A literary and cultural blog dedicated to book reviews, literary travel, art, museums, and thoughtful reading across borders and cultures.
Book of Clouds by Chloe Aridjis is a deeply reflective and thoughtful novel with subtle elements of magical realism and a dreamlike atmosphere exploring themes of isolation, loneliness, solitude, the invisibility of people, their emotional displacement from the past, the impact of history on one’s life, the relationship between the […]
A few weeks ago I visited Torquay. One day I decided to walk along South West Coast Path from Babbacombe via Long Quarry Point, Ansteys Cove, Brandy Cove, Meedfoot Beach, London Bridge Arch and finally reaching Torquay. This video includes images from that walk along South West Coast Path. I […]
During my time in Greece I took a ferry to Hydra island – a place of solitude, a place which inspired Leonard Cohen and where he found solace in the late 1960s, where Henry Miller found inspiration in the 1930s and where Sandra Cisneros finished The House of Mango Street […]
Published in 1989, a haunting novella Sweet Days of Discipline by the Swiss writer Fleur Jaeggy tells a story of a nameless distant protagonist, an adolescent female reminiscing nostalgically about her teenage years in an oppressive boarding school located in post-WW2 Switzerland. In her book, Jaeggy explores the meaning of […]
“The beginning of a great journey has become a gentle, untroubled memory, like a dream you need not fear and do not lose.” All the Roads Are Open: An Afghan Journey (1939–40) by Annemarie Schwarzenbach (1908-1942) is an account of a trip that Schwarzenbach undertook with a fellow traveller and journalist […]
In June I spent a few days in Athens and on the island of Hydra. Below you can see a few recordings I took during my first days in Athens. ARRIVAL My day of arrival in Athens welcomed me with an extremely hot weather. I used public transport to get […]
“This is how I live, I am thinking.” “I walked east to St. Mark’s Bookshop, where I roamed the aisles, randomly selecting, feeling papers, and examining fonts, praying for a perfect opening line. (…).” Written in poetic, luminous, melancholic and fragmentary prose M Train by Patti Smith is an introspective […]
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jaqueline Harpman is one of my beloved books I have ever read. You can find my full review here. I prepared a list of seven books that you might also enjoy if you love I Who Have Never….Most books listed below share similar […]
Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico (translated by Sophie Hughes) captures the soul of the modern globalised and culturally homogenised society shaped by the constant flow of online images available on the internet which promises the purposeful and uncomplicated life. The reality however does not always live up to these pictures. The […]
I recorded a few snapshots of my London life during the month of March. In the video you will see Gordon Square and Reading Room at Welcome Collection in Bloomsbury where I often have my lunch breaks, my afternoon and evening walks in Soho, Trafalgar Square and Russell Square. My […]