Monthly Archives: August 2026

I have been trying to figure out how to talk about this book, because I think it’s an incredible, deeply important novel, and I fear that its difficulty will prevent it from getting the attention it deserves. Among the group I was reading it with, we joked that it was an amazing novel that weContinueContinue reading “Questions 27 & 28, Karen Tei Yamashita”

Sometimes you pick a book because you’re in the mood for a specific vibe, and if the vibe you’re looking for is idealistic priest and his angry teenaged daughter are traveling across Argentina when car troubles lead them to an encounter with a gruff mechanic named Gringo and the boy he has taken in —ContinueContinue reading “The Wind that Lays Waste, Selva Almada, tr. Chris Andrews”

This was devastating, crushingly so. But also amazing — fascinating in the dreamy, surreal way the story unfolded, gradually drawing you closer to the horror. And this aspect is especially interesting in relation to her other books, and this meta-story of an author and a filmmaker. Very curious to see what her next book willContinueContinue reading “We Do Not Part, Han Kang, tr. E. Yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris”

What I appreciate about Ndiaye’s books is that it feels like literally anything could happen — her novels teeter fascinatingly between real, surreal, magical in this kind of liminal zone that scrambles your mode of reading. How are you meant to approach this thing — as symbolic? fantastical? I think this is what makes herContinueContinue reading “The Witch, Marie Ndiaye, tr. Jordan Stump”

“What purer expression of power than to say: I know. I know but will do nothing so long as it benefits me. Only later when it ceases to benefit me will I proclaim in great heaving sobs my grief that such a thing was ever allowed to happen. And you, all of you, even theContinueContinue reading “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El Akkad”

I neglected to post about this back in June, what with the chaos of summer starting and travel, etc, but it’s incredible. Hardly a light read, being a chronicle of a government massacre of innocent civilians, but it is nonetheless both riveting and grimly beautiful. I had the added benefit of getting to watch aContinueContinue reading “Massacre in Mexico, Elena Poniatowska”