“Light, even artificial light, has a way of exposing things.” Chapter 1: April – The Apartment The unnamed protagonist, a recently separated woman, moves into a sunlit fourth-floor […]
Japanese literature
The Briefcase
“Time passes, people move. Like a river’s flow, it never ends.” Chapter 1: An Unexpected Reunion The novel opens with Tsukiko, a single woman in her late thirties, […]
German literature
The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
“For the sake of a single verse, one must see many cities, people, and things… One must be able to think back to roads in unknown regions… to […]
German literature
The Pigeon
“A pigeon had settled on the windowsill. It was gray, with a dirty white breast, and it sat there motionless, as if it had been sitting there forever.” […]
French literature
The Flowers of Evil
“Hypocrite reader—my likeness—my brother!”—Charles Baudelaire, The Flowers of Evil Spleen and Ideal The first section of The Flowers of Evil explores themes of beauty, love, and despair. Baudelaire […]