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Continue reading →: The Cremator by Ladislav Fukstranslated from the Czech by Eva M. Kandler This is the story of Karel Kopfrkingl an upstanding citizen, a family man, of Prague, promoting his entrepreneurial trade of being a crematorium operator. Kopfrkingl despairs of the state of the world in the 1930s, and worries for his family, which he…
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Continue reading →: GallowayThis week I’m in Galloway after a Six Nations weekend in Shap. I’ve watched the games in many different places and circumstances over the years, but this was a first, with a nursery load of toddlers and their fathers, while their mothers jaunted off for a baby-shower to Keswick. My…
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Continue reading →: You Dreamed of Empirestranslated from the Spanish (Mexico) by Natasha Wimmer The retelling of history in such an irreverent, wryly disregarding manner is everything you wouldn’t expect from a historic novel, but is hugely entertaining throughout. This is a spritely reimagining of an encounter between Cortés and Moctezuma, occurring over the course of…
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Continue reading →: Wake Not The Dead by Ernst RaupachA classic German gothic tale from 1823. One of the first vampire stories. Translated wonderfully into English by George Blink, for the magazine, Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations in 1823.Blink subsequently took it to the stage, having improved upon an anonymous translation. Set in the mountains of…
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Continue reading →: The Lesson by Jesse BallLoring and her husband Ezra were chess-masters, and when Ezra dies Loring in an effort to overcome some of her grief decides to offer lessons. The mother of a 5 year old, Stan, wants her tutoring services for her son, who, she believes, is a prodigy. It so happens the…
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Continue reading →: The End of the World is Nigh..Will this wind, be so mighty, as to lay low the mountains of the earth? I had parked at the northwestern head of the Cocker valley, about 3 miles north of Buttermere lake on a windy night, but it was to get much windier. These valleys of the Lake District…
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Continue reading →: Fowl Eulogies by Lucie Ricotranslated from the French by Daria Chernysheva After the splendid Of Cattle and Men comes this, a similarly themed fable for the ethical carnivore, but this time with a much lighter dose of horror. When her mother dies, 36 year old vegetarian, Paule, returns to her childhood rural home from…
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Continue reading →: Verdigris by Michele Maritranslated from the Italian by Brian Robert Moore In 1969 in the rural north of Italy, Michelino is 13 and a half years old, spending his summer at his grandfather’s manor house in the country. His grandfather is a retired doctor, and too involved in tv soap operas to be…
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Continue reading →: A brief catch-up from ShapBack in Shap the winter is a windy one. I can hardly complain as I’ve missed 11 named storms. Fortunately I’ve got an electric hook-up from the friends that I’m parked up at, as there isn’t much sun around for the panels. Roja’s cousin, Mac, is very pleased I’m back…
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Continue reading →: Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríqueztranslated from the Spanish (Argentina) by Megan McDowell Told from four different perspectives, this sprawling novel charts the destabilisation of a nation haunted by the spectre of violence. 1976 saw the the coup by armed forces to depose the then Argentinian President, Isabel Perón. The following decade saw a period…
To live more widely
supera superiora sequi
SafeReturnDoubtful is my alias. Rua is my fox red labrador pup, born 14 Feb 2026 and learning fast..
Where is Rua?
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 