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Continue reading →: A Stranger Comes To Town by Lynne Sharon Schwartz
Contemporary American Literature- published October 2025 Though this seems a story of amnesia that has been told many times before, Schwartz adapts her stance to address the question of when this most clears and the memory begins to return, what if the person affected really doesn’t like what emerges. After…
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Continue reading →: Amber warning for rain..Having reached the mountains on Thursday I followed the road along the Ziz river. The driving changed dramatically, from the wide horizons of stone desert with little in the way of tourist infrastructure, to spectacular scenery, more affluent towns and consequently, more visitors. The first such town was Midelt in…
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Continue reading →: Discontent by Beatriz Serrano
translated from the Spanish by Maria Faye Lethem & published October 2025 I wouldn’t have thought I was the audience for this based on its précis.. a contemporary Spanish novel set in the company offices of a Madrid ad agency promoting beauty products, with much of it referencing social media..…
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Continue reading →: Into MoroccoI had based myself in the town parking in Terque for the weekend, one of the villages of the Alpujarras. On Sunday morning though I walked a trail up to two smaller villages a few kilometres up the mountain, Alicún and Huécija, only separated from each other by a few…
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Continue reading →: Money to Burn by Asta Olivia Nordenhof
translated from the Danish by Caroline Waight & published February 2025 Just when you’re wondering where the hell the next Danish heptalogy will arrive, two come along all at once..I’m two into Solvej Balle’s offering, On the Calculation of Volume I…VII and haven’t quite made my mind up yet. But…
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Continue reading →: Las AlpujarrasFrom Ojós in the Segura valley in Murcia I headed south trying to time my arrival in Almeria for Monday, the day of my ferry to Melilla and then onto Morocco. I expect to be back in Spain in a couple of months and will, during my time in Africa,…
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Continue reading →: Uncle Paul by Celia Fremlin
British Literature – published 1959 First published in 1959, this is a slow-burning psychological mystery that blends relationships in the family with suspense, highlighting the complexity of human relationships. The unflappable Meg is summoned from London by telegram by her older sister, Isabel, to a typically English seaside town where…
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Continue reading →: Another Via Verde and south to the Segura valleyBeing a weekend, the town of Biar was busy, and the aire became much sought after. There are about 16 well spaced places with free electric and water, and though it was only half full when I arrived on Friday lunchtime, there were vans waiting patiently for a space on…
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Continue reading →: Petite Fleur by Iosi Havilio
translated from the Spanish (Argentina) by Lorna Scott Fox and published 2017 Havilio has a reputation in Argentina as being something of a cult author, and no doubt this splendidly strange novel, will go to confirm that. At the outset, narrator, José, cycles to work as usual at the local…
To live more widely
supera superiora sequi
SafeReturnDoubtful is my alias.
Where is Andy?
I was so much older then…
Quote of the Week
Alice asked the Cheshire Cat, who was sitting in a tree, ‘What road do I take?’ The cat asked, ‘Where do you want to go?’ ‘I don’t know,’ Alice answered. ‘Then,’ said the cat, ‘it really doesn’t matter, does it?’
Lewis Carroll
Safe Return Doubtful 