Simon Baker
Love On The Run
This is the Country
By William Wall
Sceptre 272pp £16.99
In a way, the narrator of William Wall’s This is the Country is blessed. Before meeting Jacintha, he lives a squalid life of omnivorous drug-use on the fringes of the criminal underclass in an Irish city. His existence is a hellish fugue, with months meandering into each other, bringing nothing but self-loathing and oblivion. Jacintha finally gives him a purpose; he cleans up, gets a trade, and falls for the comforting allure of domesticity.
Unfortunately, though, Jacintha is the younger sister of Pat the Baker, a local gangster. When the narrator gets her pregnant, his legs are broken as a punishment. He retaliates by attacking The Baker with a chain, and has to flee to the countryside, now a condemned man. A while later
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