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Anna von Rath

diversity trainer, translator and editor of poco.lit.

Natasha Brown
Assembly

As the title of Natasha Brown’s debut novel suggests, it amounts to a coming-together, an assembling. A Black British woman attends a party for an upper-class white family. This celebration in rural England is the culmination of her inner dilemmas: has she made it or are her actions making her an accomplice to the racism she experiences? At this party, she makes up her mind.

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Abulrazak Gurnah
By the Sea

Since Abdulrazak Gurnah was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021, the Zanzibar-born author who lives in the UK has suddenly become known to mainstream audiences. Gurnah’s 2001 novel By the sea is about a dispute between two families that takes place against a backdrop of political change.

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Mario Vargas Llosa
Harsh Times

Since poco.lit. is an English and German language platform, we rarely review books from other language zones. As such, it’s something of an exception that Peruvian winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Mario Vargas Llosa, should appear here. His latest novel Harsh Times sheds light on colonial power relations that are not based on the official colonial structures.

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