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One brief book recommendation, once every month. Fiction and non-fiction, for the casual or voracious reader.
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John Hersey: Hiroshima (1946)
AUG 2023‘In referring to those who went through the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, the Japanese tended to shy away from the term “survivors”, because in its focus on being alive it might suggest some slight to the sacred dead. The class of people to which Nakamura-san belonged came, therefore, to be called by a more neutral name, “hibakusha”—literally, “explosion-affected persons.”’ Continue reading →
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Nick Cave’s output in the last four years has been very prolific: with Warren Ellis, his leading creative companion, he’s written several albums (Carnage, Ghosteen), an EP (Seven Psalms), a few soundtracks (Blonde, Dahmer, and La Panthère des nieges), and he featured on a handful of songs by others. Continue reading →
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‘Tell me the truth, I said’.
‘What truth?’ he echoed. He was making a rapid sketch in his notebook and now he showed me what it was: a long, long train with a big cloud of black smoke swirling over it and himself leaning out of a window to wave a handkerchief.
I shot him between the eyes. -
Mieko Kawakami's books are of the mesmerising and quiet kind, and they often explore friendships. Her characters are gentle, tender, and somewhat passive, but her words sparkle, and in every of her novels translated into English, they leap from the pages. Continue reading →
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Ed Yong: An Immense World (2022)
MAR 2023Now and then, I like to read a big book. Vast and memorable biographies, monumental essay collections, or sprawling, epic works of fiction—books that cover long, impressive lives or astonishing topics, and leave you sitting in awe when you close them. Continue reading →