Our team carefully selected some interesting reads they came across in 2023 that they would like to recommend to our readers. Our selection includes both fiction and non-fiction from different places around the world, so it is bound to include something that any kind of reader can enjoy. Happy new year from Tra i Leoni!
“V13” by Emmanuel Carrère
In this book, Emmanuel Carrère tells us what the trial for the Paris attacks of November 13, 2015, journalistically known as the V13 process, was. The French writer attended the hearings for all nine months of the trial and spoke to victims, relatives, and lawyers on both sides. The result is a powerful journalistic-literary operation in the uniqueness of judicial reporting, which will be framed as a moment of collective consciousness in which all living people will question themselves in relation to the dead, the survivors, and the witnesses. The narrative as a whole is written in perfect Carrère style: clear and precise, yet constantly awash in profound emotions. Between anger, commotion, pain, and frustration, one asks why; one asks about the differences between ‘us’ and ‘them’, between tears and blood; one tries to distinguish between emotions and rights, between justice and condemnation. It’s a book to read. To understand and never forget.
Jemmy Suwannaluck
“Homecoming” by Yaa Gyasi.
Homecoming by Yaa Gyasi is a riveting intergenerational tale that begins with the lives of two sisters, Effia and Esi: one sold into slavery and one a slave trader’s wife. Set in various periods between the transatlantic slave trade and present day in the United States and Ghana, homecoming weaves an elaborate story of the descendants of Effia and Esi and their interaction with the society and circumstances of their time. The book also paints a visceral picture of the cruelties of the slave trade and the complicity of West African tribes in supplying it, West African culture and superstitions, and the evolution of the rights and freedoms of black people in America. The writing is powerful, ingenious, and fast-paced and there are many moments of shock, despair, and hope that will leave your heart thumping. If you want to indulge in a little bit of history, fiction, and beautiful writing at the same time, you need to look no further than ‘Homecoming’. Happy reading.
Jeett Ratadia
“The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture” by Gabor Maté MD with Daniel Maté
What is normal is a dilemma. But what we do know is that our lives are immersed in a society where nothing more is done than to prolong the perfect portrait of the normal in a picture where nothing seems to be going at a snail’s pace. In such a context, physicist Maté, with the help of his son, writes this book of inestimable logical rigor. Reporting his own personal story and numerous others, he highlights how a disease is the fruit not only of mere physical decay but of individual childhood histories, life experiences, and generational traumas. Stress is a central element in Gabor’s stories, characterizing the lives of many sufferers of chronic autoimmune diseases or, if we think about it, our own Western modern lives. The likely consequences on health that all this becomes clear through the pages of this masterpiece. This reading is an invitation to take stock of our lives and to reevaluate how important it is to put aside for a moment all those sources of tension that, in a toxic culture like ours, sometimes are so normalized that we can hardly distance ourselves from them. But most importantly, to never underestimate our past histories.
Claudia Caffo
“Lost Horizon” by James Hilton
A classic about adventure, philosophy or fantasy? Impossible to say, but the most likely answer is all three. A hijacked airplane in the remote Himalayas is a telling argument to consider “Lost Horizon” an adventurous story. Yet, conversations between the protagonist, an English gentleman, and his (sometimes) antagonist, a puzzling monk, make for a unique philosophical exchange. And given that the setting of this story, Shangai-La, is on a murky line between reality and imagination, one could easily wonder whether such setting exists at all. The answer only lies in the mind of the reader, in the hope that each one will find his or her own Shangri-La.
Lorenzo Garbarino
“Otmar’s Sons” by Peter Buwalda
“What psychiatrists charge a pound of flesh to call a Vatersuche, searching for a father, doesn’t apply to him.” Of course it does, especially if said man is suddenly at arm’s length in front of you. Still, the book cannot be described as the story of a fatherless boy searching for his missing parent, this is just one piece of a jigsaw puzzle where even though the pieces fit together, you might not be able to understand what the final picture turns out to show. The story is built around characters you cannot really identify with. You will have a hard time deciding who to “root for”. So why read it? Because it is the opposite of a cute, personalised Instagram feed, it takes you to the dark web, given enough patience. Ludwig, Isabelle, Hans; three main characters through the eyes of which we see without filters and sometimes in horror. Buwalda manages to create a small world which feels parallel to ours, but it is really the same we live in. Otmar’s Sons is the first volume of a trilogy, so enter this world at your own peril.
Alisia Picciano
“The Savage Detectives” by Roberto Bolaño
When renowned Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño died in Spain at the 50, in 2003, he was already considered one of the most representative literary voices of his time. It was only in the years following his death, though, that his work truly reached a global outlook. “The Savage Detectives” is his most well-known novel and is perhaps the best expression of his unique ability to use every word he writes to say more than what is actually on paper. In its simplest description, the novel is centered around Ulises Lima and Arturo Belano, two young, reckless, loose-living poets who leave Mexico City in 1975 to track down the obscure, vanished poet Cesaréa Tinajero. It is in three parts, which allow the author to explore at once a wide variety of literary styles and themes as diverse as poetry, love, sex, drugs, literature, war, politics, all taking place across three continents and over twenty years. Get lost in Bolaño’s world. You won’t regret it.
Bojan Zeric
Articles written by the various members of our team.
