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Continue reading →: The Naked Woman by Armonia Somers(Translated from the Uruguayan Spanish by Kit Maude) On her 30th birthday, a bored Rebbeca Linke reflects on her mundane existence and contemplates whether anything exciting will ever happen in her life. By night she makes her way to her country cottage and withdraws from the world. Beneath the moonlight,…
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Continue reading →: Aimyalon – a monastery with a dubious history
We set off from the Water Museum just after 9 am. Not long up the path and we met a lonely goat-herd with his trip of animals. We passed the time of day, he in broken English. When he learned of where we were headed he implored us not to…
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Continue reading →: A mountain pass in the Peloponnese
Peti dropped in for a coffee just after 10. I had mentioned it last night, but sent her a message that hadn’t been opened, so had assumed it wasn’t going to happen. I was in my usual van-reading-morning position, reclining and immersed in 1940s pulp fiction. Peti was in her…
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Continue reading →: Charcoal (Carvão)Brazil / Argentina – 2022 In rural Brazil a struggling family is made an offer; to replace their terminally ill grandfather with a drug lord who needs to be hidden for while. This is Director Carolina Markowicz’s first film, and demonstrates that she is clearly one to be watched. She…
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Continue reading →: The Fabulous Clipjoint by Fredric BrownBrown is a writer I’ve been meaning to get to for a while. He is highly regarded as a pulp author, but also for his flash fiction with a twist, and his science fiction. I read a particular recommendation for this by Lawrence Block, so thought I’d begin with it.…
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Continue reading →: Small Deaths by Rijula DasSet in Shonagachhi, one of the more notorious red-light areas of Kolkata, this is a noir novel with a difference, though buried within it are many of the same tropes used widely in the genre.A sex worker is brutally murdered in the room of a brothel, and the fragile existence…
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Continue reading →: Villages of the Mainalo mountainsThere was only one monk at the Valtesiniko monastery on Saturday, and on Sunday morning he called over to say that he was away for the day. I think he had expected that I would be visiting the monastery and would be disappointed that it was not open. Roja and…
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Continue reading →: Two-Way Murder by E.R.C. LoracA few years ago, a young woman was found dead at the foot of some cliffs, her death ruled as suicide. Dilys is suspicious that there was foul play and still will not walk that same road from where the woman, her friend, first disappeared. Dilys has also fallen for…
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Continue reading →: LeviathanRussia 2014 Director – Andrey Zvyagintsev Set to the backdrop of the spectacular rugged coast of northern Russia, this is the story of an ordinary man and his battle to keep his house, which has been earmarked for demolition for a wider project. It’s a story that could be anywhere…
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Continue reading →: Another Saturday Night at a MonasteryI moved on from Vytina this morning just as it was filling up with day visitors. It had been quite busy last night, but signs were that it would be a popular destination for lunch today. There was water from a spring just out of the centre, next to which…
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 