February 2020 Reading Roundup
From Japanese literature to the history of Serbia via the aftermath of war in Sierra Leone, this has been a good month’s reading for…
Is It a Good Idea to Frustrate Your Readers’ Expectations?
I was interviewed recently for a podcast by book blogger Charlie Place, and her perceptive questions got me thinking about my writing.…
January 2020 Reading Roundup
The first month of the year took me from Greece to Serbia via Vienna (don’t ask!), and in the world of books…
Shulem Deen’s Powerful Memoir of Hasidic Life
All Who Go Do Not Return by Shulem Deen is a powerful account of the author’s escape from the ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect…
2019: My Year of Full-Time Travel
As regular readers may know, I’ve been travelling full-time with my wife Genie since the beginning of 2015. We don’t have a…
Best Books I Read in 2019
How was your reading year? I read 58 books overall, which was not as many as I’d hoped, but still about one a week,…
Inside the Syrian Conflict With Jonathan Littell
Homs is one of those places that, like Aleppo and Kandahar and Mosul, has become a byword for suffering. For years it…
German Literature Month: The Weight of Things by Marianne Fritz
German Literature Month happens every November, and usually I remember about it some time in December. This year, though, I’m taking part…
October Reading Roundup
It’s been a busy couple of months for me, driving across Europe and along the Black Sea coast of Turkey, and now…