bookshelf

The Castle by Franz Kafka

Written 1922, Translated by Mark Harman (c) 1998
9 tapes / 12 hours, Narrated by George Guidall
Recorded Books, Read 04/06/09, Blog 04/19/09

Goofy costumes, inexplicable behavior on the part of the locals, incomprehensible motives, concealed identities, and myriad Catch-22 rules- this is the black-and-white grandfather of the Swingin' Sixties Technicolor TV fantasy, "The Prisoner"; the only thing missing is Patrick McGoohan.

The Draining Lake by Arnaldur Indridason

312 Pgs (c)  2004 Translated from the Icelandic by Bernard Scudder
Broward Library 04/04/09

A body, tethered to Cold War era Russian communications equipment, is revealed when an Icelandic lake is drained. Old memories and rivalries surface, involving socialist students studying in East German in the late 1950s.

Voyage of the Short Serpent by Bernard du Boucheron

206 pgs (c) 2008, Overlook Duckworth
Translated from the French by Hester Velmans
Broward County Library, Read 02/24/09

The Inquisition: Greenland Edition. A Bishop is to sent "New Thule" to visit the Christian colony that has not been heard from for generations. Marooned in the frigid north, conditions in the community have deteriorated. They live a Hobbesian existence that is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. Things get much worse once the Bishop arrives.