Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch, by Rivka Galchen
This book made it into my suitcase in NYC. Until the container ship got through customs and our stuff showed up in a truck, I had one large suitcase, a carry-on suitcase, and a backpack to myself. My husband and I shared a medium suitcase for our shoes. This was what I had planned to live out of for at least three months. You know what they say about plans…1
I bought the book in the first place because Rivka Galchen is a wonderful and hilarious writer as well as a wonderful and hilarious teacher.
Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch is based on the true story of Katharina Kepler, mother of the mathematician. The 1620s read like the 2020s: funny in a dark way. Unreasonable and heartbreaking.
I finished the novel in one fell swoop on the “beach” at the North Sea (see photo above). The tides go and leave you wondering if you’re actually at the sea or sitting on the moon, an appropriately uncanny setting to read a book about a woman accused of being a witch.
Fifty Sounds, by Polly Barton
This book was given to me as a welcome gift by the amazing artist, director, pyrotechnician, and friend, Lea Letzel. Go watch one of her works here.
In a happy surprise of synchronicity, Rivka Galchen had blurbed the book.
I’d first come across Polly Barton’s work as a translator, specifically in Where the Wild Ladies Are, written by Aoko Matsuda. Though that book was not in my suitcase, I would recommend it to anyone who loves Angela Carter.
Fifty Sounds begins with Barton somewhat randomly moving to Japan to teach English after university. Among other inspirations, this book gave me the courage to speak German badly.
I just picked up Barton’s latest book, PORN, this past weekend. WOO!
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