Akin Akinwumi Book Recommendations & Book Mentions

Akin Akinwumi

“There are points in your life when you think you’re about to become whatever’s next.” The opening words of Kathryn Davis’s new memoir Aurelia, Aurélia, which I read today. Cerebral, erudite, digressive, and strangely hypnotic, this one will stay with me for a long time. https://t.co/InbGAR9yfR

Akin Akinwumi

@emilyhallnyc @CampMarmalade I really enjoyed art critic Philip Kennicott's memoir Counterpoint, which is as much about Bach as it is about his music, the Goldberg Variations in particular, and this serves as the framework for a wonderfully rich meditation on grief.

Akin Akinwumi

Don’t miss @mervatim’s interview with the incredible Jon Fosse (and IMHO a future Nobel Laureate!). Septology is out of this world great, on a different level entirely. https://t.co/GHbwudLXDq

Akin Akinwumi

Thanks to @pd_christie who recently tweeted about it, I’m finally reading Knut Hamsun’s Hunger (the Sverre Lyngstad translation). It’s been excellent so far and extremely compelling despite the subject-matter. https://t.co/gsF9ZhMyV7

Akin Akinwumi

Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin, 1976 Dell edition. Cover art by Leo and Diane Dillon, the husband-and-wife team that created iconic science fiction and fantasy book covers for various publishers. https://t.co/vSmFAfWHjD

Akin Akinwumi

And if you haven’t read it, I’ll highly recommend checking out @babakl’s equally brilliant novella Floating Notes, published by the late Giancarlo DiTrapano of Tyrant Books. https://www.nytyrant.com/products/floating-notes-by-babak-lakghomi https://t.co/Y8rlvsVhbe

Akin Akinwumi

What I'm currently reading—Woman Running in the Mountains by Yūko Tsushima. Originally published in 1980 and translated into English in 1991, just reissued by @nyrbclassics. Tsushima's 1979 novel Territory of Light (tr. Geraldine Harcourt) was one of my favorite reads of 2019. https://t.co/dctgT3WVpe

Akin Akinwumi

Thinking about when my wife and I took turns to read Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life back in 2015. (It was the rage at the time, everyone was talking about it.) I came away feeling heavy, bulbous with sorrow, and I still wince when I see that cover.

Akin Akinwumi

Notable strong contenders: The Black Cathedral—Marcial Gala (tr. Anna Kushner) @fsgbooks Sterling Karat Gold—Isabel Waidner @PressPeninsula Slipping—Mohamed Kheir @TwoLinesPress The Promise—Damon Galgut @EuropaEditions I Is Another—Jon Fosse (tr. Damion Searls) @transitbks 2/5

Akin Akinwumi

“It is ... in the barely glimpsed linkages between art, obsession and annihilation ... that the Bolañoesque becomes most fully legible.” Roberto Bolaño’s shadow looms large over this fantastic essay by @ddillingworth on Alejandro Zambra’s Chilean Poet. https://t.co/zOqWpvvAPr