Mandy Wight
@mandywight.bsky.social
Book blogger, reader, German to English translator, languages teacher. Joys in life include hill and city walking, yoga, tango, travelling, theatre and cinema, speaking languages I know, and having a go at learning new ones.
It's week 4 of #GermanLitMonth2025 peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/11/24/g...
German Lit Month 2025 Week 4-Das Liebespaar des Jahrhunderts-The Couple of the Century by Julia Schoch.
This week is supposed to be about writers from the former GDR. I can’t really categorise Julia Schoch as such. She was in her mid-teens at the time of reunification, and so has lived most of her li…
peakreads.wordpress.com
November 24, 2025 at 6:24 PM
It's week 4 of #GermanLitMonth2025 peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/11/24/g...
Week 3 of #GermanLitMonth and I'm reading Volker Weidermann on Thomas Mann: peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/11/20/m...
German Lit Month 2025-Mann vom Meer-Thomas Mann, Man of the Sea, by Volker Weidermann.
Here I am again, reading around the great Thomas Mann, rather than tackling the work itself. But I couldn’t resist this book, recommended by danares.mag-blog, as I very much enjoyed Volker Weiderma…
peakreads.wordpress.com
November 20, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Week 3 of #GermanLitMonth and I'm reading Volker Weidermann on Thomas Mann: peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/11/20/m...
It's Thomas Mann week in #germanlitmonth and I've read Norman Ohler's book on 'The Magic Mountain'
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/11/17/g...
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/11/17/g...
German Lit Month 2025- Week 3- Thomas Mann. Der Zauberberg, die ganze Geschichte by Norman Ohler.
It feels like Thomas Mann has been on my mind this whole past year—not surprisingly, as 2025 is the 150th anniversary since his birth, and readers have been looking again at the man and his work. F…
peakreads.wordpress.com
November 17, 2025 at 11:31 AM
It's Thomas Mann week in #germanlitmonth and I've read Norman Ohler's book on 'The Magic Mountain'
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/11/17/g...
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/11/17/g...
I loved this book about gardens and so much more : peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/11/10/t...
The Garden Against Time by Olivia Laing.
Contrary to what the title suggests, this is not just a book about gardens or gardening. It is certainly both those things. But it’s also an exploration of cultural, literary and political ideas ar…
peakreads.wordpress.com
November 10, 2025 at 3:01 PM
I loved this book about gardens and so much more : peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/11/10/t...
In week 2 of #germanlitmonth it's all about The City. I've read this beautiful novella set in Rome by FCDelius translated by Jamie Bulloch :
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/11/10/g...
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/11/10/g...
German Lit Month 2025- Week 2- The City-Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman by FC Delius, translated by Jamie Bulloch
What better book to suit this week’s German Lit Month theme than this short novella, set in Rome? It takes place over one hour in January 1943 and is an inner monologue told by a young woman walkin…
peakreads.wordpress.com
November 10, 2025 at 9:43 AM
In week 2 of #germanlitmonth it's all about The City. I've read this beautiful novella set in Rome by FCDelius translated by Jamie Bulloch :
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/11/10/g...
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/11/10/g...
My first book for #germanlitmonth. I've not followed the suggested schedule as this was calling me from the bookcase and I'm so pleased to have read it: peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/11/03/g...
German Literature Month XV- Inheritance ( Erbgut) by Marlen Hobrack
Many of us in mid-life go through the sad business of clearing out a deceased parent’s home. Few will encounter a challenge as overwhelming as that faced by Marlen Hobrack when her mother died: she…
peakreads.wordpress.com
November 3, 2025 at 6:28 PM
My first book for #germanlitmonth. I've not followed the suggested schedule as this was calling me from the bookcase and I'm so pleased to have read it: peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/11/03/g...
I've just read the latest unsettling collection from Samanta Schweblin:
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/10/20/g...
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/10/20/g...
Good and Evil and Other Stories by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell.
I’ve admired Samanta Schweblin’s previous writing—the novella Fever Dream, the short story collection A Mouthful of Birds, then the novel Little Eyes and the short stories Seven Empty Houses both r…
peakreads.wordpress.com
October 20, 2025 at 10:16 AM
I've just read the latest unsettling collection from Samanta Schweblin:
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/10/20/g...
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/10/20/g...
I can't remember what put me onto this novel but having read it I'm a dedicated Alice Zeniter fan and eagerly waiting for more work of hers to be translated @terribleman.com peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/10/16/l...
L’Art de Perdre-The Art of Losing by Alice Zeniter translated by Frank Wyne.
This multi-generational family novel tells the story of a family’s transition from Algeria to France in 1962 when Algeria gained independence from France. The novel spans the period from the early …
peakreads.wordpress.com
October 16, 2025 at 3:18 PM
I can't remember what put me onto this novel but having read it I'm a dedicated Alice Zeniter fan and eagerly waiting for more work of hers to be translated @terribleman.com peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/10/16/l...
'Endling' by Maria Reva is about snails and brides and how to write about war. It's a great and a sobering read :
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/09/28/e...
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/09/28/e...
Endling by Maria Reva
This engaging novel, long listed for the Booker Prize 2025, tells the story of three women working for the Romeo meets Yulia Bridal Agency in Ukraine. They meet just days before the full-scale inva…
peakreads.wordpress.com
September 28, 2025 at 5:24 PM
'Endling' by Maria Reva is about snails and brides and how to write about war. It's a great and a sobering read :
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/09/28/e...
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/09/28/e...
The world of 1348 is not as far away as you might think: peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/09/16/t...
To Calais in Ordinary Time by James Meek.
I’m not a great reader of historical fiction, though I hugely enjoyed Daniel Kehlmann’s Tyll, and Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy. Those novels were set in the Thirty Years’ War of the 1600…
peakreads.wordpress.com
September 16, 2025 at 8:50 AM
The world of 1348 is not as far away as you might think: peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/09/16/t...
I've just read this moving account of Didier Eribon's mother in old age-her time in a nursing home, their relationship, his appreciation of what she did for him: peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/09/05/t...
The Life, Old Age and Death of a Working-Class Woman by Didier Eribon, translated by Michael Lucey.
Didier Eribon is probably best known to Anglophone readers for his memoir Return to Reims. There, he writes about his re-engagement with his family after decades of estrangement, in which he moved …
peakreads.wordpress.com
September 5, 2025 at 4:58 PM
I've just read this moving account of Didier Eribon's mother in old age-her time in a nursing home, their relationship, his appreciation of what she did for him: peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/09/05/t...
Sorry-just one day late for August's #Womenintranslation25 month- Natalia Ginzburg's last novel: peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/09/01/t...
The City and the House by Natalia Ginzburg translated by Dick Davis-Women in Translation Month 2025.
I have to say that when I started reading this novel for Women in Translation Month, I did think the unthinkable: can one have a little too much of Natalia Ginzburg? It’s been, after all, barely tw…
peakreads.wordpress.com
September 1, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Sorry-just one day late for August's #Womenintranslation25 month- Natalia Ginzburg's last novel: peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/09/01/t...
I enjoyed this translation from Welsh of Kate Roberts’ Feet in Chains read for #WITMonth2025
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/08/28/f...
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/08/28/f...
Feet in Chains by Kate Roberts, translated by Katie Gramich, read for Women in Translation Month 2025.
The Welsh writer Kate Roberts was born in Caernarfonshire in 1891 and brought up in the slate-quarrying area of North-West Wales. She knew well, therefore, the landscape and the world of the quarry…
peakreads.wordpress.com
August 28, 2025 at 12:59 PM
I enjoyed this translation from Welsh of Kate Roberts’ Feet in Chains read for #WITMonth2025
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/08/28/f...
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/08/28/f...
Katja Hoyer visits Guben in East Germany to see if differences still persist between East and West
http//:www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002hkw3?partner=uk.co.bbc
http//:www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002hkw3?partner=uk.co.bbc
Currently - Germany: United and Divided - BBC Sounds
Historian Katja Hoyer investigates East German disillusion 35 years after reunification.
www.bbc.co.uk
August 27, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Katja Hoyer visits Guben in East Germany to see if differences still persist between East and West
http//:www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002hkw3?partner=uk.co.bbc
http//:www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002hkw3?partner=uk.co.bbc
I've just read this moving novel for #WITMonth in stunning translation by Sam Taylor: peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/08/24/t...
The Heart by Maylis de Kerangal, translated by Sam Taylor.
I chose this novel for WITMonth because I loved Eastbound by Maylis de Kerangal, translated by Jessica Moore. The Heart touched me even more and in a more profound place. It’s not a romance, as yo…
peakreads.wordpress.com
August 24, 2025 at 11:57 AM
I've just read this moving novel for #WITMonth in stunning translation by Sam Taylor: peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/08/24/t...
I visited Hay last week and just had to stock up on Welsh writing.
August 23, 2025 at 6:59 AM
I visited Hay last week and just had to stock up on Welsh writing.
Still loving Natalia Ginzburg, read for #Womenintranslation Month2025 peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/08/13/v...
Voices in the Evening by Natalia Ginzburg translated by D. M. Low
It’s been such a joy to read Natalia Ginzburg again for Women in Translation Month—though odd to call it a joy really when, as in so many of her books, her characters’ desire for love and connectio…
peakreads.wordpress.com
August 13, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Still loving Natalia Ginzburg, read for #Womenintranslation Month2025 peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/08/13/v...
This was my first book read for #WomeninTranslation month 2025-an excellent, moving, family novel set in Iran and Germany, told in different voices: peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/08/08/t...
The Nights are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar translated by Ruth Martin.
In February 2024 I attended a book launch at London’s Goethe Institut where Shida Bazyar and her translator, Ruth Martin, presented her debut novel Sisters in Arms. I really enjoyed this book and w…
peakreads.wordpress.com
August 8, 2025 at 6:04 AM
This was my first book read for #WomeninTranslation month 2025-an excellent, moving, family novel set in Iran and Germany, told in different voices: peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/08/08/t...
So great to hear @frankcottrellboyce.bsky.social on @bbcradio4.bsky.social talk about Norman Lewis’ book Naples 44 as the book he would gift. Such a powerful shattering book about that great city at the end of the war.
August 4, 2025 at 7:34 AM
So great to hear @frankcottrellboyce.bsky.social on @bbcradio4.bsky.social talk about Norman Lewis’ book Naples 44 as the book he would gift. Such a powerful shattering book about that great city at the end of the war.
Before I start on my #WomeninTranslation month books I had to read this- it’s a worthy winner of the #2025 Women’s Prize peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/08/01/t...
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
The Safekeep, which has just won the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction, draws you in from the very beginning. Isabel finds a broken piece of ceramic under the roots of a dead gourd amongst the vegetab…
peakreads.wordpress.com
August 1, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Before I start on my #WomeninTranslation month books I had to read this- it’s a worthy winner of the #2025 Women’s Prize peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/08/01/t...
So this is my reading pile for #WomeninTranslation month 2025. Aiming high.
July 31, 2025 at 3:55 PM
So this is my reading pile for #WomeninTranslation month 2025. Aiming high.
This account of meeting an unknown sister got right under my skin:
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/07/29/d...
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/07/29/d...
Das Vorkommnis- The Event by Julia Schoch
This short, concise novel begins with the eponymous event. The first person narrator, a writer, has just finished a reading of her new novel in the arts centre of a North German town. She’s sitting…
peakreads.wordpress.com
July 29, 2025 at 9:07 AM
This account of meeting an unknown sister got right under my skin:
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/07/29/d...
peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/07/29/d...
Katja Hoyer's engaging history of East Germany filled in many gaps for me and has a place on the shelf of every historian, Germanist, or indeed general reader: peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/07/23/b...
Beyond the Wall, East Germany 1949-1990 by Katja Hoyer
In this fascinating history of the 40 year life of the German Democratic Republic, Katja Hoyer aims to set the record straight. In the preface she says that reunification of East and West Germany i…
peakreads.wordpress.com
July 23, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Katja Hoyer's engaging history of East Germany filled in many gaps for me and has a place on the shelf of every historian, Germanist, or indeed general reader: peakreads.wordpress.com/2025/07/23/b...
Reposted by Mandy Wight
“We are modernising our approach to international development” claims Govt. No, you’re eviscerating it, with your own impact assessment showing most vulnerable communities hit hardest, increasing suffering & driving global insecurity. Ministers should hang their heads in shame @oxfamgb.bsky.social
UK’s aid cuts ‘will hit children’s education and raise risk of death’
Cutting aid budget to 0.3% of national income will hurt many African countries, says FCDO impact assessment
www.theguardian.com
July 23, 2025 at 7:05 AM
“We are modernising our approach to international development” claims Govt. No, you’re eviscerating it, with your own impact assessment showing most vulnerable communities hit hardest, increasing suffering & driving global insecurity. Ministers should hang their heads in shame @oxfamgb.bsky.social
Excellent to hear BBC Radio 4'sToday programme focusing on the difficulties faced by care leavers and others in providing landlords with a guarantor. Thanks to Leeds MP Alex Sobel and the charity Become @becomecharity.org.uk @katharinesj.bsky.social for highlighting this issue.
July 22, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Excellent to hear BBC Radio 4'sToday programme focusing on the difficulties faced by care leavers and others in providing landlords with a guarantor. Thanks to Leeds MP Alex Sobel and the charity Become @becomecharity.org.uk @katharinesj.bsky.social for highlighting this issue.