First published in 1930, Narziss and Goldmund forms part of a profoundly insightful body of work by Hermann Hesse. I visited Goodreads and was not surprised to find well over a thousand reviews. I’ve only read the first few, and I’m left wondering what I can add that would contribute to the collective understanding of thisContinue reading “On ‘Narziss and Goldmund’ by Hermann Hesse”
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Liam Brown’s Wild Life
As the title suggests, Wild Life by Liam Brown is not a sober story comfortable within the confines of the ordinary and the every day. Instead, protagonist Adam Britman takes the reader on a downward spiral into a nightmarish underworld. Adam is an accounts manager for a digital marketing company, husband, and father of two.Continue reading “Liam Brown’s Wild Life”
Pia and the Skyman by Sue Parritt
Sue Parritt’s Pia and the Skyman is the second in her Climate Fiction trilogy, following on from Sannah and the Pilgrim, which I reviewed last year. From the very first sentence, Pia and the Skyman engages the reader in the action, Parritt quickly and skilfully establishing the backstory carried over from Sannah and the Pilgrim. Sannah’s daughter, Pia,Continue reading “Pia and the Skyman by Sue Parritt”
Port of No Return by Michelle Saftich
There are stories that need to be told, stories sidelined, destined to languish on the periphery of our knowledge of history, stories eclipsed by bigger, more sensational stories. Until an author like Michelle Saftich comes along. Port of No Return is a work of historical fiction, set at the end of WWII, which tracks the storiesContinue reading “Port of No Return by Michelle Saftich”
A Single Light by Patricia Leslie
With A Single Light Patricia Leslie melds city grit and ethereal myth, the twin demands of Urban Fantasy, to form a perfect unity. The plot is simple, a good and evil battle to save humanity from extinction. Yet there is nothing simple in its execution, Leslie demonstrating both a depth of knowledge of her subjectContinue reading “A Single Light by Patricia Leslie”
Ghosts Like Us, Inez Baranay
Lately, I’ve started getting into book reviewing. I hadn’t expected to enjoy it so much and it’s becoming something of a compulsion. Sometimes I post my reviews here on my website. I reviewed Inez Baranay’s Ghosts Like Us, for Newtown Review of Books. “Ghosts Like Us is a poetic, ambiguous and subversive exploration of the nature of historyContinue reading “Ghosts Like Us, Inez Baranay”
Chains of Sand by Jemma Wayne
Legend Press, June 2016 A work of contemporary fiction, Chains of Sand by Jemma Wayne is a timely and important portrayal of a realm of Middle Eastern conflict made familiar to most of us in the West through the distorted lens of news and current affairs coverage, a lens too often smeared with the VaselineContinue reading “Chains of Sand by Jemma Wayne”
What a sight!!!
The penultimate day of our stay on the island proved to be intriguing. Our first stop was Arrecife, the island’s capital famous for it’s warren of narrow streets. Until this day we had taken the ring road, avoiding the confusion. This time, on a mission to deposit copies of The Drago Tree at a bookContinue reading “What a sight!!!”
Long gone the old ways …
As any anthropologist will tell you, the old ways of indigenous cultures the world over are always tramped on in the name of progress. Some are decimated, wiped from the earth like unwanted crumbs. Others allowed to exist on the fringes, tolerated, ignored and oppressed all at once. Then there are smaller cultures absorbed intoContinue reading “Long gone the old ways …”
The fire mountains
What can be said about driving down a narrow road carved through a lava plain, a road that goes on and on and on? The basalt that covers the land in every direction, thick, crusty, alive with lichen. Volcanoes or calderas 500 metres high and about 1 or 2 kilometres in diameter, rising up likeContinue reading “The fire mountains”
Isobel Blackthorn 