We tend to forget that the war in Syria is still going on, our attention drawn by the newer crises or those closer to home. This is a reminder that this conflict has never been resolved and that the world simply abandoned Syrians to fend for themselves. A story of a couple that did exactly …
A noir with a twist. This short novel by Pascal Garnier takes us on a mad trip to Agen (very invitingly called the capital of prune). We travel with Marc, in his sixties, and his daughter Anne in her thirties. It is weird, painful, dark, but also funny in a menacing and sinister way. Marc’s …
Continue reading A Long Way Off/ Daleko, dalej – Pascal Garnier
I don't suppose there is anything on earth to compare with a French student cafe in the late morning. You couldn't possibly reproduce the same numbers, noise, and intensity anywhere else without producing a riot as well. This time he really took in my outfit and then that Look that I'm always encountering; that special …
Sally Jay Gorce is a true personality. As we join her in Paris where she is hellbent on living her life to the full, there isn’t a boring second. Sally’s mix of tenacity and carelessness gets her in endless trouble. But she doesn’t let herself be broken, she gets up, deals with yet another hangover, …
It is not proven that Elizabeth's personal equilibrium was set off balance by the slant of the office floor, nor could it be proven that it was Elizabeth who pushed the building off its foundations, but it is undeniable that they began to slip at about the same time. She was not even interesting enough …
This is only the third novel by Jackson, and yet it clearly shows her incredible skill in building atmosphere. A skill that I haven’t seen matched yet. The way she slightly twists the ordinary to make it unnerving, slightly creepy to all the way scary and then back again, as if nothing happened, this is …
It may be a hard situation to imagine, but please try to picture Agatha Christie writing a satirical crime novel about a Polish architecture firm during communism. The book is filled with crazy characters that function in an even more crazy environment. A good mystery with a huge dose of humor. As always in the …
Continue reading Wszyscy Jesteśmy Podejrzani – Joanna Chmielewska
An uplifting if naive take on lives that need changing. Interestingly played between a granddaughter and grandmother adding the layer of complexity that comes with age. A book that means to make you feel good and for the most part achieves it. Yet another book that came with one of the subscription boxes, I don’t …
A damaged family. An overprotective father. A daughter with a new perfect boyfriend. What can go wrong? It is another book from a bookish advent calendar I got from my friend as my birthday gift. The first one was not a roaring success, but since I read it, it got me out of a reading …
It is one of those books that you do judge by the cover. And the cover tells you it is another run-of-the-mill thriller. Now, it can be one of the better ones providing a few hours of escapism, or it can be a mediocre one that will steal a few hours from you in a …
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