February 2004 • Issue 364



Best of the Year: Books

Muhammad Kamil al-Khatib’s Just Like A River (Arris Books, NI 359) got a five-star fiction rating. This superbly intricate narrative follows the lives of a cross-section of Damascus society against a background of escalating tension. The book’s 100 or so pages touch upon large themes while maintaining a sharp focus on the intimate human scale of events.

Also outstanding was A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali (Canongate, NI 358), a thoughtful first novel by Gil Courtemanche set in Rwanda in the days leading up to the 1994 genocide. Our reviewer says: ‘This is one that has stayed with me and that I have thought about time and again’. A moving and brave meditation on love and evil, it also serves as a scathing indictment of an inert ‘international community’.

In the non-fiction category, Paul Kingsnorth’s One No, Many Yeses (Verso, NI 358) got top marks for readability, scope and inspiration. A gripping, highly personable travelogue, this book is essential reading for anyone who wants to get up to speed with the growing social justice movement.

Blood Diamonds by Greg Campbell (Westview Press, NI 356) is first-rate journalistic sleuthing, tracing the violence-soaked webs that link the legitimate diamond trade, shady dealers, rebels without a conscience, and organizations such as Hizbollah and al-Qaeda.




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IN THIS COLUMN

Natural Selection
Szperling's short, punchy novel paints a vivid pen-portrait of the savage and amoral nature of this stratum of Argentinean society.

Thursday Night Widows
Nominally a thriller, Thursday Night Widows is less concerned with the 'whodunnit' aspects of plotting than with a psychological dissection of a social class obsessed with bickering and petty jealousies as the pillars of their world dissolve.

2666
It takes a singular talent to make a book of 1,000 pages that is as hard to put down as it is to pick up. Despite its size, 2666 retains the agility of a thriller.

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A graphic adaptation of the book by Studs Terkel by Harvey Pekar and Paul Buhle.

Murder In The Name Of Honour
A grim but compelling reading – a fitting testament to all the women killed who had sex outside marriage.






Voices from the margins:

Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.

House of Hunger Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe
Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe
The House of Hunger poetry slam held in Zimbabwe in 2006, and organised by the Pamberi Trust, showcased young artists performing inspirational work on issues from corporate power to child soldiers. The video features four of the poets.
Published by Pambazuka News.
Raised Voices video:
Atossa Soltani from Brazil on the Climate Change
Desmond Desai from South Africa on Corporate Power
Iranian Women Speak Out
Iranian women speak out
3 March 2007, London. Women's rights activists marched through the English capital last week to celebrate International Women's Day with a protest against the misogyny of the Islamic regime in Iran and the threat of invasion by the US. Hear the voices of Iranian feminists Azar and Leila Parnian and the sounds of the demonstration as it passed through the heart of the city. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Produced by Heidi Bachram.
Raised Voices audio:
Benny from West Papua on Corporate Power
Vinayan from India on agriculture

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