Tag: fiction

The Last Mystery

History is a story that is at once true and false, a story in which truth sometimes requires us to record a falsehood, if only so we do not forget that a falsehood was once told. 

Plague Management: plus ça change

Orhan Pamuk is a masterful writer. His books all open in such a way that you know they are going to be hard to put down.

The Magic of Old

The novel treats Britain’s past with the utmost respect it deserves; the regency world is presented to the reader in all its glory. Susanna Clarke does not betray its spirit by infusing it with modern culture, unlike so many other representations of the period.

Feverish Episodes of Nazi Reverie

As a work of serial military fabulism, Ezquerra’s book is an interesting cultural artifact. I laughed more than once at the author’s sheer gall, but Ezquerra himself is an unpleasant figure. A literary liar is bad enough; a Nazi literary liar seems even more obscene.

Heaven Bleeds Backwards into our Lives

The novel illustrates St. Catherine of Siena’s famous quote, “The path to Heaven is Heaven.” St. Catherine did not say whether the path felt like Heaven at the time, but she was certain that it was, in all essentials, Heaven. In other words, Heaven bleeds backwards into our lives, until every moment is colored with its otherworldly hues. That is the feat Vodolazkin accomplishes in this novel.

The Young Evelyn Waugh: Tragicomic Seeker

Nobody could escape the merciless nature of Waugh’s satirical wit, but he was more than a mere humourist. Alongside his gift for comedy, he also possessed an awareness of a fateful void in the modern world.