One of my informal reading aims for 2026 is to read Olivia Manning’s Levant Trilogy, which, together with her earlier Balkan Trilogy, forms The Fortunes of War, a superb, largely autobiographical series of novels based on the author’s experiences during the Second World War. Viewed as a whole, the series offers a unique insight into […]
The Levant Trilogy (Books Two and Three) by Olivia Manning
excerpt Despite all the atrocities the Indian children have experiencedthe system couldn’t change them, couldn’t mould them totheir ways. Why these kids can’t become like the proselytizingAnglos? What keeps them and sustains them and they remainIndians? How these savages know how to maintain their beliefsand way of life despite the efforts of the occupiers and […]
Savages and Beasts
Aaronovitch is back in form with this 10th instalment of the “Rivers of London” series. The series has been muddled, mediocre and meandering since Aaronivitch finished the “faceless man” part of it (the first seven books of the series, most of them very good), but this one flows well and is a fun book to […]
Book Review: Stone and Sky by Ben Aaronovitch
I had good intentions of reading at least one nonfiction book each month this year, but here we are in mid-March and I’ve only just finished John Zubrzycki’s The Shortest History of India (2022) which I started on January 6th. Black Inc’s series website claims that books in this series can be read in an […]
The Shortest History of India (2022) by John Zubrzycki
What happens behind the closed door of a therapist’s office has long remained mysterious to outsiders. Through his groundbreaking literary work, psychoanalyst Stephen Grosz is pulling back that curtain, revealing the profound human stories that unfold during therapeutic sessions. His approach has sparked a renewed interest in psychoanalysis among readers who might never have considered […]
How Stephen Grosz Is Making Psychoanalysis Accessible to Modern Readers
Born on March 8, 1859, Kenneth Grahame shaped modern children’s literature with The Wind in the Willows. His lyrical pastoral prose turned animal tales into reflections on friendship, home, and the quiet beauty of the English countryside, blending gentle humor with philosophical calm that continues to influence storytelling today.
Birth of Kenneth Grahame (1859–1932) – The Storyteller Who Turned the English Countryside into Myth
First published in 1963, The Barracks was John McGahern’s debut novel, written when he was in his late twenties. Now considered one of Ireland’s greatest authors, McGahern wrote about a world he knew very well, with The Barracks drawing on various experiences from his own childhood – particularly the early death of his mother, Susan, […]
The Barracks by John McGahern
Born on March 1, 1913, Ralph Ellison reshaped the American novel through symbolic layering, jazz-inflected rhythm, and philosophical depth. In Invisible Man, he fused political urgency with introspective narration, expanding the language of identity and redefining who could stand at the center of American literary expression.
Birth of Ralph Ellison (1913–1994) – The Voice That Made America Confront Its Invisible Self
Classic satire by Ismail Kadare
Book Review: The Successor by Ismail Kadare (Albania)
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