Coming to the end of a good novel is rather like coming to the end of a good relationship. I suppose the main difference is that a good novel remains good right until the end, whereas a good relationship ...? Hmm. Logic says that it can’t be ‘good’ anymore by that stage, otherwise it wouldn’t [...]
Today is Fat Thursday in Poland. (Tłusty Czwartek to the Poles.) A day of over-indulging yourself with greasy, fatty, calorific donuts to your heart’s content. All bakery shops will be stacked mountain-high with them; most work places will be offering platefuls of the melt-in-your-mouth delights to their employees; practically every shop window will have a [...]
It’s New Year’s Eve in Kraków, 1992. Club-footed photocopyist Leo has allowed his homeless friend Ania to share the evening with him in the warmth of his post-communist bachelor pad. But what he longs to do, once Ania finally goes, is to continue reading the diary of the mysterious Tamara, who left her book in his [...]
As a writer, it goes without saying that I have always been an avid reader. And the older I get, the fussier I become with my reading, and the harder I am to please. But that does not seem to be the case with many other readers. The astounding success of a number of contemporary [...]
As it’s technically still summer, with the flowers in my garden still healthy shades of red and yellow and pink (those that escaped the hungry jaws of my mad Belgian Malinois dog), and the cobalt-blue sky hanging covetously over our high garden wall as though protecting this secret paradise from the autumn winds that lie [...]
I thought I’d have a blog-chat about something completely different this week. Namely, about a novel that everyone in the bookish world appears to be talking about of late: The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelikes. I’ve read a lot of books this summer holiday, but The Silent Patient is one that I have found almost impossible [...]
Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a postal service between heaven and earth? Or between the hereafter and earth, whatever the hereafter entails. I know that everything is digital nowadays, and ‘digital’ is all the younger generation has known. But nonetheless, just imagine this scene. It’s Christmastime. You're feeling nostalgic, and your thoughts are [...]
Wendy Skorupski 