I have read a few Europe Comics in recent times and I have loved most of them. “Turntable” by Zidrou and Raphael Beuchot is no exception. Based on the true story of Belgian violinist and composer Eugene Ysaye’s trip to Africa, Turntable is a breezy read. The book begins with Ysaye saying goodbye to his...
“I was on my own, as I surely always had been, from the beginning to the end.” This thought underlines Salva Rubio’s graphic novel “The Photographer of Mauthausen,” which is set in the concentration camp of the same name during Nazi Germany. The photographer in question is Francisco Boix, a Spanish photographer who survived the war...
I received The Stolen Bicycle as an ARC from NetGalley, and that’s how I came to read this Wu Ming-yi’s brilliant novel set in Taiwan. Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2018, The Stolen Bicycle retains its distinct flavour thanks to the masterful translation by Darryl Sterk, a teacher at the National Taiwan University specializing...
This weekend was sunny and glorious, and the whole of Dublin was outside on the streets in droves, filling up the parks, pubs, and canal-sides. I went for a walk in the park with my friends, and enjoyed some Curiosity Cola after a long, long time and the eclectic mix of movies that I watched...
When my friend and book blogger, Vishy, posted this glowing review of Tonke Dragt’s “The Letter for the King” last year, I was intrigued because it appeared to be all about knights and chivalry and adventure. Who doesn’t like the sound of that? A month or so ago, I found this book waiting to be...
I chanced upon M Mukundan’s “On the Banks of the Mayyazhi” in a second-hand bookshop. When I read the summary on the book jacket I was sceptical if I would like it because it had two themes that I haven’t been able to take to very much in the past – politics and magical realism. Boy was...
The weather in Dublin has been an absolute drag on the soul. Colourless skies, intermittent rain, high winds. And just to drill it in further, the sun peeked out a few times, bathing everything gloriously golden, before quickly retreating to its mansion in the clouds. Given this setting, I wanted to watch movies that would...
This is my first Turgenev, and what a glorious one at that! Vivid, impressive, and complex, ‘First Love’ is about 16-year-old Vladimir’s conviction that he has found the girl of his dreams in 21-year-old Zinaida. He first espies her in a garden surrounded by a gaggle of besotted young men all waiting to do her bidding, and...
I finally turned the last “page” of Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone yesterday night, on my Kindle, and I waited. For that empty feeling that comes when a tale well told comes to a finish. For that rush when you know that, that book’s sequel is coming soon. But I didn’t feel any...
April is National Poetry Month, and I thought how better to celebrate it than by honouring the mesmerizing cherry blossoms that are beginning to show everywhere! In Japan, this is prime hanami (flower watching) season, a time that brings together Japanese families as they gather for picnics beneath the shade of the cherry trees. The custom...
