The Future by Naomi Alderman
What kind of future do we want? How would it look if it was based on trust instead of fear? For a novel that starts with the end of the world, The Future has a lot of interesting things to…
Borges Marathon, Part 13: The Circular Ruins
What happens when one man tries to dream another into existence? Jorge Luis Borges imagines this scenario in this thought-provoking story.
November 2022 Reading Roundup
It was an all-fiction month for me in November, involving a 17-year-old sex worker in the US, a novelist seeing her stolen manuscript come to life, a young woman fleeing from London to Jamaica to escape an abusive relationship, and…
Borges Marathon, Part 11: The Approach to Al-Mu’tasim
Only Borges could get away with writing a book review of a book that doesn't exist.
Snow by John Banville: Review
I was surprised by Snow: it's very different from John Banville's usual style. There's some beautiful prose as usual, but in the end it's quite a formulaic detective novel.
The View From Belmont by Kevyn Alan Arthur
The View From Belmont raises interesting questions of race and gender amid the barbarousness of a slave-owning society. The dual narrative was a promising technique, but it didn't feel fully realised to me. I'd have liked more of 1990s Trinidad…
Borges Marathon, Part 9: Et Cetera
This section in A Universal History of Iniquity includes several interesting fragments, some of which could provide the basis for interesting stories but are not really developed.
Book Review: Cambridge by Caryl Phillips
This dual narrative set in a 19th-century Caribbean island is an interesting exploration of a critical period, but the narratives feel unbalanced: we spend a lot of time immersed in the prejudices of the plantation owner's daughter, while the account…
Man on Pink Corner: Borges Marathon, Part 8
In this story, Jorge Luis Borges takes us into the colourful world of knife fights and gangsters on the streets of old Buenos Aires. It's a compelling portrait and a beautifully constructed story—with a powerful twist in the final few…