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.
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 dictatorship and the early days of AIDS among a myriad…
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.
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.
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.
Books I Read in April 2025
From a plea for moral AI to a British state of the nation novel, here's what I read this month.
The Shelf of Trump
What if we could extract a creative and inspiring new reading project from the man at the centre of the dark times we're living through?
Parallel Lines by Edward St Aubyn
My take on the new novel by this Booker Prize winning author, in which the lives of a disparate set of characters suddenly intersect.