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The talk was called “Three Daughters of Osaka”, and Catherine Taylor (obviously the go-to moderator for J-Lit) was back to ask the questions, and generally gush about her love for the book. Sam Bett and David Boyd – see my reviews here and here), and her session on Thursday, the 27th of August, made for a fitting end to my festival experience.

One of my favourite reads so far this year was Mieko Kawakami’s Breasts and Eggs (tr. Let’s move on, then, to the final session I attended, which was actually the first one I booked (the moment I heard the schedule was live!). A sign of how far there is to go, though, is the fact that the work is still more of interest to girls than boys, with the stories within seen as “a problem for girls” – at which Enriquez reminded (or informed) us that abortion is still illegal in Argentina… In recent years, there has been a lot of awareness raising through campaigning, and she also told of how her book is read in schools, and of being invited to give talks. When asked about the current situation in Argentina, Almada said that the lockdown wasn’t great for women suffering from violence, which is still a big problem in her country. Nevertheless, she came through unscathed, and enjoyed her venture into non-fiction, sensing closure after having done her story justice. From the start, she had a strange feeling about him, and the repeated delays, the deserted meeting place and the photo he showed of his sister (from the morgue…) only added to her misgivings.

One notable example was an interview she arranged with the brother of one of the women. One part of the talk had the writer describing her journeys to interview relatives, with the discomfort she felt becoming an integral part of the book. While the subject matter was sensitive, the writer said that the families and friends of the titular dead girls were happy to help, and glad someone was writing about their loved ones. Having received research funding, she worked on the book at the same time as she was producing her fiction, and it was eventually published in 2013. However, she’d always wanted to write about the case properly, and the end result was a non-fiction work looking at three crimes against women. When asked about the book’s background, Almada described how one of the stories detailed in her book had actually inspired a short story back in 2008. Here’s hoping that’s been fixed over at the site… Quite apart from the dogs I’m sure I wasn’t imagining barking in the background, this was a Spanish-language session, and even though there were subtitles provided, they had a life of their own and rarely coincided with what was actually being said at the time. Unfortunately, however, there were several issues. Annie McDermott), and with the irrepressible Mariana Enriquez once again on moderation duties, it promised to be an intriguing session.

The focus of the talk was Almada’s latest book in English, Dead Girls (released this week by Charco Press, tr. I enjoyed Selva Almada’s sparse debut novel The Wind that Lays Waste (translated by Chris Andrews) when I read it a few months back, so I was keen to hear what she had to say in her session “Giving Voice to the Victims of Femicide” on Tuesday, the 25th of August. It may be September, but there’s always time for Women In Translation Month, so please enjoy my final contributions to this year’s event 🙂 The first takes us to Argentina, for three rather sobering stories, before we head off to Japan for a slightly cheerier tale with a focus on family. Having looked at the six sessions with the writers shortlisted for this year’s International Booker Prize, I just have a couple more talks to discuss today in the last of my wrap-up posts on this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival.