I’m donating parts of my body when I die, but I don’t want to donate the whole thing in case I become a body for medical students to practice on. I’ve heard rumours of the way they sometimes treat the bodies they work with and it isn’t pretty or dignified. I accept it shouldn’t matter Read More
It’s not the pen and ink drawing of the Sea Onion that interests me so much as the word squill. Squill sounds like a portmanteau word made from fusing together parts of existing words. Like “brunch” or “labradoodle”. My lips form into a petulant pout when I say it aloud and the blend of squidand Read More
Silence echoes through the village. Eyes look down as I pass, like cars dipping headlights. It is dark. I see Johanna, my friend. Fingers on my arm. Her touch warms me. She looks to my side as if half-expecting Maria to be there. We don’t speak. My eyes follow a bird, a robin I think, Read More
Dear Mrs Brooksbank, You would be pleased to know that Allan Ramsay’s reputation endures. His poetry is remembered on the wall of Greyfriars Kirk; his face gazes out fondly across Princes Street at pilgrims journeying through this city on their cultural quests. What was your connection to him? Were you, like him, a Stuart sympathiser. Read More
David Llewellyn’s A Simple Scale sets out to provide the reader with a profoundly humbling experience: the attainment of the understanding that all our lives are ultimately at the mercy of the tides of history and that we and our fellow men are undeniably responsible for how that history plays out. Llewellyn explores this idea Read More
Ariana Harwicz is an Argentinian playwright and novelist for whom Die, My Love was originally published in 2012 as the first of a trilogy, now translated into English and long-listed for the 2018 Man Booker International. The translators are Sarah Moses and the Scottish-based Carolina Orloff, who co-founded Charco Press through which Die, My Love Read More
In her latest novel, Kirsty Gunn takes a brave and original approach. Conscious of the language she uses, capable of creating memorable metaphors and telling parts of the story through characters’ distinctive dialogues, the author makes a bet. She believes that she can almost entirely remove plot from the book and make it worthwhile for Read More
As Where to Find Me opens, sweethearts bicycle along the Seine, write poetry on bus tickets, gaze on Jean Paul-Sartre at the café, dance to live Jazz. Alba Arikha’s Paris is redolent of golden sunshine, rich scents, and richer sounds. Soon, like an old photograph beset with creeping mould, the picture darkens. Their religions part Read More
Guy Gunaratne is recognised for his work as a video artist, filmmaker, video journalist and some writing. In Our Mad and Furious City, however, is his debut novel which has garnered a lot of buzz, having already been long-listed for the Booker and short-listed for the Goldsmith and Gordon Burn prizes. Set in London, Gunaratne’s Read More
Crudo, Olivia Laing’s first novel, is performance. Laing dons the mask of radical, experimentalist Kathy Acker, in a performance of experimental writing, and in text, her main character Kathy tries to resolve her commitment issues through the performance of marriage. Laing, a non-fiction writer, steps into the guise of Acker to bring a manic and Read More