Cover of Elevator in Sài Gòn by Thuận, translated by Nguyễn An Lý. THe cover has five picture arranged at angles on it, with white space between. In the centre is a sepia-toned picture of a woman covering her eyes. The others are pink tones pictures of flowers.

Elevator in Sài Gòn by Thuận, translated by Nguyễn An Lý

The daughter finds her mother’s notebook, sewn into her pillow, and begins to investigate a figure from her revolutionary past: a man named Paul Polotsky, who lived in Paris in the 1950s. Back in Paris, she manages to track him down and begins to follow him, her life narrowing on this sole focus. What, exactly, was the relationship between her mother and Polotsky?

A light purple cover of a view through an ear-shaped whole to a covered shelter behind some trees. The title is in yellow text.

THINGS YOU MAY FIND HIDDEN IN MY EAR: POEMS FROM GAZA by Mosab Abu Toha

Political poetry is crucial to the Palestinian literary tradition, embodied perhaps most famously by the poet and author Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008), who was displaced as a child during the Nakba. This rich literary tradition also includes Ghassan Kanafani (1936-1972), displaced to Lebanon in 1948 and assassinated by the Mossad at the age of 36. Many readers are familiar with Refaat Alareer, the poet and literature professor whose poem “If I Must Die” was circulated widely after his assassination in 2023. His colleague and close friend, Mosab Abu Toha, enters this impressive lineage with his debut collection, Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear. 

This Other Eden by Paul Harding

Clementine’s Take: In the late 18th century, the formerly enslaved Benjamin Honey and his Irish wife Patience establish a small colony on an island off the coast of Maine. Over a century later, their descendants and a few others still live on the island – a group of about twenty semi-self-sufficient mixed-race islanders. A few …

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