Fiction in translationReviewTse dissects the struggles of people and power in this subversive vision of perilous desire, set in a semi-imaginary Hong Kong
In English the versatile suffix “ish” captures the somewhatness of something, as when we call a cloud “whitish” or say “Life is normal. Ish.” In Dorothy Tse’s whimsical satire about a version of contemporary Hong Kong going through hellish transformations, Owlish – “something like an owl but also not like an owl” – is a wise and elusive character who quotes from the Bible, speaks in a coded language, and appears and disappears randomly. Read More...
Whisky This article is more than 2 months oldRare 1926 Macallan whisky becomes world’s most expensive bottle at £2.1mThis article is more than 2 months oldRecord smashed at auction of one of 40 bottles of oldest-ever Macallan vintage, described as ‘rich, rich dram’
The record for the world’s most expensive bottle of whisky has been broken after a bottle of Macallan 1926 went for £2.1m at a Sotheby’s auction in London. Read More...
FictionReviewAn office outsider discovers a mysterious place of refuge in this odd but fascinating fableFile under Comedy, Tragedy, Quirky, Profound, Sad, Slight, Silly, Urban Myth, and Unclassifiable. The Room is a simple book about almost nothing, with no reference to anything outside itself, with no grand subject and no great style and yet which seems utterly inevitable and is thoroughly enjoyable. Jonas Karlsson is a famous Swedish actor, apparently, and The Room is his first book translated into English (by Neil Smith). Read More...
