Mini-Episode 4: News in Books & Book Review w. Daniela Barani (A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles)

<p>Welcome back to Got Books. Today, I want to share books related news that caught my eye this week that I hope you'll find interesting, and we'll then move on to review one of my favourite books of the past years. Let's get started.</p> <p>First, an article I read in the BBC talks about Somali women breaking tradition to write novels.</p> <p>For centuries, Somalia has been known as the "nation of poets" but this tradition has largely been the preserve of men. It is unusual for Somali women to be the primary storytellers, yet they are now the ones taking on that mantle when living abroad. One of these storytellers is Ali Farah, who says this is because they have "more space" outside Somalia to pursue their literary ambitions - unshackled as they are from the cultural expectations placed upon them in a male-dominated society. You can read more about Ali Farah's work and new book in the BBC article <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-58845340">https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-58845340</a></p> <p>Speaking of women in literature, a woman won a million-euro Spanish literary prize. But then It turned out that ‘she’ was actually three men. Maybe it won't surprise you to hear that the work of one woman was, it turned out, the equivalent of the work of three men.</p> <p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/10/17/carmen-mola-spain-gender-reveal-female-writer-three-men/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/10/17/carmen-mola-spain-gender-reveal-female-writer-three-men/</a></p> <p>Next up, we go to Israel, where two of the biggest bookstores say they are no longer selling works by Irish author Sally Rooney, after she refused to allow an Israeli publisher to translate her new book into Hebrew. You may have heard about this already, as it was also a big Twitter event, but essentially: Sally Rooney said it was in support of calls to boycott Israel over its policies towards the Palestinians. The move by the bookstores follows a backlash against Rooney's decision.</p> <p>And finally, before we