“I write because I’m desperate and I’m tired, I can no longer bear the routine of being me and if not for the always novelty that is writing, I would die symbolically every day. But I am prepared to slip…
“I write because I’m desperate and I’m tired, I can no longer bear the routine of being me and if not for the always novelty that is writing, I would die symbolically every day. But I am prepared to slip…
With some books, you have to be ready.This poet is one of Russia’s best, but it took me this long to sit down and read her. It’s time you did, too. Anna Akhmatova’s Selected Poems in Richard McKane’s English translation…
Tove Jansson was born 102 years ago today. Her letters were published in the original Swedish for her centenary, and you can read extracts in English translation by David McDuff at the Books from Finland archive. They are a treasure…
Once upon a time, there was a woman made for a man. She was created entirely from flowers, just for him. But then she fell in love with someone else, and decided to kill the man, to be with her…
Wake up! Wrocław is the new European capital of culture, and a year of celebrations kicks off this weekend. It is a gorgeous city with a complex cultural history – go if you haven’t yet – which has produced some world-class…
When I moved to Finland 3 years and 3 months ago, I barely knew the language. All I could read was the free supermarket adverts that came through the door, matching the products to multi-vowelled words underneath ( ääs and…