A literary and cultural blog dedicated to book reviews, literary travel, art, museums, and thoughtful reading across borders and cultures.
I hope you all are doing well. I recently went for a peaceful walk around Hampstead Heath in North London. I love taking nature walks to find a way for me to stop, to breathe, to seek out the wondrous moments in the present. This is a form of therapy […]
Michel the Giant by the Togolese writer and adventurer, Tete-Michel Kpomassie is an extraordinary book about a long journey that Michel took from his home in Togo via Europe to reach Greenland, the land of eternal ice he had become fascinated with as a child and dreamt of visiting. In 1950s when he […]
Sanmao belongs to the 20th century most iconic women. She was a writer, traveler, and university teacher born in China in 1943 and then raised in Taiwan. As an adult she travelled extensively across Spain, Germany, Central America and spent a few years living in the Western Sahara where she […]
I hope you all are doing well. I would like to share with you a few book recommendations with the Inspirational Female Protagonists. These are characters dealing with loneliness in its various forms, trauma, ageing, poverty, life within strict religious and social norms, no opportunities for ‘better’ life. I have […]
“I refused to be intimidated by the chapters of the past or the indecipherable pages of the future. (…) It was time to detach myself from the old ways: I was no longer from here. I was from nowhere, and I was going faraway”. “I am nothing. I am the […]
“The soul of life is the little things, the minor events no one notices…. That’s where life is, the pleasure of being alive, otherwise there’s just this vast blueness casting its shadow over us. (…) Take care of your soul as the wind does, have fun your own as a […]
I have prepared a list of my favourite books which explore a theme of loneliness, solitude, and aloneness in various forms and aspects of daily life. The stories mentioned below portray loneliness related to the contemporary urban existence, traumatic experiences caused by war or displacement, being an outsider within a […]
A Single Rose by a French writer, Muriel Barbery is a beautifully crafted book which can fill one’s heart with gentle warmth, peace, and hope for a better tomorrow. If you are in need of reading something delicate, comforting written in ethereal prose, this slender volume won’t disappoint you. This […]
Guillermo Rosales (Havana 1946 – Miami 1993) was a Cuban writer of excellence with a very unique style and profound level of sensitivity shining through his words. Prior to his death, he destroyed all his work except for two books ‘El Juego de la Viola’ and this one, The Halfway […]
I always devour every book written by the Turkish writer Elif Shafak. I deeply connect with the way she tells the stories of people on the peripheries of society and how she gives a voice to the voiceless. In her books, Elif Shafak always offers a nuanced perspective and avoids […]