literary fiction Archives - Andrew Blackman

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 dictatorship and the early days of AIDS among a myriad…

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

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.

Reading

Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico

My thoughts on Vincenzo Latronico's beautiful novel about millennial expats in Berlin, recently longlisted for the International Booker Prize.

Reading

What Is Literary Fiction Anyway?

Literary fiction is hard to define, but I'm going to try anyway. The debate tends to be poisoned by debates about elitism and being "better" than genre fiction, which I'd like to avoid here. Instead, I want to identify the…

Reading

Borges Marathon, Part 17: The Garden of Forking Paths

A pacy wartime thriller mixes with an abstract meditation on the forking paths of time and fate in a classic short story by Jorge Luis Borges.

Reading

Borges Marathon, Part 16: The Library of Babel

An infinite library of every possible book sounds wonderful until you contemplate the realities of it, which Jorge Luis Borges does masterfully in "The Library of Babel".

Reading

There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak

Why was I disappointed by a novel that everyone else seems to love? Follow me as I try to find the answers.

Reading

Review: 912 Batu Road by Viji Krishnamoorthy

A Malaysian debut novelist combines a contemporary love story with a historical narrative of Japanese occupation. I enjoyed one much more than the other, but would recommend it nonetheless.