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Continue reading →: Holy Boy
By chance, yesterday I read a book called Holy Boy, and watched a film called Holy Boy. Both are recently out, and both, I can recommend.. Yosep, a 21 year old Korean pop idol, seems to already have everything he could dream of, but the idolatry gets to him and…
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Continue reading →: Pretend You’re Dead and I Carry You by Julián Delgado Lopera
written in English with some untranslated Spanish – published May 2026 This is the coming of age story of Ignacio, who grows up in a rural town near Bogotá in Colombia. Despite a physically abusive and alcoholic father, as an adolescent he is crazy about football, and dreams of a…
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Continue reading →: Event Horizon by Balsam Karam
translated from the Swedish by Saskia Vogel – published March 2026 Milde was eight years old when the tropical country she lived in declared a large number of women and their children to no longer be citizens. They were deporting to a borderless zone between the mountains and the sea.…
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Continue reading →: Bannau Brycheiniog National ParkTwo fine days here wandering in the Bannau Brycheiniog, formerly know as the Brecon Beacons, though today a storm is moving through. The locals here seem not too pleased about the name change, because it is complete, or ‘formerly known as’.. They point out that Eryri National Park is ‘also…
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Continue reading →: She Who Remains by Rene Karabash
translated from the Bulgarian by Izidora Angel – published 2026 This is a great example of what the publisher, Sandorf Passage, do so well. Originally Zagreb based, now with an offshoot in Maine, they are a ‘nonprofit that publishes work that creates a prismatic perspective on what it means to…
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Continue reading →: A Dorset WeekendI spent five days at my friends house just outside Poole. I had thought of taking off to the small hills of Dorset just off the coast but other than lay-bys adjacent to busy roads there are few overnighting options, besides, the hospitality of Joey and Ann was excellent. They…
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Continue reading →: The Duke by Matteo Melchiorre
translated from the Italian by Antonella Lettieri – Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026 In an isolated village high in the foothills of the Dolomites lives the Duke, in a grand villa passed down through the generations of his wealthy ancestors. Without heir, he is the last of the…
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Continue reading →: The Prison by Georges Simenon
translated from the French (Belgium) by Lynne Muir – published 1969 The Prison begins like a conventional murder mystery. After the opening we might expect Maigret to come through the door, but this is one of Simenon’s short and often brilliant, psychological novels. Alain is a successful publisher of a…
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 