Java, Indonesia: “Beauty is a Wound” by Eka Kurniawan : Can a square become a circle? It’s the inverse of the classic geometric problem of squaring a circle. A visit to Borobudur on the Indonesian island of Java gave me Continue Reading →
Montevideo: “The Truce” by Mario Benedetti : One of the reasons I write this blog is that I like to read novels that describe the place I’m traveling to. For my recent stay in Montevideo, I chose Continue Reading →
Kanchanaburi, Thailand: « The Bridge over the River Kwai» by Pierre Boulle and « Kwaï » by Vincent Hein : Probably the most famous cadence whistles in cinema history. As I was spending a day exploring the Bangkok area, my Lonely Planet reminded me that the famous “Bridge over the Continue Reading →
Rwanda: “Jacaranda” by Gaël Faye : I just missed Gaël Faye’s visit to “La Page d’Après”, the bookshop my sister-in-law Floriane opened in Louvain-la-Neuve just over a year ago. Interest was so great that they had Continue Reading →

Authors and works

List of authors and works (in alphabetical order, by authors):

A

Abelard, Pierre: Letters of two lovers

Abouet, Marguerite and Clément Oubrerie: Aya, life in Yop City (graphic novel and movie)

Adhiambo Owuor, Yvonne: Dust

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi: Americanah

Aitmatov, Chinguiz: Jamila

Akin, Fatih: The Cut (movie)

Alexievich, Svetlana: The Unwomanly Face of War

Al Aswaany, Alaa:

Al-Khatib, Muhammad Kamil: Just Like a River

Allen, Woody: (movie)

Alsanea, Rajaa: Girls of Riyadh

Ancel, Guillaume: Vents sombres sur le Lac Kivu

Andreas, Neshani: The Purple Violet of Oshaantu

Annaud, Jean-Jacques: The Name of the Rose (movie)

Apollinaire, Guillaume:

Aragon, Louis:

Azzam, Fadi: Sarmada

B

Bâ, Amadou Hampaté: L’étrange destin de Wangrin (The Fortunes of Wangrin)

Baez, Joan: Diamonds and Rust (song)

Balzac, Honoré de: Le Lys dans la vallée (The Lily of the Valley)

Barbara:

Baretto, Bruno: Four Days in September (movie)

Barjavel, René: La charrette bleue

Bassani, Giorgio:

Baudelaire, Charles:

Beah, Ishmael: A Long Way Gone

Belli, Gioconda: The Country Under my Skin

Bellow, Saul: Ravelstein

Benedetti, Mario: The Truce

Ben Jelloun, Tahar: The Sand Child

Berendt, John: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Bhutto, Fatima: The Shadow of the Crescent Moon

Bible (The)

Bizet, Georges: Carmen

Bizot, François: The Gate (novel and movie)

Bohjalian, Christopher A.:

Borges, Jorge Luis:

Boulle, Pierre: The Bridge over the River Kwai

Boyd, William: An Ice-Cream War

Brassens, Georges:

Brel, Jacques: (song)

Brink, André: The Other Side of Silence

Broom, Sarah M.: The Yellow House

Brown, Alrick: Kinyarwanda (movie)

Bruegel, Pieter the Elder: The Harvest (painting)

Bulgakov, Mikhail: The Master and Margarita

Bui, Thi: The Best We Could Do (graphic novel)

Burns, Ken and Lynn Novick: The Vietnam War (documentary)

Burton, Jessie: The Miniaturist

C

Callas, Maria: Habanera, Carmen

Camus, Albert:

Caravaggio: The Denial of Saint Peter (painting)

Carey, Peter: True History of the Kelly Gang

Carrère, Emmanuel: Limonov 

Cash, Johnny: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (song)

Castellanos Moya, Horacio:

Cendrars, Blaise: Planus

Chadwick, Justin: Mandela: A Long Walk to Freedom (film)

Chang, Jung: Wild Swans. Three Daughters of China

Charles, Ray: Georgia on My Mind (song)

Chopin, Frédéric: Nocturne, op. 9, No 2

Chekhov, Anton:

Chiladze, Otar: Avelum

Choo, Yangsze:

Coe, Jonathan: Expo 58

Coetzee, J.M.:

Cognetti, Paolo:

Cohen, Albert: Book of My Mother

Cohen, Leonard:

Colette: Gigi

Conrad, Joseph:

Corot, Camille: Hagar in the Wilderness (painting)

Cosey:

Courtemanche, Gil: A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali (novel and movie)

D

Dao, Hadizatou:

Daoud, Kamel: The Meursault Investigation

Debussy, Claude: Prelude « Les Collines d’Anacapri » (music)

Delon, Michel: Album Casanova

De Sica, Vittorio: The Bicycle Thief (movie)

della Francesca, Piero: The Legend of the True Cross (frescoes)

de la Tour, Georges: The Penitent Magdalene  (painting)

De Luca, Erri: The Weight of the Butterfly (Il Peso della Farfalla).

Delacroix, Eugène:

Desai, Kiran: The Inheritance of Loss

Deville: Plague & Cholera

Dexter, Colin: The Jewel That Was Ours

Djavadi, Négar: Disoriental 

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor:

Dowlatabadi, Mahmud: The Colonel

Dumas, Alexandre: Le Comte de Monte-Cristo

Duras, Marguerite:

E

Eastwood, Clint: Mystic River (movie)

Eco, Umberto: The Name of the Rose

Egoyan, Atom: Ararat (movie)

Eisenstein, Sergei: October – Ten Days that Shook the World (movie)

El Saadawi, Nawal: Woman at Point Zero

Eloy Martinez, Tomás: The Tango Singer

Eluard, Paul:

Erpenbeck, Jenny: Go, Went, Gone.

F

Fabritius, Carel: The Goldfinch (painting)

Fahradi, Ashgar: (movie)

Farah, Nurrudin:

Faye, Gaël: Jacaranda

Ferrandez, Jacques: Carnets d’Orient (graphic novel)

Ferrante, Elena:

Ferranti, Marie: The Princess of Mantua

Ferrat, Jean:

Ferré, Léo: La Chanson du Mal Aimé

Feuchtwanger, Lion: The Oppermans

Finch, Charles: The Last Enchantments

Follet, Ken:

Fonseca, Rubem: Crimes of August

Fontaine, Jean (de la): Le Chêne et le Roseau

Fontenaille-N’Diaye, Elise: Blue Book

Forna, Aminatta: The Memory of Love

Fragonard, Jean Honoré: Roman Interior (painting)

Francis of Assisi (Saint): The Canticle of the Sun

Frank, Anne: The Diary of a Young Girl

Frazier, Charles: Cold Mountain (novel and movie)

Fruttero & Lucentini: Il Palio delle contrade morte

G

Garcia Lorca, Federico:

Garcia Marquez, Gabriel:

Gary, Romain: Promise at Dawn

Gauguin, Paul: Ia Orana Maria (painting)

Gautier, Théophile: Arria Marcella

George, Terri: Hotel Rwanda (movie)

Géricault, Théodore:

Giono, Jean:

Giordana, Marcello Tullio: The Best of Youth (La meglio gioventú) (movie)

Godard, Jean-Luc: The Contempt (movie)

Gogol, Nikolai: Nevski Prospekt

Gourevitch, Philip: We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families

Greene, Graham:

Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm: Children’s and Household Tales

Grossman, David: To the End of the Land

Gurnah, Abdulrazak:

Gyasi, Yaa: Homegoing

H

Hallberg, Garth Risk: City on Fire

Hamaguchi, Ryūsuke: Drive My Car (movie)

Hamilton, Hugo: Surrogate City

Haratischvili, Nino: The Eighth Life

Hein, Vincent: Kwaï

Héloïse (d’Argenteuil): Letters of two lovers

Hemingway, Ernest:

Henriquez, Cristina: Coming Together, Fall Apart

Hergé: Quick and Flupke (graphic novel)

Hertmans, Stefan: War and Turpentine

Highsmith, Patrica: The Talented Mr. Ripley (novel and movie)

Hugo, Victor:

Hvorostovsky, Dmitri:

House of Cards (TV series)

Hung, Trang Anh:

I

Indriðason, Arnaldur: Jar City

Izzo, Jean-Claude: Total Khéops

J

James, Henry:

Jaumann, Bernhard: The Hour of the Jackal

Jergović, Miljenko: The Walnut Mansion

Jia, Mai: Decoded

Jin, Meng: Little Gods

Joffé, Rolland: The Killing Fields (movie)

Johnson, Jocelyn Nicole: My Monticello

Joyce, James: The Dead (novel and movie)

K

Kawakami, Mieko: Breasts and Eggs

Kennedy, Douglas: The Moment

Kessel, Joseph: Fortune Carrée

Khadra, Yasmina: What the Day Owes the Night (novel and movie)

Khalifa, Khaled:

Khalifeh, Sahar: Wild Thorns

Kiarostami, Abbas: Taste of Cherry (movie)

Kingsolver, Barbara: The Poisonwood Bible

Knausgård, Karl Ove: My Struggle

Kormákur, Baltasar: Jar City (movie)

Kourouma, Ahmadou: Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote

Kraehn/Jusseaume: Tramp, Cycle Asiatique (graphic novel)

Kundera, Milan: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Kurniawan, Eka: Beauty is a Wound

L

Läckberg, Camilla: The Ice Princess

Laferrière, Dany:

Lamartine, Alphonse (de): Graziella

Lapcharoensap, Rattawut: Sightseeing

Lax/Giroud:

Le Carré, John:

Le Clézio, J.M.G.: Desert

Le Forestier, Maxime: Ballade à la Lune

Lehane, Dennis: Mystic River

Lepage, Emmanuel: Muchacho

Lim, Suchen Christine: The River’s Song

Lins, Paulo: City of God (novel and movie)

Lispector, Clarice: The Hour of the Star

Lorenzetti, Ambrogio: Allegory of Good and Bad Government (frescoes)

Lothar, Ernst: The Vienna Melody

M

Maalouf, Amin:

Machado, Antonio:

Mahfouz, Naguib:

Manet, Edouard: The Funeral (painting)

Mann, Thomas: Death in Venice (novel and movie)

Mantegna, Andrea: The House of Spouses (frescoes)

Matar, Hisham: A Month in Siena

Mauvignier, Laurent: Continuer

Mbue, Imbolo: Behold the Dreamers

Mcallister, Sean: A Syrian Love Story (movie)

McCarthy, Tom: Spotlight (movie)

McEwan, Ian: The Children Act

Mengestu, Dinaw: The Beautiful Things that Heavens Bear

Mengiste, Maaza: The Shadow King

Mercier, Pacal: Night Train for Lisbon (novel and movie)

Meyer, Philipp:

Minghella, Anthony: The English Patient (movie)

Modiano, Patrick:

Mohamed, Nadifa: Black Mamba Boy

Molière: Le bourgeois gentilhomme

Monfreid, Henry (de): The Secrets of the Red Sea

Montand, Yves:

Moore, Liz: Long Bright River

Morrison, Jim: Roadhouse Blues (The Doors)

Mukasonga, Scholastique: Our Lady of the Nile

Munro, Alice: What is Remembered

Murakami, Haruki

Musset, Alfred (de) :

Mustian, Mark: The Gendarme

Mwanza Mujila, Fiston: Tram 83

N

Nafisi, Azar: Reading Lolita in Teheran

Naipaul, V.S.:

Neyrinck, Jacques: Le siège de Bruxelles

Netrebko, Anna: Moscow Nights

Nganang, Patrice

Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai: The Mountains Sing

Nguyen, Viet Thanh: The Sympathizer

Ninh, Bao: The Sorrow of War

Northup, Solomon: Twelve Years a Slave

Nothomb, Amélie:

O

O’Brien, Tim: The Things They Carried

Olyslaegers, Jeroen: Will

Ondaatje, Michael:

Ormesson, Jean d’: Au Plaisir de Dieu (At God’s Pleasure)

P

Paasilinna, Arto: The Year of the Hare

Pakula, Alan J.: All the President’s Men (movie)

Pamuk, Orhan: The Museum of Innocence

Panh, Ritty: One Evening after the War (movie)

Paz Soldan, Edmundo: The Matter of Desire

Peck, Raoul: Sometimes in April (movie)

Pessoa, Fernando: The Book of Disquiet

Pham, Andrew:

Piaf, Edith: Hymne à l’Amour

Pratt, Hugo:

Proust, Marcel: A la Recherché du Temps Perdu (In Search of Lost Time)

R

Ramuz, Charles Ferdinand:

Reggiani, Serge: Le Pont Mirabeau

Reisdorff, Ivan: L’homme qui demanda du feu

Roberts, Gregory David: Shantaram

Rodenbach, Georges: Bruges-la-Morte

Rodrigues, Amália: Barco Negro (song)

Rogers, Douglas: The Last Resort

Rossini, Gioachino:

Roy, Arundhati: The God of Small Things

Rufin, Jean-Christophe:

Ruiz Zafón, Carlos: The Shadow of the Wind

Rushdie, Salman:

Rutman, Paul: Indian Summers (TV series)

S

Saint-Exupéry, Patrick (de): L’Inavouable : La France au Rwanda

Saramago, José:

Satrapi, Marjane: Persepolis (graphic novel and movie)

Schami, Rafik: The Dark Side of Love

Schenkel, Andrea Maria: The Murder Farm (novel and movie)

Schlink, Bernhard: The Reader (novel and movie)

Schneider, Peter: The Wall Jumper

Schnitzler, Arthur: The Dead Are Silent

Seethaler, Robert:

Selasi, Taiye: Ghana Must Go

Serpell, Namwali: The Old Drift

Seth, Vikram: A Suitable Boy

Sévigné, Marquise de: Letters

Shafak, Elif: The Bastard of Istanbul

Shakespeare, William:

Signoret, Simone:

Simenon, Georges:

Sinoué, Gilbert:

Sirees, Nihad: The Silence and the Roar

Slezkine, Yuri: The House of Government

Slimani, Leïla: Le pays des autres

Smith, Zadie: White Teeth

Sofer, Dalia: Septembers of Shiraz

Sparks, Nicholas: The Notebook

Stassen, Jean-Philippe: Deogratias

Stendhal: Rome, Naples and Florence

Stoppard, Tom: Leopoldstadt

Stromae: Formidable (song)

T

Tabucchi, Antonio: Requiem, an Hallucination

Tartt, Dona: The Goldfinch

Thiry, Marcel: You Who Pale at the Name of Vancouver

Thuy, Kim: Ru

Tolstoy, Leo:

Toole, John Kennedy: A Confederacy of Dunces

Tremblay, Michel: The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant

Tsiolkas, Christos: The Slap (novel and TV series)

Turner, Joseph M. W.: Whalers (painting)

U

Uhlman, Fred: Reunion (novel and movie)

Unsworth, Barry: After Hannibal

V

Vallès, Jules: L’Enfant (The Child)

Vautrin, Jean: Un grand pas vers le Bon Dieu

van der Lee, Ton: Solitaire. A Home in the Namib Desert

Van Eyck, Jan: The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb (Ghent Altarpiece)

Van Reybrouck, David: Congo. The Epic History of a People.

Van Sant, Gus: Good Will Hunting (movie)

Vargas Llosa, Mario: Conversation in the Cathedral

Vásquez, Juan Gabriel:

Velasquez, Diego: The Supper at Emmaus (painting)

Vermeer, Johannes: A Maid Asleep (painting)

Vilard, Hervé: Capri, c’est fini (song)

Villon, François: Ballade des Dames du Temps Jadis

Vivaldi, Antonio: Gloria (music)

Volos, Andrei: Hurramabad

W

Waberi, Abdourahman: Passage of Tears

Wagendorp, Bert: Ventoux

Wagner, Richard: The Master-Singers of Nuremberg (music)

Walker, Martin: The Caves of Perigord

Waugh, Evelyn: Bridgehead Revisited

Weisberg, Joe: The Americans (TV series)

Wilde, Oscar:

Wilkinson, Lauren: American Spy

Williams, Tennessee: A Streetcar Named Desire

Woman in Berlin (A), Anonymous

Y

Yánez Cossío, Alicia: The Potbellied Virgin

Yourcenar, Marguerite: Memoirs of Hadrian

Z

Zeniter, Alice: L’Art de Perdre

Zongo, Norbert: The Parachute Drop