Blog
Review: Sister Deborah by Scholastique Mukasonga, trans. Mark Polizzotti
The novella moves between storytellers and versions of history, delivering a story that could never fit into a single truth or archive box.
Say My Name, Say My Name
My name belongs to me, but I’m seldom it.
Beyond Gender: Ghulāmiyyāt and Fashion in Abbasid Culture
Studying past cultures presents a unique challenge: understanding how different they were from our own, but in their own right. Take modern-day Syria, Egypt, and Iraq — do their cultures resemble those of the past? It’s a tricky question with no straightforward answers.
Review: The Last to the Party by Chuqiao Yang
With this promise and its dubious comparison, Yang opens up her world of cultural memory, her geographic and emotional landmarks, and uncertain-yet-loving family relations.
Books: Painted, Dressed, Fashioned
This specific minimalist design stands in contrast to the warmth of a jumbled colourful bookcase or library in an English parsonage, where the illustrated covers, each strikingly different, create a charming picture. It belongs to a long tradition in the French literary scene where the books are dressed in uniform, simple covers so the reader will not be attracted to the book only by the visual appeal of the cover.
Review: Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence by R. F. Kuang
Ultimately, this is the merit of Babel: its timelessness and applicability in modern-day politics.
So, Your Girlfriend’s Superpowers Turned Out to be an Allegory for Autism
She is cold because her powers are ice and rock. She is abrasive because she is superintelligent. This is all well and good. What was not well and good was when she sat you down and said: “I do not actually have magic. I am just autistic.”
Review: All This and More
The grim implications of All This and More have a lot of room to build on, and Shepherd committing to the sinister endings makes for very entertaining reading regardless of which one a reader lands on.
Would You Help Drape Your Son’s Saree?
Yes, this generation is of ‘today’ but if the adults don’t rectify their speech, their children will learn about love more slowly.