‘Something had been brutally obliterated’ [book review]

A review of Black Box by Shiori Ito, translated from the Japanese by Allison Markin Powell Content warnings: rape, sexual assault. In April 2015, Shiori Ito, then a promising young TV journalist, met up in Tokyo with Noriyuki Yamaguchi, an older and highly respected journalist she had met during a stint working in New York.

‘Looking at the incandescent door’ [book review]

A review of No Presents Please by Jayant Kaikini, translated from the Kannada by Tejaswini Niranjana Mumbai. Say the name and it conjures multitudes: one of the world’s most populated cities, its streets awash with life, a sea of endless opportunity and dashed hopes, extreme wealth and abject poverty. Mumbai, with its grand colonial buildings

‘A city devoid of tenderness’ [book review]

A review of Arid Dreams by Duanwad Pimwana, translated from the Thai by Mui Poopoksakul In ‘The Way of the Moon’, the penultimate story in Duanwad Pimwana’s collection Arid Dreams, a boy and his father sleep out on a beach. The boy is fascinated by the sparks rising from their campfire, recognising that an essential