ABOUT

“Earth seemed a desert I was bound to traverse, seeking to find the old familiar faces.” – Charles Lamb

“We are like books. Most people only see our cover, the minority read only the introduction, many people believe the critics. Few will know our content.” – Emile Zola.

The Exiled Soul Library is a literary and cultural journal devoted to books, art, gentle travel, places, and the quiet ways in which they shape our inner lives. These small vignettes are meditations on the books we return to for comfort and the places we wander in search of calm and solace, especially in anxious times. We hope you will discover stories here that speak to you, inspire you to read a little more, and perhaps a little more slowly.

At the heart of The Exiled Soul Library is an interest in exile and belonging, the feeling of being between worlds, languages or cultures, of carrying several places within oneself, or of finding a sense of home in something as fleeting as a book, a painting, a landscape or a city.

The Exiled Soul Library is ultimately a place for slow looking and thoughtful reading, a collection of literary reflections, cultural encounters, museum journeys and personal impressions gathered across borders and cultures

We hope that these small vignettes from the world we inhabit will offer you moments of peace and quiet comfort, gently soothing the mind as they cultivate a space that is loving, inclusive, and tender to all who wander here.

Reading is one of the ways we turn inward, in search of peace and quiet calm. To be surrounded by the gentle glow of our inner world, and the warmth of our own thoughts, can often bring us a deep and lasting joy.

“…in the quiet corners of the world, amidst the ordinary lives, there exists an unspoken beauty in the unnoticed souls…” – Jhumpa Lahiri

Literature allows us to step into the shoes of the “other,” to listen to voices from distant places, and to encounter lives we might never otherwise meet. We are especially drawn to stories of those who have been forgotten or marginalised, who exist at the quiet edges of society. Reading becomes a bridge connecting us to the wider human experience, while also guiding us inward, helping us understand both our own inner world and the mystery of otherness beyond it. I hope you will find joy in this space, and feel inspired to read some of our favourite books and wander through the places we hold dear.

“After all, what can a first impression tell us about someone we’ve just met for a minute in the lobby of a hotel? For that matter, what can a first impression tell us about anyone? Why, no more than a chord can tell us about Beethoven, or a brushstroke about Botticelli. By their very nature, human beings are so capricious, so complex, so delightfully contradictory, that they deserve not only our consideration, but our reconsideration—and our unwavering determination to withhold our opinion until we have engaged with them in every possible setting at every possible hour.” – A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

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A FEW PLACES TO BEGIN YOUR READING JOURNEY

If you’re new to The Exiled Soul Library, these are some of the books that represent the kinds of stories and ideas we keep returning to. They explore solitude, exile, identity, grief, art, history, memory, displacement and the strange business of being human — sometimes quietly, sometimes unexpectedly, and sometimes with a little magic.

1 Compass by Mathias Énard

Exile, identity and cultural memory. A melancholic, intellectually rich novel about cultural identity, knowledge, memory and the complicated connections between East and West.

2 There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak

Ancient history, displacement, memory and cultural identity. A sweeping novel connecting lives across centuries and continents, exploring history, displacement, cultural memory, forgotten voices and the ways stories travel across time.

3 Whereabout by Jhumpa Lahiri

Belonging, home, urban solitude, displacement, aging, and anonymity. An introspective portrait of a woman moving through an unnamed city, observing the lives around her while remaining slightly apart from them.

4 I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

Solitude, dystopia, existentialism. A haunting dystopian novel about isolation, survival, memory and what it means to remain human when the familiar world disappears.

5 The Wall by Marlen Haushofer

Nature, isolation, solitude, aging, women. A woman, a mysterious invisible barrier and a world reduced to its essentials. A remarkable novel about solitude, nature and survival.

6 Brian by Jeremy Cooper

Urban solitude, aloneness, grief, cinema and memory. A tender meditation on the life of someone who has disappeared and on the strange, enduring ways another person can remain present in our own.

7 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Good versus evil, literature, surrealism. A strange, exuberant and unforgettable novel where satire, philosophy, love, religion and the supernatural collide. A reminder that the literary world can be as strange, contradictory and unruly as life itself.

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The Exiled Soul Library is a literary and cultural journal about books, art, travel and the places that shape our inner lives.

Welcome to the Exiled Soul Library…