is a semiotic analysis different from Association ?

your review is BRILLIANT! you described the multitude of layers and the theme of questioning "truth" extremely well!!

What i dont think enough people say about this book is how pleasing the writing is... Its to the point like a child would describe or draw it. Despite also being a translation... Anyway thats my impression, one of the great bonkers french literary anomolies along with de Sade, de Nerval, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Lautreamont, and Artaud... Let me know if anyone knows any other good ones!

I have some craft books that I want to recommend to you Matthew that will be helpful for you to read and the first one is the tough guide to fantasy land and reflections on the magic of writing by Diana wynne Jones and on stories and of other worlds by c.s. Lewis and daemon voice by Philip Pullman and sometimes the magic works by terry brooks and the language of the night by Ursula k. Le guin and brothers and beasts which an anthology of essays that will be both helpful and formative for you to read and the art of description by mark Doty and the art of perspective by Christopher castellani and aspects of the novel by e.m. Forster and I miss you Matthew and that is all

Thanks alot for knowledge

Great , dear

It is very interesting to see what is the view of other country’s readers on Italian literature. I’m italian and i’m studying italian literature, and i find it fantastic and even if it is not such a known writer (in the world i mean) i find it great and really connected with others country’s writers or genres. Btw reading prose translated isn’t obviously bad, we can’t read every author in original agaha even if i used to read a lot in English right now i see i dont have much time to force myself to really understand everything. But it’s cool to see what you all think about that :)

I am always impressed how many thoughts and preparation you put into your videos, Matthew! Thanks for the efforts you put into your channel.

People From My Neighbourhood seems so interesting!

I'd love you to read Manazuru and review it. I have nobody to talk to about this dreamy and strange book. I still don't fully understand it and I read it so slowly and with such care and attention paid. Argh. I don't even know how many stars out of 5 I'd give it, so infuriatingly strange is this novel. I'm in that demented sweet spot of suspecting I may love and hate it equally. I think if something haunts me and inspires such a constant return to it in my mind, triggering a lot of determined thinking it must mean I place true value on it. What do you think? Do you have any books that have caused a similar reaction?

i have the same thing of keeping the number of books on my GR TBR less than the Read ones - watching this vid hasn't helped 😠 latitudes of longing sounds wonderful and a luminous republic has me intrigued. ✨

Great exercise to do with the wishlist on goodreads (or somewhere else, because I am considering leaving it in favour for The Story Graph). Because my list is so incredibly long, so there's no way I will ever be able to read even half of them. I'm not even able to make any real progress with my actual tbr, because I'm always adding more books than I read. And it's not getting better, because after watching your video I added two more books to my wishlist! 😉

She's back! 😜So so interesting to hear your thoughts - once again, you give me much to ponder! Note to self - need to reread that prologue but I keep forgetting!! I adore everything you said about Xaforn being the most driven by Jin-Shei - I think I adored her so much because of how much entering that bond changes her for the better and allows her to access the most vulnerable yet strong parts of herself, including her loyalty and honour. Honestly I have too many Xaforn feelings and I love her 😆 I think one thing I found myself thinking about was how close some characters get to committing the same actions but from different motivations (which like, hello, is exemplified by forming the Jin-Shei bond in the first place - everyone of them makes it for different reasons but it ties them all together in modes of behaviour). You asked what stopped this being a 5 star for me - one of the things that I felt I needed to ponder upon further was actually Lihui. I felt a little like his plotline wrapped up fairly quickly and I wasn't sure how I felt about the speed of it. I think I expected it to be a little more of a moment than I felt like it was? But now I wonder if part of the point is not that Lihui is the foe that must be vanquished in order for the book to reach its conclusion (although yes, that is a part), but also for him to serve as a comparative point against some of the other characters. Look at Liudan's actions, look at Khailin's actions - rooted in different places and they cause so much pain and damage, yet I still hate Lihui more! Lihui uses his powers to force Nhia and Qiaan respectively to act in ways that ultimately cause harm to themselves and others. Liudan's exploitation of her Jin-Shei bond towards the end can be seen to be just as harmful and actively contributes to the deaths of her sisters (which surely, is one of the greatest crimes you could commit towards your sisterhood bond - to directly lead to your sisters' deaths?). This is becoming a ramble but I remember one of the characters commenting on how we can't know what Lihui's initial intentions were, they might not have stemmed from a desire to do harm, but these things morphed - tie that to Khailin's statement of "I am the sorcerer now"... I have gone VASTLY off topic so I will curtail this but suffice to say I am continuing to ponder things 😅

Hello, yes I am beginning my blitz of all your Jin-Shei videos 😆Really enjoyed your particular focus on motherhood - I know I said I was thinking about legacy a lot towards the end of the book but it's really interesting to hear your discussions of it explicitly related to the earlier part of the book. I feel like as well as the importance of lineage that emerge later, Tai's role as sort of a 'mother' to the group made me think about that family role more in the later part of the book, but in many ways I wonder if that's because Tai is one of the only characters to have a loving mother really present in her life (as opposed to some of the more complicated motherly relationships that others have). I'm definitely seeing why this is a book that I'll need to reread to really pick up on it all! Also super love what you've said about setting almost being a character and Jin-Shei itself also having that aspect to it.

I really like this idea for a video! good luck with these! and oh yes I am familiar with books languishing on my TBR list for so long that I forget about them, haha