Monika Stafa's 10 Books of the Year

Monika Stafa is a journalist, translator, book author and host of the show "Vitrina e Librit" on Top Channel.

1. The Girls of Yalta - Catherine Katz

It is a historical novel for all lovers of this genre. The daughters of the greatest leaders who led the Second World War, through the author's pen, show what is behind the scenes of the Yalta event, the conference that was held immediately after the war. There is love, history, politics and intrigue.

2. Violeta – Isabel Allende

A novel told through the eyes of a woman who has lived through a century of upheaval. This novel is moving above all because it shows that after downfalls there is just as much rebirth.

3. Damage – Josephine Hart

It has been hailed as a shocking and brilliant novel, even a masterpiece of its time. The novel is a courageous account of the dangers of obsession and how devastating its consequences can be, explaining to us how complicated the human being is.

4. The Plot - Ben Blushi

When writers warn, no one listens to them. But for this they cannot be blamed. That is why, in every regime or power, they are constantly punished. Once in the pile of wood, and later as a conspiracy. In the world that deceives us every day, it is fortunate to have writers who challenge it. Ben Blushi's 'Conspiracy' is a continuation of a 'criminal' saga started long ago by him.

5. See you in August - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

is the novel that Garcia wrote a few years before he left this world. It is a novel dedicated to love. He wrote it amidst efforts to achieve artistic perfection and the deterioration of his mental abilities.

6. The Drowned and the Saved - Primo Levi

It happened, so it can happen again... this is the essence of all that we can say. Primo Levi returns to the Nazi concentration camp to analyze it not as a fait accompli, an unforeseen event or an accident of history, but as an event through which we can understand how far man can go in the role of executioner and victim.

7. Orlando – Virginia Woolf

a biographical novel by the author through which the main character transcends centuries and continents as well as gender identity as the reader follows the adventures of love. Described as a novel that seeks to overturn systems, it is inspired by the turbulent story of Virginia's lover and close friend.

8. Tehran Bookstore - Marjan Kamali

The year is 1953. The system is changing in Tehran. Two young people, in love in a bookstore due to the turbulence of the time, do not end up together. The novel explores political issues but also issues of immigration, cultural assimilation and how to chase destiny.

9. Interview with the Enemy – Virgjil Muçi

 The author shows how to discover one's own place, one should not adhere to emotional nationalisms. The world has become globalized and the problem of the neighbor undoubtedly remains our problem. But how did this book come to the author?

10.        Rain with mud (poetry) - Mero Baze

a book of poetry, an elegiac poem that sings of loss, both general and personal, universal and particular, and also of waiting. The book carries poetry that is based on the things the author has experienced. It is a poetic volume, but also a call to restore lost values ​​in a society that seems to be increasingly moving away from its roots.