Reading Prague
Prague, as every traveler will tell you, is a wonderful town, full of surprises and visual delights. It is full of improbable …
Tag Archives: Fiction
Redeployment – Stories From A War
Phil Klay’s slender volume of short fiction, coming from a 13 month tour in Iraq, delivers what we want from …
Clouds Above the Hill — Japan’s Good Wars
Shiba Ryōtarō is said to be one of Japan’s favorite authors. Prolific in multiple genres, he’s credited with over 500 …
Mexican Mystery Classic: The Mongolian Conspiracy
New Directions, blessed with a nose for lesser known and marginalized literature of high value since its founding in 1936, …
The Dentist as Observer – in Egypt
Alaa al Aswany, author of the remarkable novel, “The Yacoubian Building,” from which a very good 2006 film was made, …
Such a Long Journey — A Novel About Parsi India, 1972
I don’t know why I picked up Rohinton Mistry’s Such A Long Journey. Published and shortlisted for the Booker Prize …
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson, a Novel
Looking at a bookshelf while stopping through Winslow, Arizona I didn’t see a girl in a flat bed Ford but …
“The Bear in the Back” from Tales of the Ixat
THE BEAR IN THE BACK I usually look back when they get in the cab. Just a quick glance is …
Perla — A Novel of the Disappeared and Found
Perla Carolina De Robertis 2012, Random House What a brave book! Carolina De Robertis, widely celebrated for her first novel, The …
The Sheltering Sky — in Morocco
Since my wife returned from a two week visit to Morocco we’ve been combing old movies for scenes shot in …
Tenth of December: George Saunders Short Fiction
Count me among the many who have extravagantly praised George Saunders’ writing. Some of the passages in Tenth of December …
The Prince of Peace — A Novel of Love and War Resistance
On a long train ride from Los Angeles to Oakland recently I was able to take up the recommendation of …