Welcome to Litsy!

#ReadTheWorld2025

In March and April I‘ve read 7 books set in or written by author from places around the world: #Italy #Switzerland #Iraq #France #Iran #Denmark #Mexico #Argentina

I have the #InternationalBooker to thank for most of these books!

#roll100 another absolutely beautiful novel from Elif Shafa - she has such a talent for description and drawing you into the lives of her characters. Heartbreaking that so much of this is based on true events.

#Denial. #DynamicDs

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
@Eggs

Loved this story. Human connection through water. Told through 3 perspectives, set on the banks of the River Thames and the Tigris in 2014, 2018 and 1840 (and a bit beyond). My favorite character was King Arthur of the Sewers and Slums. Not one I‘ll soon forget!

I loved this little book of travellers tales by Arabic (specifically, a Baghdadi of the Abbasid Empire from what is now Iraq, written while he was living in Egypt in 947CE) writer, Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Husayn al-Mas'udi.
His accounts of Persian, Greek, Egyptian, East African,Indian, Central Asian, Chinese, Malaysian, Cambodian, etc. life and cultural practices are fascinating, and there are hints of knowledge of the Americas and Japan, all 👇

al-Mus'ādī is describing some of the wonders of Egypt, including the excavation of a temple lost beneath the desert sands. Uncovering stairs leading to the entrance, a rash man sets foot on the fourth step, triggering two swords to spring out of the walls & slice him to pieces, one of which rolls onto another trigger-step, causing the whole edifice to collapse, burying 2000 people!
I love that Indy's Tomb Raiding has such a venerable lineage! 😃

"... all traces of science have vanished and its splendour is spent; learning has become too general and has lost its depth, and one no longer sees any but people filled with vanity and ignorance, imperfect scholars who are content with superficial ideas and do not recognise the truth."

Written in 947 CE, presumably al-Mas'ūdī had the gift of precognition? Either that, or human nature is constant over the millennia, which is either ? or ?

"We beg our readers' indulgence for any mistakes or negligence which they find in this book; for our memory is weakened and it strength spent as a result of the great weariness brought about by voyages which have taken us by sea from one country to another and by land across extensive desert."
Opening line of a short selection of entries from Baghdad-born Mas'üdī's lengthy account of his 10th C. CE travels.

#FirstLineFridays @shybookowl

The humor in this book was the page-turner for me! And when Avnar‘s dad takes him for ice cream, reading it in my head with an accent had me howling 🤣🤣. But the story line is good, too.

I was at the House of Literature last night to hear Elif Shafak talk about her latest book

What a talk. She talked about so many aspects of the novel and the significance of different writing styles for the different POV. I now have a deeper understanding of the novel

And Sharif was so sweet. Taking her time for everyone wanting a signed copy and a selfie. I stood 50 min in a queue. I can‘t remember the last time I did that