"Bogotà" by Alan Grostephan

In this quick-paced rush of a story, a Columbian family, caught between the official government, paramilitaries and guerillas in chaotic and dysfunctional Columbia are forced to flee their home in a small Columbian town for an unfamiliar life in the capital city of Bogota. There, they experience crime, joblessness and poverty - this is the story of how each member of the family tries to survive and keep the family intact, while maintaining both their dignity and their safety - which is no easy task in a seeming, lawless city. Somehow, you root for all the characters, even the many that are forced to make morally ambiguous decisions in order to survive. The book gives a real and poignant picture of life in Bogota, the inequality between rich and poor and the physical texture of life in the slums.

I did not fall in love with these characters, but I felt for them.

Early in the story, an acquaintance tells Wilfredo that the genius of the Brazilian national soccer team is the awareness each player has of one another and the space they inhabit on the field. This becomes the tragic value the characters of this novel: continually fail to live up to. They kill to assert themselves, use one another to fulfill a selfish desire for love, and cannibalize the very community they should be working to build and reinforce to ensure a better future.

In one particularly telling moment, Hernán and Antonio steal a set of encyclopedias from the local school. Antonio is convinced that the words contained in the volumes will lead him to a better life, but, inevitably, he is caught. Parents break down his door in search of the encyclopedias, which they, too, believe to be the key to their children's futures. But when the encyclopedias can't be found, they trash Antonio's house and fight amongst themselves. Unlike the Brazilian soccer players, they can never seem to work together, even if it's the only real path out of poverty.

Grostephan held my attention from start to finish with his sharp prose, beautiful and grotesque images, and his willingness to craft characters that are difficult to like but fascinating to follow.

The book does end rather abruptly, but all the characters are left to just keep on keeping on, with no payoff guaranteed--or even likely--just as in the real world of these folks, whether in Bogota, Johannesburg or Mumbai or a hundred other similar settings.

Book review by Andrew P.

"Notebook of a return to the native land" by Aimé Césaire

I was not familiar with Aime Cesaire before reading this book, but I was entranced with the essays and expanded by the ideas contained within this notebook.

Aime Cesaire, from the Carribean island of Martinique, has written an incredibly powerful poem that focuses on the sufferings of Black people under colonialism. The poem, surrealist in nature at times, features rich language and detailed poetic pictures of the inequalities, hard labor, and abuse that the Black people endured under the oppression of colonialist rule. But Cesaire also infuses the poem, in its final passages, with hope for a brighter day in the struggle against racism where the race will be "standing and free." Cesaire was co-creator (with Leopold Senghor) of the concept of Negritude, a literary and cultural movement that emphasized pride in African heritage and culture. His poem is one of the finest examples of 20th century poetry and it demands close reading to unveil its many sparkling diamonds. It is a literary minefield that will enrich all who attend to its beauty and truth.

Book review by Liza S.

 

Transnational Intercultural Reading Day

The 5th of June, at the Central Library of Narva, Estonia, it took place the Transnational Reading Day on Interculture planned by the Read-Over partnership. The organization and coordination was in the hands of the Narva Central Libray, namely - in particular - Larisa Sheparenko and Stiina Koit.

Conference had 58 registered participants. That included the project partners and guests from Lithuania (Šiauliai) and Russia (Ivangorod), but did not include Russian guests via Skype.
The event started with welcoming words from Maritsa Ort, Narva Central Library director. Followed by the introduction of READ-OVER project by Cristina Miliacca from Tecnopra s.a.s..
The speakers focused in different issues and opportunities for immigrants both in Narva and as a whole. Representatives of Narva Central Library (Tatjana and Stiina) spoke of different methods they use in working with books and reading for adults. Guest speaker from Lithuania spoke of their experiences in working with international exchange students and guests from Russia spoke (via Skype) about working with children of immigrants and the issues of adapting them into the cities social-cultural environment.
The conference ended with an evaluation workshop provided by Élan Interculturel.
 

French Intercultural Reading Day

Saturday 23rd May 2015 at Centre Autonome Solidaire Artistique Poblano  (15 rue Lavoisier, Montreuil) took place the “National Reading Day” called “Lire ensemble à travers les frontières culturelles”.

The event started with the presentation of the European project Clubs de Lecture (goals, activities, products). Then, the first activity started: a participative workshop “Jouons avec la literature”, conducted by the d’Elan Interculturel’s team with the collaboration of two representatives of our Estonian partner: the Library of Narva. We read classical texts into different languages, played with the various phonemes and accents, and mimed and learned from the words in the languages of the participants (French, Spanish, English, German, Italian, Russian, Estonian). 
After this ludic workshop about the reading and languages, we were pleased to let us transport to a magic world with the tales of Carine Granger. Later two workshops were organized in parallel: 
-  “Traditional tales for children”, hosted by the actor Ivan Gonzalez 
-   “Conference-workshop on the practice of the creative reading” hosted by the poet Gonzalo Yáñez

In addition, throughout the day, the participants could exchange books in the  “Bibliothèque Éphémère” and tasting a delicious multicultural buffet.