Category Archives: Reviews

Horcynus Orca by Stefano D’Arrigo

Posted on September 13, 2019 by

This colossal book has required from its creator a colossal effort expended over almost twenty years. By the same token, anybody desiring to tackle Horcynus Orca will have to be ready to make a colossal investment in terms of both … Continue reading →

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The Extraordinary Adventures of Pentothal (Le straordinarie avventure di Pentothal) by Andrea Pazienza

Posted on August 28, 2019 by

Andrea Pazienza, the prodigy of Italian comics, wrote the first instalment of his psychedelic debut The Extraordinary Adventures of Pentothal when he was just twenty-one.  The complete graphic novel, whose parts were published between 1977 and 1981, offers the unforgettable … Continue reading →

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The Cotton Fortress (La forteresse de coton) by Philippe Curval

Posted on July 29, 2019 by

“The Cotton Fortress” or, more accurately, “the Cotton Castle” is the meaning of the Turkish name Pamukkale given to the thermal water resort famous for its snow-white travertine terraces formed by the calcium carbonide-rich springs over millennia. According to the … Continue reading →

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Schattenfroh by Michael Lentz

Posted on February 1, 2019 by

What was it like to be THERE in 1851, when Moby-Dick was published? Or in 1913, when Swann’s Way came out? Or in 1922, when Ulysses crashed into our culture like a meteor and changed it forever? Or in 1955, when … Continue reading →

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Return to Egypt (Возвращение в Египет) by Vladimir Sharov

Posted on December 2, 2018 by

Vladimir Sharov’s dense and voluminous novel, the winner of the 2014 Russian Booker Prize and a runner-up of the Big Book Award of the same year, is in many ways similar in its themes, ideas and obsessions with the much … Continue reading →

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Bastard Battle by Céline Minard

Posted on October 4, 2018 by

Céline Minard’s novel is written in a brilliant pastiche of Middle French speckled with amusing anachronisms. She has drawn inspiration from Jean Froissart’s Chronicles as well as Villon’s poems and Rabelais’ satirical pentalogy. The other major source of influence lies in … Continue reading →

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Finisterra: Landscape and Settlement (Finisterra: Paisagem e Povoamento) by Carlos de Oliveira

Posted on September 23, 2018 by

Carlos de Oliveira’s brief novel is a thing of exceptional, exquisite beauty. It’s one of the rare cases when the expression “to paint with words” is not just a glib figure of speech, but the only possible way to characterise … Continue reading →

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Guest Post: Matthias Friedrich on Karin Moe’s 39 Whirlwinds: The Immeasurable Wanderings of Louise Labé the Younger & Other Specula (39 fyk: Louise Labé den yngres ustyrtelige vandringar & andre spekulum)

Posted on August 28, 2018 by

This is a novel, a hybrid, a text collage, a poem, which disappeared nearly immediately when it was published. Øystein Rottem, who wrote a small paragraph about it in his Norwegian post-war literary history (1998), stated that it was “a … Continue reading →

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Games of Eternity (Giochi dell’eternità) by Antonio Moresco

Posted on July 31, 2018 by

                                    The trilogy consists of the following novels: The Beginnings (Gli esordi), Songs of Chaos (Canti del caos), and The Uncreated Ones (Gli increati). … Continue reading →

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Dedicated to Piranesi (Посвящается Пиранези) by Joseph Brodsky

Posted on May 11, 2018 by

A while ago, my tweet about the Joseph Brodsky poem apparently recounting the conversation between the too tiny figures at the bottom of Piranesi’s famous etching provoked lively interest among my literary-minded followers. Apart from the highly original premise of … Continue reading →

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