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Continue reading →: Ghost Mountain by Ronan Hession
Published 2024 Despite a cartoon like premise, Hession continues his trademark themes of intrigue and solace in his third novel. A mountain appears overnight, though not very high, though it must be 600 metres for the accepted definition. But that’s a triviality, and misses the point of the appearance of…
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Continue reading →: Christ on a Bike by Orla Owen
Published 2024 This is a fascinating book whose summary premise quoted for selling purposes could easily put potential readers off. Unexpected inheritances are nothing new in literature, and in this case the author doesn’t go into much detail to justify such an unlikely occurrence. Cerys Jones, a single middle-aged office…
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Continue reading →: Rocky DumplingsSea fog hugs the coast on still days this far north. That was the case last time the weather was in a settled spell, when I was on Senja a couple of weeks ago. The weather has entered another settled spell now, and the beach I was on attracted the…
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Continue reading →: The Island of SørøyaIt was a morning of two fairly long (free) ferry journeys, but only ten kilometres of driving, to get to my next destination. After an excellent night on the northern tip of the Tverrfjord peninsula on Tuesday I drove south to the biggest town on the peninsula, Sør Tverrfjord. Less…
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Continue reading →: How Love Came To Professor Guildea by Robert Hichens
First published in 1900 This short novella, I really don’t like the term ‘novelette’, on the surface, is simple account of a workaholic, eminent but reclusive scientist who, despite the wise advice of his solitary friend, Father Murchison, rejects love, only to find himself pursued by a blindly affectionate spectre…
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Continue reading →: Fjords: Any wonder that they’re pined for?I’m at the confluence of two fjords, Bergsfjord and Sandlandsfjord. Where they meet they become Langfjord. I spent two days at Sandland Brygge where I got to know the owners and a few of the guests. The owners, Stina and Steinar, have managed the place in 2011, and run it…
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Continue reading →: Farewell to the Midnight SunTonight the sunset returns. There will be 30 minutes before it rises again. Within 4 days the difference, the darkness will be 2 hours. With it the temperature changes and there cooler nights will be more of a feature. There have been 80 days of midnight sun, and I’m actually…
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Continue reading →: The Devil’s Bath or Des Teufels Bad
Austria / Germany 2024 Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, German and Austrian respectively, have collaborated again, (after Goodnight Mommy) and this time to produce their best effort yet. Set in the forests of Austria in the 18th century the story centres around a young newly married woman who is frustrated…
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Continue reading →: It’s good on the ridge..Yesterday I entered Norway’s northernmost and easternmost county, that of Finnmark, the second largest in the country, but bigger than Denmark, and with a population of about 75,000. Whereas almost all the tourist visitors will head to North Cape, the north most point of mainland Europe, I will spend the…
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Continue reading →: Op Oloop by Juan Filloy
translated from the Spanish (Argentina) by Lisa Dillman Optimus ‘Op’ Oloop is a man bound by routine. Locked into patterns that dictate his every movement his life is carefully timed with a detailed schedule for each day. This is set in Buenos Aires in between the wars, in the 1930s,…
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 