• Fresh Water For Flowers  – Valérie Perrin

    I grew up holidaying in France and my father speaks fluent French yet somehow my grasp of the French language is not good. What did stay with me is a love for the 'feel' of spoken French. The cadence, the passion, the beauty.  Fresh Water For Flowers was originally written in French and was a huge bestseller in France. Its translation has taken the literary world by storm. The book has an essential French feel about it that goes beyond its settling. The turn of phrase, the style, and the feel of the book are quintessentially French and I loved it. I could not put this book down. I have a busy life…

  • What We Are Reading – Horse

    Based on the remarkable true story of Lexington, a record-breaking racehorse, Horse is not only the story of a racehorse and his owners but a tale of slavery and its effect down the generations to the present day. The story is led by three narratives, brought together by a painting of Lexington. The race training circuit in Kentucky in the 1850s, the New York art scene in the 1950s, and Washington DC in 2019. The novel is beautifully written with compelling characters, extensively researched history, and delivers a devastating end that is a stinging rebuke against slavery in America.

  • The Gospel of Damascus by Omar Imady

    The Gospel of Damascus: The Golden Scrolls In the year 1966, a mother gives birth, a configuration of angels assembles, and a golden scroll is opened. A riddle is born.  

  • Once Upon a Magazine

    It’s Friday afternoon, one of those odd days between the 25th and the 31st of December, 1985. School´s out, my allowance money is in my jeans pocket, and I take myself and my mostly empty backpack on a mission. I ride the B&W bus and about a half-hour later I arrive at the 6th Avenue strip in Cali, Colombia.

  • OMAR IMADY

    Interview with Omar Imady about ‘When Her Hand Moves.’

    Omar Imady answers questions about When Her Hand Moves. Perfect for book club discussions! What was your main inspiration for the novels? It’s really hard to think in terms of a inspiration. Usually, my writing reflects a complex mixture of various forms of inspiration. But if I had to choose one specific theme which cuts through both novellas it would have to be the experience of feeling evicted from my own country as a result of the tragic events Syria has undergone since 2011

  • When Her Hand Moves by Omar Imady

    When Her Hand Moves is a lyrical symphony of three captivating movements: The Passion of Sidra, The Seduction of Jude and The Rage of Fatima. Literary fiction that combines the sensual and the sacred, the intellectual and the imaginary, the divine and the dangerous. Three stories come together with the light touch of magical realism, to examine, interrogate, and challenge our understanding of universal truths and spirituality.

  • What We Are Reading – The Immortalists

    With typical childhood curiosity, they track down the fortune-teller, and enter the woman’s apartment one-by-one. She gives them a precise date for their deaths, an experience the children find terrifying, the date never to be revealed to their friends. It also becomes a seminal moment that ends up shaping their entire lives. 

  • From the Editor’s Komplexerium – In my Time

    Time is dangerously easy to manipulate and at the same time really hard to manage. Our human species also appears to be the only one that insists on measuring it - quite arbitrarily at that. We try to make time match our own speed and desperately hold on to hope when we think it is running out. Even Cher wished she could turn back time, and quite a few surgeries later, well… she sort of did just that, didn't she?

  • What We Are Reading – The Dutch House

    The Dutch House is a stunning novel written with Ann Patchett’s tightly woven prose. The book flirts with themes of fairy tales, wicked stepmothers, and orphaned children cheated of their inheritance, but at its heart, it is a book about a house and its enduring effect on everyone who ever lived in it.

  • Words Matter

    said it. In terms of authenticity and sincerity, I still believe that to be true. However, as an avid reader, and lover of a good story, I am always reminded of the fact that individual words do matter.