Literature
The Barren Nothing-Place
published in
On growing up in the creases of bilingual versions of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land
The size of longing
published in
On Jacob Israël de Haan’s Palestine and Arnold Zweig’s novel of post‑Zionist disillusionment
Ice queens, sex machines
published in
Insofar as erotica can ever be about something, what is Russia-themed erotica about?
Cannibalinguistics
published in
Language-learning and people-eating in Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi’s The Centre.
What an animal isn’t
published in
Two vastly different books — one a picaresque tale, the other a dystopian meditation — both recount a transition from human to animal or from animal to human.
« Everything starts with fire » — Interview with Hélène Cixous
published in
« The smell was like the sharp notes of a trumpet, a sort of rat-tat-tat like a burst of gunfire, a bombardment. »
From the knacker’s yard
published in
On the fallen animals loved by Heinrich von Kleist & Curzio Malaparte.
Forget your darlings
published in
On memory palaces, medieval and modern. A medieval woman’s life would not have taken the form of a straight line.
On Natalia Ginzburg’s Valentino
published in
On Natalia Ginzburg’s Valentino, newly translated: a Q&A with Alexander Chee.