“He called the square root sign the ‘temple of numbers.’ Inside the temple, numbers were protected, absolute, eternal.” Chapter 1: The Professor The story begins with the Housekeeper, […]
Japanese literature
Real World
“The world is full of things that don’t make sense. That’s why we have to make our own sense of it.” Chapter 1: The Murder The novel opens […]
Japanese literature
Grotesque
“People are grotesque. They pretend to be good, but inside they’re rotten.” Part One: The Sisters The novel begins with the unnamed narrator reflecting on her sister Yuriko’s […]
Japanese literature
The Ten Loves of Nishino
“Love is like a river—sometimes it flows gently, and other times it rushes violently, but it always changes course.” Chapter 1: The First Love – Yukiko The novel […]
Russian literature
Sincerely Yours, Shurik
“Every family has its own mythology, its own legends, and its own secrets.” Chapter 1: Childhood in Post-War Moscow The novel opens with young Shurik growing up in […]
French literature
Windows on the World
“The sky was so blue it hurt your eyes.” Windows on the World by Frédéric Beigbeder is a harrowing and experimental novel that intertwines two parallel narratives set […]
American literature
The Tale of Despereaux
“Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark.” Book the First: A Mouse Is Born The story begins in the castle of Dor, where a […]
English literature
Brick Lane
“The world was full of doors, and all of them led to the same place.” Part One: Arrival in London Nazneen, a young Bangladeshi woman, arrives in London […]
English literature
Notes on a Scandal
“Sheba thought she was special. She thought she was different. She thought she could get away with it.” Part One The novel opens with Barbara Covett, a veteran […]
English literature
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
“Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could […]