Borderline Fiction by Derek Owusu
I wanted to like this novel, but I couldn't. Here's why.
September Reading: A Month to Forget
My thoughts on a month when, for once, I didn't enjoy reading. Was it the books, or was it me?
Borges Marathon, Part 23: Three Versions of Judas
Did Judas really betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver? In a piece of fiction masquerading as a scholarly article, Jorge Luis Borges explores more virtuous motivations.
Dusk by Robbie Arnott
My review of a beautiful literary novel featuring twins hunting a puma in the Australian highlands.
Books I Read in August 2025
My reading this month took me from Japan to Guadeloupe, via Scotland and Cote d'Ivoire.
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.
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.
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…