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Showing posts with the label Katherine's Wish

Blogging Anniversary - 10 years

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A while ago I checked when I did my first blog post, in order to celebrate with an anniversary post. Well, that day came and went without any reaction from me. Better late than never, so here a reminder of my very first blog post from 24 October 2012.  The book was New Finnish Grammar  by Diego Marani. Marani is an Italian novelist, translator and newspaper columnist. While working as a translator for the European Union he invented a language ‘Europanto’ which is a mixture of languages and based on the common practice of word-borrowing usage of many EU languages. It was a suitable book to start with, being a book about letters, languages and memories. With a beautiful prose, the novel went directly to my heart.  "One night at Trieste in September 1943 a seriously wounded soldier is found on the quay. The doctor, of a newly arrived German hospital ship, Pietri Friari gives the unconscious soldier medical assistance. His new patient has no documents or anything that can ide...

Katherine's Wish by Linda Lappin

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A while ago I read Linda Lappin's historical fiction of Jeanne Hébuterne in  Loving Modigliani: The Afterlife of Jeanne Hébuterne .  I really loved how Linda Lappin makes historical persons come alive. I was happy to receive a copy of an earlier book by Lappin  Katherine's Wish , about the life of Katherine Mansfield.  It is a wonderfully written account on the latter part of Mansfield's life. For many years she was ill with tuberculosis and spent her time, restlessly travelling in Europe to find a climate suitable for her disease. France, Italy and Switzerland where the places where she stayed to escape the damp, English winter.  Although most of the novel covers Katherine's more intimate relationships, we meet some of the most famous writers of the day. Katherine had a close relationship with D.H. Lawrence and his wife, until Lawrence sends her a shocking letter. Her relationship with Virginia Woolf is also fragile, although they seem to go on well together, a...