Vintage Publishing

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Blasts from the Past: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie (transl. by Ina Rilke) (2000)

This is the latest in a series of occasional posts featuring books I read years ago about which I was wildly enthusiastic at the time, wanting to press a copy in as many hands as I could. I’m ashamed to say that I read far less fiction in translation back in 2000 when I first

Blasts from the Past: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie (transl. by Ina Rilke) (2000) Read More »

The Sunday Times/Peters Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer Of The Year Award, in association with The University of Warwick Shortlist: The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar

Regular visitors to this blog will know that I tend not to review historical novels. There are exceptions, of course – Jake Arnott’s The Fatal Tree and Andrew Miller’s Now We Shall be Entirely Free spring to mind – but generally my feet are planted firmly in the twenty-first century. You might be surprised then

The Sunday Times/Peters Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer Of The Year Award, in association with The University of Warwick Shortlist: The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar Read More »

Cover image for A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami

Blasts from the Past: A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami (transl. Alfred Birnbaum) (1989)

This is the latest in a series of occasional posts featuring books I read years ago about which I was wildly enthusiastic at the time, wanting to press a copy into as many hands as I could. I have the BBC to thank for introducing me to Haruki Murakami’s work. Someone picked A Wild Sheep

Blasts from the Past: A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami (transl. Alfred Birnbaum) (1989) Read More »