I am a lover of Japanese literature. I studied Japanese in primary school (but it sadly is not one of the languages that stuck in my head), and I have had an affinity for Japanese culture, art, and food. When I came across Sayaka Murata’s work, Convenience Store Woman, I knew I had to get … Continue reading
The Cactus is the debut novel from Sarah Haywood which is about letting go of who people want you to be and who you have made yourself become because of your past experiences. It is about family conflict, death, grief, secrets, and forgiveness. It is not your typical contemporary fiction novel for all the right … Continue reading
I’ve read some modern re-tellings of classics that have just fallen flat. Sometimes classics are named classics because they are indeed just that: stories that transcend time. They shape our culture and understanding of the past. They also help us shape our future and in particular the way authors and readers write and engage with … Continue reading
Frances Hardinge’s The Lie Tree was the perfect read for my summer holidays in Catania last week. The book is fast paced with some good suspense and plot development. At the core of the narrative is a scientific discovery: a tree that will give you truth and knowledge through its fruits if you feed it … Continue reading
Conversations With Friends was Sally Rooney’s debut novel published in 2017. Set in Ireland, the story follows the closely-knit and complicated relationships of Frances and Bobbi, who are both university students in their early 20s, and Melissa and Nick, a married couple in their early 30s. With these two couples, Rooney already offers up a … Continue reading
Note: plot spoilers and discussions of death by suicide. In February this year, I had the chance to go to Ireland for a long weekend. I’ve been threatening to visit Ireland for years and it was amazing to finally be able to make that happen. Ireland is full of amazing literary nooks and even the … Continue reading
Beth Miller’s novel posits the question: What happens when you love someone outside of your faith? There are thousands of answers to this question, and arguably loving the ‘wrong’ person is something humans seem pretty good at since we have been doing it for centuries. The Two Hearts of Eliza Bloom is in many ways … Continue reading
“Who hasn’t—sometime—wanted to escape? But from what? To where? And once we have arrived at the good place, is this the end of the desire to move? Or does it stir again, tempted by another image […]” p xi. Tuan,Yi-Fu Escapism. Yi-Fu Tuan describes the universal nature of our desire to escape in his geographical … Continue reading
I am not going to lie, the decision I made to read this book was heavily based on the cover. What is that old saying again? Anyway, I found myself drawn to the strong yellows and greens and I had also seen this book everywhere. It was popping up in book stores, in my library, … Continue reading
I am going to cut to the chase on this review. Like the title suggests, there is a problem with the way that Asian literature is represented, or to be more precise its lack of representation, in the Western world. Many scholars and teachers have suggested to me over the years that Asian literature cannot … Continue reading
