The Immortal: Borges Marathon, Part 27
What would immortality feel like? Jorge Luis Borges takes us beyond the quest for eternal life to see what happens to someone who achieves it.
Borges Marathon, Part 25: The Cult of the Phoenix
What is the mysterious ritual at the centre of this Jorge Luis Borges story? Let's go through the hints and solve the riddle.
Indignity: A Life Reimagined by Lea Ypi
This book started with a social media post. The author, Lea Ypi, saw a photo of her grandmother posted online and going viral in Albania. Some of the comments were offensive and wildly inaccurate, and since her grandmother is now…
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?
Books I Read in August 2025
My reading this month took me from Japan to Guadeloupe, via Scotland and Cote d'Ivoire.
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.
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.
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.