Europa Editions

Europa Editions is a publishing company founded in 2005 and based in New York.  It publishes European authors in translation.  The books are all the same size paperbacks and have publisher’s name and a stork logo on the front cover.  The first translation they published was  Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante  I had read and enjoyed it  The first best seller they had was The Elegance pf the Hedghog by Muriel Barbery but I still took no notice of this publisher.  I thought I was just lucky finding these good reads.                    

I was reading An Accident in August  by Laurence Cosse and enjoying it when I realized it was a Europa Publication. Then I started paying attention and realized I have never come across a boring one.  According to Wikipedia The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine by Alina Bronsky is the 100^th publication of this company.  The company publishes about 20 titles a year.  I have read another title by Alina Bronsky and enjoyed it.  Will read her latest.  My favorite read from last year is an Europa Publication A Kind of Intimacy by Jenn Ashworth.

~Maggie

Heft by Liz Moore

Review by Maggie:

Arthur Opp is nearly 600 lbs and has not left his Brooklyn brownstone in nearly ten years.  Fortunately for him he owns his home and has a trust fund that enables him to have all the food he wants delivered to his home.  Although he was always misfit he was an academic before becoming a recluse.  He kept up a correspondence with a former student but has not heard from her in years.    Out of the blue he gets a letter and she wants to visit with him----Arthur feels he must warn her about his living conditions (he has not been upstairs in his house in many years climbing stairs is too difficult) but he welcomes the idea of being back in touch.  She has secrets of her own---one being she has a teenage son-----

Soon Arthur has cleaning lady that he develops a friendship with and we then hear of his back story.  In the meantime, the novel alternates between Arthur’s life and the tale of  Kel the teenage son of his former student.  It is easy to like Arthur and I found his sections more interesting than Kel the teenage boy.   It is a very compelling read----one cannot help but like Arthur.
~Maggie

Request Heft from the Bangor Public Library