A Book and Literary Travel Blog
βI found something in Siena, for which I am yet to have a description, but for which I have been searching, and it came (β¦) at that strange meeting point of two contradictory events – the bright achievement of having finished a book and the dark maturation of the likelihood, inescapable now, that I will […]
If you are not familiar with a wonderful Dutch historian, Rutger Bregman, I would highly recommend you to watch his 2017 TED Presentation: ‘Poverty Isn’t a Lack of Character, It’ s a Lack of Cash.’ Also, I would encourage you to watch his now viral talk at the 2019 World Economic Forum in Davos where […]
Whereabouts was originally written in Italian by the Bengali-American writer, Jhumpa Lahiri who also translated the book herself. βSolitude: itβs become my trade. (β¦) Itβs a condition I try to perfectβ. Written in forty-six short vignettes, Whereabouts portrays daily wanderings and inner workings of the narratorβs mind who is a solitary unnamed woman […]
I would like to share with you a lit bit about one of my favourite writers who is almost unknown these days to the anglophone audience. I hope that some of my French followers might have read some of the books by this remarkable author of a profound sensitivity. Her name was Anna Langfus (1920 […]
Hot Stew is the second novel by Fiona Mozley whose debut novel, Elmet was shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker Prize. Hot Stew is a wonderful ode to Londonβs Soho providing a sharp social analysis of life in a modern metropolis. The book tackles the issues of gentrification, social class, stigmatisation, poverty, privilege, Londonβs housing […]
βDisplacement hits you later than you expect, just when you think you have settled down and become part of the world all over again. That is when it begins to ache, when a certain inarticulable desolation creeps in. Your body is not where your body ought to be (β¦). It is as if you had […]
El Excluido’ [‘The Excluded’] by the great Spanish writer, David San Jose Martinez. This book is a wonderful literary achievement, beautifully written with a very rich language, a veil of nostalgia and profound emotional sensitivity. It is a novel but its form – the collection of vignettes, somewhat separated, somewhat connected, is very innovative. El […]
“Why do I write? To investigate the mystery of existence. (β¦) To get closer to everything that is outside of me. (β¦)Writing is my only way of absorbing (β¦) life.β In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri constitutes an astonishingly beautiful discourse exploring the subjects of identity, the meaning of exile, belonging, cultural displacement, alienation, […]
βNothing in Rwanda was left in me but a wound that could never be healed.β βHumiliated, afraid, waiting day after day for what was to come, what we didnβt have a word for: genocide. And I alone preserve the memory of it. And thatβs why I am writing this.β βWhere are they? Somewhere deep in […]
“Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.” A few thoughts from “The Book of Disquiet” by Fernando Pessoa (1888 – 1935), a Portuguese writer who is the dearest to my heart. Fernando was a Portuguese poet, considered one of the most significant literary figures of the early 20th century, and one of the […]
Medallions by a Polish novelist and essayist, Zofia Nalkowska (1884 β 1954) Medallions is considered the masterpiece in the world Holocaust literature, deeply influences by Nalkowskaβs experience as a member of the Commission for the Investigation of Nazi War Crimes which was established in 1945. During that time, she visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, Treblinka and many […]
βIf someone asks you how you are, you are meant to say FINE. You are not meant to say that you cried yourself to sleep last night because you hadn’t spoken to another person for two consecutive days. FINE is what you say.β βTime only blunts the pain of loss. It doesnβt erase it.β βI […]
“Marcel Proust, Iike all writers of genius, had succeeded – and he more than any other – in this transmutation which is the very essence of literature: a spirit and soul embodied in a rectangle of bound paper, living on after them.” “The Readers’ Room” by Antoine Laurain This little mystery book serves as a […]
“πΊππππππππ ππ ππππππ ππππ ππππππππ πππππππππ, ππ ππππ ππ π π πππ πππ ππππ ππ πππ π πππππππ.β The Beekeeper of Aleppo is beautifully written, but it should be mainly read for its subject matter. Christy Lefteri portrays the journey of Syrian refugees in a realistic, emphatic, and respectful manner. The Beekeeper of Aleppo tells a story […]
My stress levels have been skyrocketing over the last weeks and months due to the current situation related to pandemic. For that reason I have been in need of reading something heartwarming, soul-healing, soul-soothing and gentle. And, this little gem of a book, Lost For Words by Stephanie Butland brought me solace, so needed moments […]