This is one of those delightful books that makes you stop and want to write down bits of it in order to remember the words forever. The cover reviewer is correct - this book does break your heart - so beware.
The main character is a so-called "unnecessary woman", living in Lebanon during the civil war. No one seems to want or need her, even her husband. She spends her life translating writers, storing up boxes of gradually bettering translations of the classics and new writers into Arabic.
I loved this complaining, grumbly women. She's 72, but I can identify with her feelings of invisibility and her need for something significant to hang onto. I traveled through this book, gradually coming to dread the end - both because I thought it would end one way (it doesn't) and because I feel I've lost the kind of person I would have loved to have spent afternoons with, discussing literature.
The true pleasure in this book are the selected words of other writers and her wise, cheeky, worldly interpretation of them.
Highly highly recommended. I found myself smiling throughout and weeping near the end. Truly a read to wallow in.
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Interesting, SO many books to read! ( )

Aaliah Saleh resides in her old apartment in Beirut. She has translated 37 books into Arabic via a convoluted system, making 1 translation a year, but never submitted them for publication. She is in love with certain books and certain writers, Pessoa and his other identities especially.

In her 60s now, and having spent much of her life in solitude she reflects on her family with whom she has little to do, and the overheard title-tattle of three other women who live in her block.

While I liked this book, and some elements are likely to stay with me, I think other LTers enjoyed it more. ( )

Set in Beirut, the narrator is a reclusive 72 year old woman, Aaliya Saleh, struggling to maintain dignity, while coming to terms with aging and she reflects on the past and her life, through the books she’s read.

I enjoyed the ramblings of this beautiful soul. I loved how each of her thoughts led to other thoughts as she repeatedly digressed and interrupted herself and it didn’t matter as everything flowed so well. And the books she mentions …. there are sooooo many books! There is heaps of information packed into such a short book and all so interesting. I laughed, I watched and waited with trepidation, I cringed, I was overwhelmed with sadness and was left with much to think about as I began to care so much about Aaliya, as time progressed. This is my first time reading a book by Rabih Alameddine. It is a Bookclub read and am looking forward to the discussion in a few weeks time. ( )

I read this for one of our reading groups and it went over very well. I loved the main character's voice, her acerbic way of dealing with people, undercut by her deep sense of valuelessness. Each year, she translates a classic text using English and French translations from the original Russian or German, and by doing this and reading she has educated herself in philosophy, literature and music. In her monologue, we learn about her early life, her marriage, her neighbors, her dearest friend, and her city, Beirut, with its layers of history, presented almost like a palimpsest to the reader. Change comes with an astonishing rapprochement and a comic domestic accident, which may lead her to a newer, fuller appreciation of herself and life. ( )