Sarah Smith
- Khachapuri. Photo by Robyn Lee Though the Republic of Georgia has a strong literary past, especially in the medieval era, the Soviet shadow and the country’s singularly difficul…
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Cat people: we aren’t known for much other than spinsterhood, paranoia, emotional and social disconnection. Our one spokesperson who’s more than quaint at best is Catwoman. But lately there’s been…
- A Conversation with Don Bartlett A bookshop in Stavanger, Norway. Photo by Marie Guillaumet/Flickr In Norway, many bookstores carry a wide variety of translated fiction, noticea…
- Poetry has a long history in the Middle East (as author Khaled Furani examines in one of the new books listed below), and Palestinians in the footsteps of Mahmoud Darwish and many other predecessors a…
- Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (2004, England) Susanna Clarke It’s 1806 and Britain is ravaged by the Napoleonic Wars—that is, until a Mr Norrell comes to the aid of his country with his magic. Soon,…
- Many times when we think of fantasy or science fiction, we think of trite stories of dragons, wizards, and maybe some machine-gunned armies on distant planets. But throughout the world, fantasy and sc…