Robert Stone (Robert Stone obituary | Books | The Guardian) offered Outerbridge Reach in 1992 as his fifth novel. A rich business man with playboy tendencies enters a round-the-world sailing race to promote a new design of yacht his firm has developed. After a financial scandal his place is taken by Owen Browne, a salesman […]
Outerbridge Reach by Robert Stone Read More »
We are accustomed to hearing the phrase ‘The West’ upheld as a form of civilisation superior and more morally advanced than those of other benighted parts of the globe. Usually associated with freedom and democracy, it includes Western Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand. It is an evaluative term as much as descriptive. Its opponents
How the World made the West by Josephine Quinn Read More »
Don DeLillo (Don DeLillo: ‘I wondered what would happen if power failed everywhere’ | Don DeLillo | The Guardian) is an American novelist, short story writer, playwright, screenwriter, and essayist. His works have covered subjects as diverse as consumerism, nuclear war, the complexities of language, art, television, the advent of the Digital Age, mathematics, politics,
Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo Read More »
In this wonderful book William Dalrymple (Biography – William Dalrymple (en-GB)) describes the influence of the Indian subcontinent on global technology, astronomy, art, religion, music, mathematics, literature and mythology. Before The Silk Road, argues Dalrymple, came India’s ‘Golden Road’, which stretched from the Roman empire in the west all the way to Korea and Japan
The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World by William Dalrymple Read More »
Joya Chatterji FBA is Professor of South Asian History and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. She specialises in modern South Asian history and was the editor of the journal Modern Asian Studies for ten years. Shadows at Noon is about India in the 20th century, which means taking it from the late Victorian period, when it had become an
Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century by Joya Chatterji Read More »
The film Conclave (Conclave (2024) – IMDb) is being shown in cinemas in December 2024. It is a mystery thriller directed by Edward Berger and written by Peter Straughan based on the 2016 novel by Robert Harris (Robert Harris: “Great politicians are like novelists” – New Statesman). The film stars Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Sergio Castellitto, and Isabella Rossellini. In the film, Cardinal
Conclave by Robert Harris Read More »
Denis Diderot (1713 – 1784, Denis Diderot (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)) was a French man of letters and philosopher who, from 1745 to 1772, served as chief editor of the Encyclopédie, one of the principal works of the Age of Enlightenment. In this novel of 1796 the servant Jacques rides through France with his master. He appears to act as though
Jacques the Fatalist by Denis Diderot Read More »
As of 2024 William Boyd (Novels – William Boyd) has written 18 novels plus a number of short stories and screenplays. The New Confessions is a good recommendation to start enjoying this author’s fiction. The summary is as follows. From his birth in Edinburgh in 1899, John James Todd was doomed. Emerging from an angst-filled
The New Confessions by William Boyd Read More »
This book by Annie E. Proulx (Annie Proulx: ‘I’ve had a life. I see how slippery things can be’ | Annie Proulx | The Guardian) follows the movements of a small green accordion. The accordion maker leaves his native Sicily with his son Silvano in 1890 for ‘La Merica’. The promise of the land of
Accordion Crimes by E. Annie Proulx Read More »
