You live until you are thirty, said Graham Greene, and after that it is all memory. This present book, by the well-established Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, is a good idea: childhood and late-adolescent autobiography woven into a picture of Istanbul, at the time, and earlier. Pamuk writes a very intricate Turkish, and has not always […]
Tom Maschler’s book is a festschrift of which, unusually, the subject and the author are the same. His life, fame, achievements, authors, friendships, enemies and admirers, his crises and moodswings are already known to booktrade elders, who hardly need read his embellishments, though they provide evidence of the rise of the in-house literary editor from […]
When a writer’s prose flows as smoothly as a pint of ‘SmoothFlow’ beer, you can’t but be a bit irritated with the man. Writing for the rest of us is like breaking rocks. But for Fergal Keane whole paragraphs come perfectly poured with a head of cream. He talks as well as he writes and […]
Pressed hard by the press, television and books, we struggle these days to understand why American and British soldiers torture and – it is alleged – kill prisoners. Having finally been arrested, charged and faced with sentences for their acts at Abu Ghraib and Camp Bread Basket, the convicted men and women say they were […]
It is not easy to assess a book such as this, appearing as it does through the mist of grief and reverence surrounding the sudden and far too early death of a great writer. It is a collection of pieces left by W G Sebald, none of them previously published in book form, and it […]
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm