While I’m still reading some of the books I mentioned recently, I read Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi, translated by Sherif Hetata for Women in Translation Month this weekend.

This story is brutal but a must read. More so than the story of a woman facing death row it is about a patriarchal society that has been against her  and what led to her complete disillusionment with life that death seems like finally being free and that she has the power over her life. I’ll try to do a bit more of a recap but I do recommend this one.

How about you, have you been reading something for #WITMonth? I wanted to share a couple of links with you in case you need some inspiration on what to pick next:

Here’s an article from Restless Books from last year with some recommendations. They are currently having a sale on selection fo Women in Translation books.

Words without Borders is always a great source for books from across the world and they also have a list of recent books by Women Writers. I’ve only read Convenience Store Woman by Sayakua Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori. I really liked this one so I can definitely recommend it.

I’ve also recently discovered Asymptote which is an online journal devoted to unlocking the literary treasures across the world.

If you are looking to add more titles to your bookshelves, take a look at Open Letter Books which is running a promotion and offering 40% off on titles throughout August. I had to get some titles so I’ll share what I got when they arrive.

I hope you are discovering lots of great writers and learning more about other cultures. I’m not sure what my next book for WIT month will be but I’ll keep you posted.

“While the rest of the town knew the worst had happened, Piper held out hope. Maybe Tom got disoriented and saw in the wrong direction, washed up on a deserted island, and was currently eating coconuts and writing messages in palm fronds for passing airplanes.”

The Invisible Husband of Frick Island
By Colleen Oakley
Source: Advance review copy

When Tom’s boat capsized as the days passed, Piper became more frustrated at the rescue efforts and couldn’t imagine her life with Tom. She doesn’t like it when people start to refer to Tom in the past tense and one day she knows he’s returned even if no one else can see him.

When Anders Caldwell, a newspaper journalist, travels to Frick Island to cover the local cakewalk, he can’t imagine how doing writing pieces like these will help his career but when he hears about Piper’s husband, he thinks he may finally have the scoop he needs to get that breakthrough. Now all he has to do is get back to Frick Island.

So Anders comes up with a cover story of why he needs to return to Frick Island and starts to gain the residents’ trust. He tells them that he is doing a story about climate change but he finds that as soon as he asks about Piper, the residents shut down. And, why is that when he is with Piper he gets flustered and can’t seem to talk to her.

As the story unfolds, Anders’ finds that his podcast is gaining a lot of recognition and his listeners are hooked to find out more about Piper. Now, Anders’ needs to come clean to Piper but will risk disappointing her and the residents of Frick Island.

This was such a charming story filled with a lot of humor and affection. I couldn’t help but think how nice that the community rallied around Piper to support her and how they slowly came around to Anders. There were some funny scenes, usually because Anders was getting into scrapes and overall this ended up being a perfect summer read.