Liberalism with a Grenade Launcher [RI6]

Liberal interventionism in popular culture

Angola — A General Theory of Oblivion

José Eduardo Agualusa’s book is so so so so so good. Read it now. Why are you reading this when you could be reading that?

In defence of Mr Basil Ball

I know, I know. It would probably be wise to wait for the test to be over to write this, but I wanted to get it out now at what I think might be the peak of doubt in Bazball. Also, it’ll be really funny to look back on if I am wrong.

Argentina — Things We Lost in the Fire

Mariana Enríquez’s short story collection was exactly what I was looking for, although slightly more of it than I needed

Afghanistan — A Thousand Splendid Suns

I read Khaled Hosseini’s novel and thought it was bad

Over the next four or five years or so I’m going to try to read one contemporary(ish) novel set in each country of the world. I’ll go off the list…

Algeria — The Meursault Investigation

Kamel Daoud can turn a phrase, but anger is kind of dull

There are so many novels from Algeria, and I wanted this project to be about reading books not picking them, and so I chose The Meursault…

Andorra — The Teacher of Cheops

Albert Salvadó is a little too impressed with the giant erections of ancient Egypt

There are only 70,000 people living in Andorra so I expected finding a book from there to be a struggle. So…

Armenia — Journey to Virginland: Epistle I

I think Armen Melikian’s experimental novel is pretentious garbage; I fully admit I might be wrong, but he hasn’t motivated me to check

Australia — The White Girl

Tony Birch’s novella is deeply unsubtle, but maybe subtlety is overrated?

It seemed important for my Australia book to speak about the Aboriginal experience, and google suggested that meant I should read Tony…

Albania — The Successor

Ismail Kadare’s short novel doesn’t say much but chooses not to say it quite pleasantly

I struggled to find what I was looking for for an Albania novel: all the highly recommended novels didn’t seem to…