Tuva Kahrs's Reading List

"Grendel is a 1971 novel based on the Old English poem Beowulf , which is thought to have been recited or sung from memory before it was written down. In essence, the story is that a monster called Grendel plagues the great hall of King Hrothgar, a 6th century Danish king. Beowulf, a hero from Götaland in Sweden, comes to kill the monster and also has to face Grendel’s mother and, later in life, a dragon. Grendel is a retelling of the story from the monster’s point of view, and the monster is basically Jean-Paul Sartre . What makes this slim novel so brilliant is that Grendel is a philosopher, but he is also absolutely a monster. He lives in a cave with his blob of a mother and has all the instincts to kill, eat and survive. At the same time, he has a mind that ponders meaning—relentlessly searching for answers, he wants to know what it is all for. “The stories that are passed from generation to generation both express and shape our values ” Grendel is bewildered by the behaviour of humans, who both fascinate and disgust him, and is furious with himself for his need to spy on them. Poetry is the only thing that moves him. In this novel, the character of the Shaper—the storyteller—is more significant than that of Beowulf. The hero, after all, is only as great as the monster he pits himself against. Grendel is a thought-provoking and, at times, funny retelling of the ancient story about the monster that might come and get us at any time, preferably in the dark. Unbound by convention and unconcerned with anachronisms, this novel is not only an energetic and enjoyable take on the well-known monster-slaying tale, but also on our existentialist search for meaning."

"Three Kingdoms is not just an epic historical novel, it’s one of the most influential novels of all time. It has shaped Chinese thinking about war, power and diplomacy for centuries, and its characters continue to loom large in the imagination today. It is still a staple of professional oral storytellers who bring to life the drama of battle and inject humour into the larger-than-life characters. Set in the 3rd century, the novel features many historical figures and events. Authorship is attributed to Luo Guanzhong, who lived in the 14th century. You can choose an abridged version, but I have found it very comforting to spend time with the full length, 120-chapter novel—surprising, I admit, considering that the Three Kingdoms period was one of the deadliest in history. The body count by the end of the novel is in the millions. Three Kingdoms is storytelling on the grandest of scales. It starts as the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) is drawing to a close, when court administration has become so corrupt that rebellion looms and outlaws swarm like hornets. Three men swear an oath of allegiance to uphold the Han, and their brotherhood takes centre stage. There are some very strong female characters, but they feature in a tiny fraction of the page count. Other main characters include the ruthless and ambitious Cao Cao, who is wonderfully complex, and Kongming, a master strategist and weapons designer with supernatural powers. Much of the novel is concerned with virtue; how to be a successful commander and righteous ruler. But this is no simplistic battle between good and evil. The question soon arises of what price it is acceptable to pay to achieve a greater purpose. Inevitably, there is conflict between duty and honour, and different views on what constitutes a legitimate dynastic succession. These issues give the novel depth, as the narrative unfolds through battles and ambushes, coalitions and betrayals, elaborate stratagems and convoluted counter-plots. Readers are confronted with warfare in all its complexity. Armchair commanders in the novel quote Sunzi but have no idea how to deal with a rapidly developing crisis. The characters constantly face questions that have no easy answers: how to deal with alternative opinions from your own advisers, the potential consequences of harsh or lenient punishments, how to treat untrustworthy allies or rumours intended to sow distrust… As military fortunes wax and wane over the course of the novel, what we are left with is a sense of the cyclical nature of history . The version of Three Kingdoms most popular today dates from the 1660s. That was when this famous opening line was added: “The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been.”"

"Iceland , per capita, is said to print the most books and have the most published authors of any country in the world, and this is nothing new. Long before sagas were written down, Icelanders were known as master storytellers. Living in a frontier land settled by Norsemen in the 9th century, they had an extraordinary geographic reach, translated voraciously from other languages, and told many different types of sagas. Grettir’s Saga is an outlaw saga, telling the story of the anti-hero Grettir from his early years as a difficult teen who quarrelled with his father, to a man famed for his strength and courage, to a hunted man with a bounty on his head. Things look promising for Grettir at first. He wins admiration by helping others defend against pillaging berserkers, proves very effective in getting rid of trolls and monsters, and is sought after for putting a stop to hauntings and the walking dead. But Grettir is not an easy man to get on with, and with a history of violence he ends up sentenced to full outlawry, meaning that nobody can offer him refuge or help him leave Iceland. What makes life on the run especially hard for this most macho of men is that he is incredibly afraid of the dark. That, and a man who has it in for Grettir keeps sending assassins after him, resorting to ever more extreme methods to finish him off once and for all. There is an intriguing after-story of vengeance, romance and dubious morals which takes place in Constantinople, centred on Grettir’s Norwegian brother Thorstein, who joins the Byzantine emperor’s Varangian guard to seek out Grettir’s antagonist."

"The Kushnameh is a fantastical story of an anti-hero with tusks and elephant ears. Dating from the early 12th century, the style of this translation feels close to that of an epic poem, with declamatory prose and often very beautiful turns of phrase. The action sweeps cinematically from the Korean to the Iberian peninsula, across a surprisingly connected medieval world. The story begins with a frame tale, where the narrative sits within another tale, like in 1001 Nights . In this frame tale, Alexander the Great comes across a statue of Kush the Tusked and seeks out a hermit who can tell him about this warrior king. So, alongside Alexander, the reader is told this unusual tale of utopia and tyranny, of mace-wielding warriors, moon-faced beauties and loyal advisers. As the action moves from Besila (the ancient Korean kingdom of Silla) to the Pyrenees, we hear of Nubians, Arabs, Hindus and Turks, and of many cities and countries along the way, most still familiar to us today. Abandoned by his father at birth because of his monstrous appearance, Kush is raised by Abtin who is biding his time in exile in China until he can restore his family’s dynasty on the throne in Iran . Kush grows into a formidable warrior entirely corrupted by his own power. Even Zahhak, the evil figure with a snake growing out of each shoulder, is shocked at how Kush treats his own children—never mind his oppressed subjects or unfortunate enemies on the battlefield. Against a backdrop of ancient legends, readers are faced with questions of nature and nurture, of what a monster really is and whether he can be reformed. What I find most fascinating is the book’s geographical range. From East Asia to the Horn of Africa, from Central Asia to Andalusia, we get a sense of the value placed not only on wisdom, but on travel in search of knowledge."

"The Tale of Genji was completed in the early 11th century and is one of the oldest — perhaps the oldest — novel in the world. It was written by a Japanese empress’s lady in waiting known as Murasaki Shikibu, in Heian-kyō (Kyoto). Quite a lot is known about the author, who also wrote a diary and a volume of poetic memoirs, including her high level of education and relatively late marriage. The amazing thing is how readable The Tale of Genji is for us now, over a thousand years later. The book follows the life of Genji, a prince, and is a wonderful long read — a psychological novel that not only describes life at court in Heian Japan (794-1185) but also explores universal themes including love and power. The first part of the novel is Genji’s success story, interspersed with scandal and exile. He starts out quite smug, but becomes more likeable with adversity and age. The second section emphasises the fragility of human lives and relationships. The final part is about Genji’s male descendants and the women they court. This section largely deals with how it feels to be a woman, to be entirely dependent on men, and with that the mood gets increasingly dark. There is much sadness in the novel, but plenty of enjoyment of the beautiful things in life. The prose is interspersed with poems and constantly appeals to the senses: nature; the seasons; attention to gardens, trees and blossoms; scents; the perfuming of robes; the colour combinations of layers of clothing; all-night music; parties and food. There are far fewer references to jealousy than one might expect in a story in which the characters constantly seek to assure their position (or that of their children) at court. Instead, the characters’ appreciation of beauty seems really genuine. The novel is known for being about Genji’s many love affairs, but the overarching theme is the transience of life."

"The Plum in the Golden Vase , or Jinpingmei , is set in China’s Shandong province, and is one of the four big classic novels of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). It was published anonymously in the early 17th century but set five centuries earlier, presumably as a safer way to comment on contemporary society. Written in richly textured language, it is a fascinating novel, unlike anything else I have ever read (though its influence on the later Chinese classic novel A Dream of Red Mansions is clear) . However, it is not for everyone — partly because of its length (the amazing English translation is published in five volumes), and partly because some passages are very sexually explicit. The story is about an upwardly mobile and corrupt merchant called Ximen Qing, his household and his various affairs. Everything goes his way for a while. However, his pursuit of sexual, financial and political gratification becomes increasingly depraved, and readers sense that retribution is inevitable as he fails to curb excess or take any moral responsibility. The author very effectively shows the moral degeneration of society by focusing on the household of a middle class man, including all kinds of minute details of daily life. If viewed metaphorically, Ximen Qing and his six wives could be seen to represent the emperor and six ministries of government. The novel emphasises that the corruption is not a matter of some greedy individuals and a few crooked officials: it is top to bottom rottenness on a lavish scale. The national consequences are vividly evoked in the final chapter, which describes the chaos of the Jin invasion and conquest of northern China in 1127. Part of Jinpingmei ‘s appeal is the novel’s perceptiveness about human beings. It is no mean feat that — centuries later — readers are invested in the characters, especially considering that most of them are flawed and even despicable people. They laugh at themselves, quarrel and make up, bear grudges or let slights pass with a joke. The characters are very human, and the extraordinary level of detail makes readers feel like we are really spending time with them. And the sad truth is that the central theme of the novel remains just as relevant today: many people will do anything for money."

"The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong: The Autobiographical Writings of a Crown Princess of Eighteenth-Century Korea This East Asian classic is a bit different from the novels picked so far: it’s a set of memoirs from Joseon dynasty Korea (1392-1897). The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong is a fascinating and intimate read. It is also a unique historical document that brings to life deadly court politics and human tragedies, including the executions of her brother and uncle, and the terror caused by her psychopathic husband. At times, numerous bodies of people he killed or injured were carried from the palace daily. The first memoir is the most personal, written in 1795 when the author turned sixty, and is addressed to her nephew. It very affectionately describes the author’s childhood, and how she was forced at the age of nine to leave her loving family home and move to the royal palace to be married to Crown Prince Sado. The fourth and final memoir is by far the most famous. It was written in 1805 to explain the complex and agonising events leading up to the death of her husband in 1762. Amid rumours and political intrigue, Lady Hyegyong — as the only surviving eyewitness — has decided that it is necessary for her grandson, the current king, to know what happened. She details the difficult relationship between Prince Sado and his father King Yeongjo, and Sado’s mental illness and increasingly violent behaviour. With the safety of the dynasty in the balance, Prince Sado’s parents conclude that he must be eliminated — but not by a normal criminal execution, which would have raised questions about the legitimacy of his descendants’ rule. He was ordered into a rice chest which was sealed, where he died eight days later. Lady Hyegyong views her terrifying husband with much sympathy. Her grief is very moving, as are her descriptions of the conflict between being a good wife and a good mother, and the recognition that the demands of public duty come before compassion for individuals."

"The Shadow Book of Ji Yun is less well known than the other East Asian classics on this list. It is a one-volume collection of vignettes, notes and anecdotes selected from what is five volumes in the Chinese original. It gives us a glimpse of a perceptive writer, Ji Yun, who lived from 1724-1805, and is a good choice for people who prefer to dip into a book rather than follow a narrative, and for anyone who enjoys getting a feel for a very different time. The Shadow Book is an intriguing, continually surprising read, perhaps because some of the stories feel quite contemporary; for example we read about human female souls who are born into male bodies and male souls who are born into female bodies. Having said that, many of the stories would be narrated differently with today’s sensibilities, such as those about ghosts tricking people into committing suicide, which we might now describe in terms of mental illness. Some of the stories are about ghosts and demons, but it is not a ghost story collection. Ji Yun picks out ideas that he thinks are worthy of consideration. He is always curious, keen to hear alternative opinions and discuss. He constantly seeks knowledge and is interested in the experiences and views of others. The author suggests that we should be skeptical of what we hear but have enough humility to accept that the world contains more than our conceptions allow us to see or imagine. Readers are confronted with other dimensions of reality, but also the reality of being human. Much of Ji Yun’s thinking is about being a decent man. Many of the tales have a moral but there is an openness of thought to the collection which is very refreshing, and he is always willing to reflect. More than one story ponders illusions and the fleeting nature of human relationships. We are cautioned against sharp distinctions — if we insist on such categorical definitions we will see neither others nor ourselves clearly; we will merely see what we want in others, and miss the real person."

"This is a really fun and lively historical mystery novel. The detective character is similar in some ways to a 20th-century century wise-cracking, streetwise noir-style private eye, but the setting is 1st century Rome. Unlike his 20th-century counterparts, detective Marcus Didius Falco has an extended family that he can’t ignore, and those relationships bring a humorous dimension to the story. When Falco travels to Britannia to investigate the link between the murder of his client and a political plot, he meets Helena Justina. They promptly make bad impressions on each other, and Falco knows she really doesn’t like him when she sets him up as a slave to do some sleuthing in a silver mine — a very dangerous undercover role to play. In any case, as a love interest Helena Justina is clearly way out of his league, isn’t she? The historical detail is very well researched and the author has not fallen into the trap of trying to give characters contemporary sensibilities. If you want to spend more time with these rather likeable characters, here is some good news: there are twenty books in the Marcus Didius Falco series."

"We’re in Bombay on New Year’s Eve 1949. As newly independent India celebrates the start of the new decade, Inspector Persis Wadia is consigned to the midnight shift in the basement of Malabar House. After six months on the force, she remains India’s only female police detective and — facing both overt and more subtle prejudice — is part of the city’s unit of mistrusted and sidelined officers. When she gets the call about the murder of a prominent English diplomat at his own New Year’s party, she is determined to solve the case, never mind all the feathers she has to ruffle by offending the powerful guests. This is a cracking mystery with an Agatha Christie -esque denouement, as well as an excellent historical novel set in the aftermath of partition. This book, which won the Crime Writers’ Association ‘s historical dagger award, is the first in the Malabar House series."

"Although this historical mystery is a thoroughly Chinese work of detective fiction , it is a great read for people coming from the Western tradition. The detective uses his formidable powers of deduction based on logical thinking and psychological insight, and there are some suspenseful situations during the course of the investigation. Judge Dee himself goes about incognito, and readers also follow the actions of his lieutenants — reformed former highway robbers and conmen — who take part in the investigations in various ways. Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee was written by an anonymous author in the 17th or 18th century but it is set many centuries earlier, in the Tang dynasty. The detective is based on Di Renjie (630-700), who is known to have solved many puzzling cases in real life. In this fictionalised novel, he is magistrate in a district of Shandong province, meaning that he was the detective, prosecutor and judge for the district town and surrounding areas. It was the norm to work on several cases simultaneously, and in this book he solves three different cases. Robert van Gulik, the translator, went on to write 16 Judge Dee mysteries himself (published 1958-1968) which are also well worth reading."

"The Unseeing is a fictional novel about truth and deception based on the historical murder of Hannah Brown in 1836, and the subsequent trial. The fact that the victim’s body parts turned up in different places in London ensured the case’s notoriety. Hannah Brown’s fiancé was swiftly convicted of the murder, and so was his lover Sarah Gale. At her trial, Gale said very little to counter the accusations against her, and this forms the mystery of the novel: what would keep someone silent, when speaking out could help her avoid a death sentence? In the novel, a young lawyer is appointed to review the extent of Sarah Gale’s guilt, to find out what she is hiding and understand her motivation. The author’s background as a criminal justice solicitor and the careful location research combine to give the story an authentic feel. The world around the characters, particularly the notorious Newgate prison, is really well built."

"We’re in 1902 Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire . When a medium is found shot in a room that has been locked from the inside, with no sign of a gun or even a bullet, it is tempting to treat it as a supernatural mystery. But Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt continues to look for a rational explanation, calling on his friend Dr Max Liebermann to help look for motives and build a profile of the murderer. The author, himself a psychologist, has made Dr Liebermann a student of Freud and an early practitioner of psychoanalysis. Early 20th-century Vienna, at the forefront of cultural and scientific development, is a fabulous setting for our music-loving detective and doctor duo to use forensic science and psychology to help solve a seemingly impossible mystery. This is the first volume of The Liebermann Papers , which has been turned into a television series."

"This book, published in 2004, is a fascinating anthology which grew out of a project called the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature , based at the Oriental Institute of the University of Oxford. Although some of the compositions in it were probably first recited or sung, the translators have not tried too hard to be poetic, and the English is very readable. Short, informative prefaces to the texts make this an extremely accessible introduction to the world’s most ancient literature. The chapter that I want to highlight in this book is the Keš temple hymn , because it is one of the very oldest literary works known to us. There are fragmentary sources from around 2500 BCE, and — unlike much other ancient literature — it seems to have changed very little over time. It is a hymn to the temple of Nintud, the birth goddess, divided into eight ‘houses’, or verses, each ending with rhetorical questions extolling the greatness of Keš, Nintud, and her warrior son Ašgi. The concluding lines repeat the unsettling phrase “draw near, man… but do not draw near!” stressing the awesome power of the temple and the divine presence within. There is also a later poem to Keš temple in this anthology, attributed to Enheduana — the earliest named author — and hymns in her name to the magnificent Inana, described as a supreme deity who makes lesser gods “tremble like a solitary reed”. The sheer variety of genres and topics in the oldest literature is a joy. Sumerian was used to record everything from sales deeds, court documents and medical texts to narrative myths, heroic tales, sorrowful laments, and hymns of extravagant praise. There is also ‘wisdom literature’ such as proverbs, animal fables and instructions; this book features The Instructions of Šuruppag , which is of a similar ancient vintage to the Keš temple hymn . Disputations were also recorded, some of which are like early rap-battles, with taunts and insults flying back and forth, as in The Debate Between Bird and Fish . Verses about Gilgamesh and The Flood Story are especially noteworthy because of their influence on later writing. Some chapters are intriguing as windows onto a very different time, but many still resonate with us simply as beautiful literature."

"Gilgamesh is an irresistible epic poem that spans the ages and continues to speak to readers in different ways. It is thought to be based on a legendary king of Uruk (today known as Warka, in Iraq) who ruled in the first half of the 3rd millennium BCE. The Standard Babylonian full length version that we find in translation in bookshops and libraries nowadays predates the Iliad and the Odyssey by a few centuries, but there are older versions, and the earliest surviving poems about Gilgamesh would have been performed as standalone stories far earlier, over four thousand years ago. It is no wonder that this tale still resonates with readers today. It tells us so much about being human — about love and loss, our fear of death, and search for meaning. Gilgamesh starts out as a magnificent but tyrannical ruler, a demigod with superhuman strength, great to have in battle but no protector of the people. The gods send the wild man Enkidu as a companion for Gilgamesh, and they become inseparable. Full of energy, they embark on youthful adventures together, but their arrogance leads to Enkidu’s death. Destroyed by grief, Gilgamesh sets out on a quest to learn the secret of life and death from Uta-napishti, who was made immortal after surviving the Flood. The quest is a failure, but Gilgamesh comes back to Uruk with a different understanding of kingship. His restlessness exhausted, what he now seeks is good advice and wisdom. Of course he does find a kind of immortality, by writing his story on a slab of stone. What is so exciting with this ancient epic is that the story continues to evolve, not only because we retell and reinterpret it all the time, but because new fragments turn up from time to time, enabling gaps to be filled and lines to be added."

"The Tale of Sinuhe , which was composed around 1875-1850 BCE, is the fictional story of an official’s flight from Egypt , his life in exile, and return in old age. It is written as if in the tradition of an autobiography for his tomb. Many copies have been found, and it is thought to have been a very popular work of literature in ancient Egypt. In today’s globalised world, the themes of culture, identity and belonging are perhaps what resonate most with this story. What happens is that our narrator flees in a moment of panic when he overhears the news that the king is dead. It is not explicit, but we assume the king has been assassinated and that a period of chaos is likely to ensue. Sinuhe nearly dies of thirst, is rescued by nomads, and goes on to make a successful new life for himself in exile, all the while longing to return to Egypt but fearing that he will be punished as a defector. In the end, Sinuhe is welcomed back to the Egyptian court after admitting that his flight was probably not divine intervention but an act of his own irrational heart, and he is given a burial in the royal enclosure around the pyramid of Senwosret I. After an extraordinary journey he has regained his true identity, reached his final resting place, and can now speak to us from his tomb. This book is subtitled ‘ and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems 1940-1640 BC ’, and there are other intriguing chapters, among them The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor and The Dialogue of a Man and his Soul . The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor is, at least in part, also about a person’s journey through life. Set within a frame tale of a voyage interrupted by disasters, the storyteller speaks of our hope of achieving success in life before making landfall in death, and counsels putting on a brave face and enduring without despair. In an unexpected twist, the listener scoffs at this, asking what is the point — if someone is doomed — of hoping for a happy ending? In the internal Dialogue , the living man extols life after death, while his soul encourages him to think more positively about this life."

"One of the four Vedas , the Rigveda is the oldest Sanskrit text. Over time, it has come to be celebrated not only as a religious text, but as finely crafted literature. It is a rich and unique work containing over a thousand hymns to deities including Agni, the divine embodiment of the ritual fire; Indra with his mythology of great victories over enemies both mortal and divine; and Ushas, the divine beauty of dawn. There are also hymns to ritual elements, as well as more unexpected objects of praise (anyone who has been to India in the monsoon will appreciate the hymn to frogs). Timeless human concerns also get their due, as in the wedding hymn and the gambler’s lament. Much of the Rigveda is enigmatic, with a strong belief in the power of the word to make the ritual acts effective. There are hymns that meditate on the mysteries of the cosmos and the wonders of the world, that reflect on the relationship between humans and the divine, and more intimate expressions of deep devotion. Readers get a sense of a search for a balance between this life and the afterlife. With all the oldest books, it is difficult to date their origin because they would first have been transmitted orally. This is especially the case with the Rigveda , which was composed to be recited in rituals and transmitted entirely orally for a very long time. A final collection and redaction probably took place around 1000 BCE. Over time, the text was committed to writing, but the Rigveda is still carefully memorised and recited by Vedic priests today. Stephanie Jamison and Joel Brereton worked for decades to publish a magnificent three-volume English translation in 2014. Alternatively, you could go for their The Rigveda: A Guide to read more about it, and/or Wendy Doniger’s 1981 translation The Rig Veda , which has a selection of 108 of the hymns. The Vedic Sanskrit of the Rigveda is linguistically close to Avestan, the Old Iranian language of the earliest sacred texts of Zoroastrianism. With roots in a long Indo-European poetic tradition, the Rigveda and the Gathas of Old Avestan mirror each other both in age and style, and the Gathas are also well worth exploring."

"Although it is among the oldest books in the world, this collection of poems is very easy for readers to enjoy today. With lyrical simplicity and a focus on inner feelings and experiences, it is relatable across time and culture. Shijing has been incredibly influential in East Asia, including on Confucius and his followers, and even today most Chinese probably know some of the poems off by heart. Variously translated as The Book of Songs, The Odes , and The Classic of Poetry, Shijing consists of around three hundred poems thought to date from the 11th to the 7th century BCE, with the eulogies and ballads being the oldest. There are odes of celebration and hymns of praise, formal verses about events at the Zhou court, dynastic legends, warriors and battles, feasting, friendship, and lamentations. Nature is an integral part of the Book of Songs , and we get a sense of the importance of the agricultural calendar and seasonal celebrations. The literary versions of folksongs, in particular, with universal themes such as love and longing, resonate as much now as they did when they were first sung. Many of the poems are visually very striking, and the images often feel surprisingly fresh. If you want to read the whole collection there is Arthur Waley’s version from 1937, but James Trapp’s translation of 32 selected poems is a very attractive option. It was published in a beautiful gift edition in 2021, with the Chinese characters on one page and the English translation opposite. In the preface he writes: “The more you read the verses of the whole work, the more you realize how unchanging the preoccupations of humans are”."