by Geetanjali Shree translated from the Hindi by Daisy Rockwell ‘What is a border? It’s something that surrounds an existence, it is a person’s perimeter. No matter how large, no matter how small.’ Tomb of Sand, which won this year’s International Booker Prize, is about borders - and about crows. Crows, I hear some readers …
Tag: humour
Emma Revisited
'Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.' It has long been the opinion of at least some authorities on the English novel …
Summer Shorts
Over the past couple of weeks, I have been dabbling in short stories, something I don't often do. The first collection which grabbed my attention was Short Stories from the Strand, published in 1992 by The Folio Society. The Strand Magazine came into being in 1891, a collaboration between the publisher George Newnes, literary editor …
Farewell to Barcelona
The Labyrinth of the Spirits by Carlos Ruiz Zafon translation by Lucia Graves 'Isaac sighed. “Alicia,” he said at last. “Welcome to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books.” ' I [and I suspect many other readers too] have waited a long time for this book. Conceived sometime around 1998, the project Mr Zafon is pleased to …
Norse Mythology
by Neil Gaiman 'The highest and the oldest of all the gods is Odin.' 'Thor, Odin's son, is the thunderer.' 'Loki drinks too much, and he cannot guard his words or his thoughts or his deeds when he drinks.' I came late to Neil Gaiman's fiction and have not read many of his books - …
Anything for a Good Story
The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson By naming his protagonist Jun Do, Adam Johnson sets both scene and tone for his 2013 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. All the chief characters are North Korean and most of the action takes place in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea which, on the face of it, makes the …
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