We have spoilers for the October 2018 Boxwalla Book Box!
This October we showcase a Czech writer, a Haitian-American writer and a third something special.
The first book in the box is, Bohumil Hrabal’s ‘Too Loud a Solitude’. Hrabal is one of the greats of Czech Literature. His more internationally well know compatriot, Milan Kundera called him (when Hrabal was still alive), “our very best writer today”. His work breathes Prague & is the writer most closely associated with that beautiful city! As Kundera says “Bohumil Hrabal embodies as no other the fascinating Prague. He couples people’s humor to baroque imagination”.
The book we have chosen, ‘Too Loud a Solitude’, is one of Hrabal’s best loved books. The protagonist and narrator is a trash ‘compactor’, who crushes waste paper and books. However, such is his love of art & literature, that he also saves and collects rare and banned books. .
The second book we feature is Haitian American award-winning writer, Edwidge Danticat’s ‘The Dew Breaker.’
Edwidge Danticat was born in Port-au-Prince in Haiti and immigrated to the U.S (Brooklyn), when she was 12. Robert Antoni, a US writer from the Caribbean very eloquently describes her contribution to literature. He says that she is “doing for Haiti’s history of violence and vengeance what Toni Morrison did for the US in tackling the horrors of slavery and its aftermath”. He adds that her subject is” partly exile, and the impossibility of surrendering memories, or of taking root completely because of them”.
‘The Dew Breaker’ is a collection of linked stories that is centered around a Haitian immigrant to the U.S. who is perhaps hiding a dark secret. Each story provides a different viewpoint to understanding this central character.
Last day to subscribe is October 10, 11:59 p.m PST.
What do you think of this month’s Boxwalla Book Box spoilers?
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