I seem to say this every year, but 2025 really has been a great reading year for me. From new releases to treasures from the TBR to brilliant reissues and rediscoveries, the books have been excelle…

Of my mother, I only have two black and white photographs.            Apart, of course, from my own life and some biological memories that I’m not sure I can tell apart from suggestion …

In this fascinating, deeply moving book, the Italian writer Marta Barone takes the reader on a journey to reconstruct the father, Leonardo Barone (LB), she only partially knew before his death – an…

Of my mother, I only have two black and white photographs.            Apart, of course, from my own life and some biological memories that I’m not sure I can tell apart from suggestion …

Thanks to an enthusiastic response to my Expressions of Interest post back in April, here we are about to launch Short Story September! The catalyst for this month was a cascade of events: a blogge…

It’s been such a joy to read Natalia Ginzburg again for Women in Translation Month—though odd to call it a joy really when, as in so many of her books, her characters’ desire for love and connectio…

What a phenomenal book this is, an autobiographical feminist novel first published in Italian in 1906, under a pseudonym due to its radical content. Touching on similar themes to Charlotte Perkins …

August is Women in Translation Month, a time when bookworms around the globe celebrate literature written by women in languages other than English. As a non-native English speaker, born and raised …

This July, I went on holiday in the Baltic region, with one of our stops being Helsinki. I always visit bookish spaces while on holiday – local or chain bookshops, shops selling second hand a…

This July, I went on holiday in the Baltic region, with one of our stops being Helsinki. I always visit bookish spaces while on holiday – local or chain bookshops, shops selling second hand a…

As a literary fiction lover, I pick my reads by themes more than anything; occasionally, I would follow certain thematic threads to corners of literature I wouldn’t necessarily venture into o…

Back in May, Faber and Faber reissued Alexander Baron’s brilliant novel The Lowlife, the entertaining, picaresque story of an amiable Jewish charmer trying to get by on his wits in seedy post-war L…

As a literary fiction lover, I pick my reads by themes more than anything; occasionally, I would follow certain thematic threads to corners of literature I wouldn’t necessarily venture into o…

If you follow the International Booker Prize, the name Solvej Balle will be familiar to you. This critically acclaimed Danish writer scored a hit in the 1990s with According to the Law: Four Accoun…

I love reading books from the places I visit. Next month I’m going on holiday to Finland, Latvia, and Estonia, so of course I made a literary itinerary to match. Today I’m sharing the B…

I love reading books from the places I visit. Next month I’m going on holiday to Finland, Latvia, and Estonia, so of course I made a literary itinerary to match. Today I’m sharing the B…