Andrew Blackman, literary fiction writer, traveller, book reviewer and essayist

Reading

Books I Read in August 2025

My reading this month took me from Japan to Guadeloupe, via Scotland and Cote d'Ivoire.

Reading

Borges Marathon, Part 22: The Secret Miracle

My thoughts on "The Secret Miracle", a short story in which Jorge Luis Borges plays with time and causality.

Reading

Milkman by Anna Burns: Review

My thoughts on a Booker Prize winning novel about a teenage girl living in 1970s Belfast and struggling to survive in a claustrophobic community of rumour and suspicion.

Reading

Borges Marathon, Part 21: Death and the Compass

In this short story by Jorge Luis Borges, a detective tale becomes a labyrinth in which the usual crime fiction tropes are subverted.

Reading

The Story of the Night by Colm Toibin

A fascinating window into a difficult life. Richard Garay is a young gay man trying to find his way in Argentina after the death of his parents, navigating homophobia and…

Reading

Borges Marathon, Part 20: The Theme of the Traitor and the Hero

Treachery and heroism blur in this meticulously plotted short story by Jorge Luis Borges, with noticeable echoes from history and literature.

All the Books on One Shelf

How would you approach the task of presenting all of English literature on a single shelf display? Here's how one Serbian bookshop handled it.

Reading

Borges Marathon, Part 19: The Shape of the Sword

With shifting narrators and a big twist at the end, this short story by Jorge Luis Borges tackles themes of violence, vengeance, the clash of theory and practice, and how we judge others.

Reading

Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian

Professional mycologist Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian demolishes any idea of rigid boundaries and hierarchies in this glorious celebration of the diversity and queerness of nature.