• William Giraldi’s of Aharon Appelfeld’s “Being labeled a Holocaust writer might indeed irritate Appelfeld, but no living novelistÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½”not Wiesel, not Amos OzÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½”better chronicles the spiritual vacuum and extreme disorientation that ensued in the aftermath of Auschwitz.”

• John Freeman’s of Impac Prize winner Tahar Ben Jelloun’s “Leaving Tangier would read like a blunt political instrument for such sentiments were Ben Jelloun not such a wonderfully specific writer.”

• Thomas Israel Hopkin’s of Albert Sánchez PiñolÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s “Some British reviewers have judged the novel to be postmodern, satiric, and anti-imperialist, but the Garvey/not-Garvey gimmick is more like listening to a protracted joke told by the bastard offspring of Jules Verne and the Eric Idle character Mr. Smoke-Too-Much. ItÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s not funny. It is, rather, sort of maddening. If IÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™ve completely missed something clever here, IÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™d be delighted to learn what it is.”

• Matthew Ladd’s on Abdourahman A. Waberi’s “f there is a sharp glimmer of the absurd in WaberiÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s premise, it suits his satire as well as the absurdity of the Lilliputians did SwiftÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s or that of Pangloss did VoltaireÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s. The satirists of the eighteenth century are in fact WaberiÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s most evident formal predecessors; his short chapters open with such archaic and mellifluous titles as ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½œ‘In which the author gives a brief account of the origins of our prosperity and the reasons why the Caucasians were thrown onto the paths of exile.’ “

• and, Irene Gammel’s at Ghérasim Luca’s “Praised by Gilles Deleuze as ‘a great poet among the greatest,’ Luca is well served here not only by Krzysztof FijaÅ‚kowskiÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s faithful translation but also by the elegant introduction, which provides fascinating biographical details and deftly situates the book ‘as a missing piece in the history of international surrealism.’ “ (Gwen Dawson also this book at Literary License, giving it a solid four stars.)

Of course, there are many more good articles in this new issue worth checking out, all of which are available

(And just to note—links from the titles above go to Harvard Book Store’s online ordering system. Unfortunately a few of the titles aren’t currently in stock, but I’m sure they can get the book pretty quickly . . .)