Tag: Books

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Constant struggle to find daily necessities

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In 1966, China is on the cusp of a decade of upheaval, and the furnaces of Old Kiln have never been this cold. The village’s once-famed ceramics production has almost ground to a halt. Only ancient grudges smoulder beneath its poverty-stricken streets, never forgotten by the two families that preside over the village making them “backward, simple, petty, absurd and cruel” Jia writes. Between them stands the adopted Inkcap, whose mysterious origins leave him unloved and barely tolerated. Historically they have always been told what to do, and they have had the inertia of people trained in passivity. “Everyone is … Continue reading Constant struggle to find daily necessities

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Dreaming of a fragile future and misfortunes of a teen Naples bandit

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So People Know It’s Me, set in the winter of 1991, is a unforgettable novel which unleashes Zeno’s luminous, unguarded and defiant voice- dreaming of a fragile future, set in the juvenile prison island of Nisida. Zeno is fifteen years old, a minor by law, but he grew up long ago in the dusty heat of Naples.  The novel follows one man’s self-realisation in a foreboding juvenile prison. Winding down cobbled streets on his motorbike, he delivers baggies and picks pockets, doing whatever it takes to put food on the table and steal a few precious moments of freedom with his … Continue reading Dreaming of a fragile future and misfortunes of a teen Naples bandit

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Dark Desires, a smell of leather, the flash of harness, the snap of a latex gloves

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Welcome to the radical, vibrant world of sexual fetishists. In 21st century commodity culture, we are all intimately involved with objects we covet a Birkin bag; we keep trainers box-fresh. We are, in a sense, all fetishists. Occasionally this desire spills into something more subversive. Second Skin offers a tour through the materials, objects and power dynamics commonly fetishized, unpacking their histories, their expressive potential, and the communities they give rise to. Drawing from her encounters with fellow fetishists and kinksters, it is alos the story of ex-fashion critic, Anastasiia Fedorova’s own journey of what it means to come to terms … Continue reading Dark Desires, a smell of leather, the flash of harness, the snap of a latex gloves

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Portraits of survival and resilience wins the Booker Prize

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Indian writer, Banu Mushtaq’s fiction Heart Lamp won the International Booker Prize this week. The 77-year-old writer  said “ I never dreamt it could happen. I don’t know how to express my emotions, except to say it is the greatest experience of my life”. Her translator Deepa Bhasthi 41, said “the honour lies in becoming the first translator of colour to win the annual award which goes to the best work of fiction translated into English. splits the £50,000 prize money equally between author and translator. Heart Lamp is a collection of 12 stories Mushtaq  exquisitely captures everyday lives of women and … Continue reading Portraits of survival and resilience wins the Booker Prize

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Blurring of public and personal space, amid social media’s constant scrutiny

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Private life is now in mortal danger according to acclaimed cultural historian Tiffany Jenkins, who takes readers on an epic journey, from the strict separations of public and private in ancient Athens to the moral rigidity of the Victorian home, and from the feminists of the 1970s who declared that “the personal is political” to the boundary-blurring demands of our digital age. Strangers and Intimates is both a celebration of the private realm and a warning as social media, surveillance and the expectations of constant openness reshape our lives, Jenkins asks a timely question: Can private life survive the demands … Continue reading Blurring of public and personal space, amid social media’s constant scrutiny

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Hope and despair

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The emotional story of an intense friendship between the narrator and his close childhood friend, Fanny, who suffers from profound psychological disorders. A Leopard-Skin Hat may be the French writer Anne Serre’s most moving novel. Anne Serre is a Prix Goncourt winner who has published 17 novels in French, as postmodern sensuous fairy tale. A feminist fantasy, where women satisfy their sexual needs free from society’s ignominy. The first to be translated into English by Mark Hutchinson, 1992’s The Governesses. Hailed in Le Point as a ‘masterpiece of simplicity, emotion and elegance, with a series of short scenes painting the … Continue reading Hope and despair

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Strange and Dangerous

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Piranesi is a spectacular novel by Susanna Clarke, winner of the Women’s Prize 2021, set in parallel universe made up of hundreds of halls and vestibules lined with statues each on different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid: He understands the tides as he understands the pattern of labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house. The vestibules which triggers gradual memory loss and identity in newcomers. The upper level of the house is filled with clouds lower … Continue reading Strange and Dangerous

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Apprenticeship dominated training and skill in early modern Europe

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Apprenticeship dominated training and skill formation in early modern Europe. Years spent learning from a skilled master were a nearly universal experience for young workers in crafts and trade. In England, when apprenticeship reached its peak, as many as a third of all male teenagers would serve and learn as apprentices. In the Market for Skill, Patrick Wallis, professor of economic history at the London School of Economics, shows how apprenticeship helped reshape the English economy. He shows non-agricultural work in England was “anything but hereditary between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries”. Some historians see apprenticeship as a key ingredient … Continue reading Apprenticeship dominated training and skill in early modern Europe

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The act of Atonement

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Master storyteller, and author of more than 60 bestsellers, Stephen King’s rumours of retirement due to literary exhaustion, is unfounded as his shift of genre from horror to crime after recharging his creative batteries. Never Flinch is about a killer on a diabolical revenge mission, and another about a vigilante targeting a feminist celebrity speaker – featuring the beloved Holly Gibney. When the Buckeye City Police Department receives a disturbing letter from a person threatening to “kill thirteen innocents and one guilty” in act of atonement of the needless death of an innocent man”. Detective Izzy Jaynes has no idea … Continue reading The act of Atonement

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Love in the Therapeutic age

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Tanja and Jerome are navigating a long-distance relationship in a world of constant communication and emotional hyper-reflection. Whether they are texting one another trip updates from midday raves or debating the best trainers in the own-brand aisle of Decathlon, every gesture is controlled and self-aware. This is love in the therapeutic age. Both conform to the archetype: Tanja is a Berlin-based writer whose first book sits somewhere at the intersection of virtual reality and gay romance. “People who didn’t like it came across as cringingly proud of their dislike of a book that meant something to others, “ writes Randt, … Continue reading Love in the Therapeutic age