Archive | June, 2011

Jan van Mersbergen

Tomorrow Pamplona Blog Tour 2011, Gig 12

29 June 2011 · Literary events · Comments { 5 }

Dutch author Jan van Mersbergen is on a blog tour to promote his new book Tomorrow Pamplona, visiting a different literary blog each day and answering one question on each site. Today he visits my blog, and I asked him the following question:   Q: According to Peirene’s reading guide, you’re renowned for creating silent [...]

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Summer reads

26 June 2011 · Reading · Comments { 0 }

Nice list of summer reads posted by largeheartedboy, linking to all the “books you must read this summer” lists. I like lists, so a list of lists is even better. It’s a US-centred list – wonder if someone has done a similar roundup of recommendations from UK newspapers and reviews. Maybe I should do it [...]

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Brian Haw

RIP Brian Haw

24 June 2011 · Thinking · Comments { 0 }

Was saddened this week to hear of the death of peace activist Brian Haw. There are not too many people in these times who live completely honest lives. We may have our opinions about the way we’d like things to be, but we hide them, or express them timidly. Rather than speaking generally, let me [...]

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In conversation with Preeta Samarasan

18 June 2011 · Literary events · Comments { 2 }

I spoke recently with Malaysian writer Preeta Samarasan, and am posting the conversation up here for you to listen to. In part 1, we chatted about her novel Evening is the Whole Day. Preeta gave some fascinating insights into the process of writing the novel and how it evolved over time, as well as talking [...]

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Irma Voth

“Irma Voth” by Miriam Toews

13 June 2011 · Reading · Comments { 3 }

I enjoyed this tale of a young Mennonite girl marooned on a claustrophobic family compound in rural Mexico. At 19 she has already been through a lot, marrying a non-Mennonite Mexican guy called Jorge and getting ostracised by her family as a result, then being abandoned by Jorge. That’s before the novel even begins. As [...]

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Questions for Preeta Samarasan?

12 June 2011 · Literary events · Comments { 0 }

I am interviewing Preeta Samarasan this week, author of Evening is the Whole Day. If there are any questions you’d like me to ask her, please post them here as a comment, or you can email me if you prefer. No limit on the number of questions, but I’d need to receive them by end [...]

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Tomorrow Pamplona

“Tomorrow Pamplona” by Jan van Mersbergen

6 June 2011 · Reading · Comments { 4 }

A road trip taken by two men across Europe to the bull-running at Pamplona. The set-up appealed to me: it’s quite similar to my own novel, with two men on a road trip, exploring the strange relationship between them and the mutual search for something more than what they have. The characters are quite different [...]

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Best reading/writing sites

3 June 2011 · Reading · Comments { 3 }

Kinga at the Book Snob has a great post listing the 21 best sites about reading and writing. Along with well-known ones like Goodreads and London Review of Books, there are some that were new to me and look very interesting, like The Believer. The post also made me realise how many places there are [...]

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