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.

First, an article I read in the BBC talks about Somali women breaking tradition to write novels.

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 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-58845340

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.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/10/17/carmen-mola-spain-gender-reveal-female-writer-three-men/

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.

And finally, before we go to our book review, I thought I'd share with you a list of lists. A few friends asked me recently what to read - autumn and winter and good times to cozy up with a book, but..which book? Lithub has taken a mathematical approach to this conundrum and they compiled The Ultimate Fall 2021 Books - by looking over a total of 36 lists, which together recommended over 400 books being published this autumn. Seventy-seven of those 400 were recommended at least three times, and that's how they made it on this list of list. I'll just tell you the top 5 and link the article so you can check them all out. So top 5 most mentioned books on lists of books are - Colson Whitehead, Harlem Shuffle; the just mentioned Sally Rooney, Beautiful World, Where Are You (which by the way we reviewed on a previous episode, if you're curious); Lauren Groff, Matrix; Anthony Doerr, Cloud Cuckoo Land; and Jonathan Franzen, Crossroads.

https://lithub.com/the-ultimate-fall-2021-books-preview/

And now, let's chat to Daniela Barani about a great book: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.

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