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

Reading

The Other Death: Borges Marathon, Part 34

Can God change the past? If so, how would it affect our memories? This is the central question that Jorge Luis Borges explores in his story “The Other Death”. The story concerns Pedro Damián, whose recent death the narrator hears…

The writing process

AI spambots think I’m a genius

On the recent deluge of AI-generated spam targeting writers' insecurities and desire for recognition.

Reading

The Floating World by Ben Eastham

My take on a debut novel set in a near-future European society on the brink of collapse due to climate change and pandemics, in which a freelance art critic gets…

Reading

The House of Asterion: Borges Marathon, Part 33

“The House of Asterion” is one of the shortest stories by Jorge Luis Borges, composed almost entirely of the interior monologue of a lonely character who lives in a labyrinth.…

Reading

How to Make a Woman by Marie Darrieussecq

My review of a French coming-of-age novel narrated from two separate and sometimes contradictory perspectives.

Reading

Books I read in July 2026

The best book I read this month was a historian's account of how the concept of the West came about and why it's origin myths are wrong, but I also…

Reading

Emma Zunz: Borges Marathon, Part 32

My thoughts on this short story by Jorge Luis Borges, which is an outlier in terms of the plot and main character, but still one of his most successful stories.

Uncategorized

The Three-Cornered Hat by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón

In this 19th-century Spanish novella, a miller and his wife have their love tested by the scheming of a corrupt local authority figure.

Reading

Paris in Turmoil #parisinjuly2026

Parisian writer Eric Hazan shares his memories of Paris interwoven with historical research and beautifully observed urban detail.

Reading

Books I read in June 2026

From a Booker winner to a nineteenth-century vision of a future socialist utopia, here's a roundup of the books I read this month.

Reading

A Biography of Tadeo Isidoro Cruz: Borges Marathon, Part 31

Are our lives really defined by a single moment? And what happens when that moment involves seeing yourself in someone else? Borges answers these questions while telling the story of…