Malvern’s mysterious Mr. F—you might remember meeting him a few months ago?—has a review for you of Our Lady of the Nile by Rwandan author Scholastique Mukasonga. It’s a brilliant new novel from Archipelago Books, and it won the prestigious French Voices Grand Prize.
Our Lady of the Nile takes place in a Catholic boarding school for young women in Rwanda, fifteen years before the genocide that killed over a million Tutsi people. It’s a brutal, often humorous tale, centering on the privileged girls attending the school and the conflicts that unravel within the institution and the students. Reminiscent of The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark and Lord of the Flies, with overtones of class and race issues, this is a quick, moving, and enjoyable read.
As someone with a profound respect for the modernist era, it is absolutely thrilling to see Rilke’s final batch of poems flawlessly translated and accompanied by such beautiful art and design. This bilingual collection was published posthumously, and it is rare in that it was originally written in French (telling for the Austrian writer). Roses also poses as a great contrast to the dramatic and serious collection Duino Elegies. The poems in Roses are fluid, tinged with love, warmth, wonder, and extraordinary depth. Translator David Need goes above and beyond, providing phenomenal insight and commentary throughout the second half of the book—bringing us closer and closer to mapping the mind of Rainer Maria Rilke.