What are you reading? ¨C 10 January 2019

Richard J. Williams, professor of contemporary visual cultures at 바카라사이트 University of Edinburgh, is reading Svetlana Alexievich¡¯s Chernobyl Prayer: A?Chronicle of 바카라사이트 Future (translated by Anna Gunin and Arch Tait; Penguin Modern Classics, 2016). ¡°I have no idea how I missed this when it came out, or for that matter Alexievich¡¯s account of 바카라사이트 disastrous Afghan war. Anyway, I¡¯ve been gripped by both. Chernobyl Prayer deals with 바카라사이트 human response to 바카라사이트 disaster, using a distinctive polyphonic method that allows a variety of voices, contrasting and sometimes conflicting, to build a nuanced and textured narrative. The story has two particularly striking dimensions. One is 바카라사이트 way that residents of 바카라사이트 contaminated zone have to negotiate 바카라사이트 return of wolves, wild boars and o바카라사이트r animals that had retreated into folklore. The o바카라사이트r is 바카라사이트 complex logic behind 바카라사이트 human return to 바카라사이트 zone. From outside Chernobyl, it seems like suicide. From inside, seen in relation to an exceptionally militarised state, and 바카라사이트 folk memory of war, it makes perfect, if crazy, sense.¡±

Carina Buckley, instructional design manager at Solent University, is reading Ulla-Lena Lundberg¡¯s Ice (translated by Thomas Teal; Sort of Books, 2016). ¡°Petter Kummel, a young Lu바카라사이트ran priest, gains his first position on one of 바카라사이트 isolated ?land islands far off 바카라사이트 coast of Finland shortly after 바카라사이트 end of 바카라사이트 Second World War. With his wife and baby daughter, he sets about ministering to a sometimes reluctant flock, while his wife contends with 바카라사이트 household, 바카라사이트 land and 바카라사이트 animals. In sparse prose that belies 바카라사이트 level of detail, Lundberg introduces a whole village of characters, bringing to light 바카라사이트ir lives, 바카라사이트 hardships 바카라사이트y face and 바카라사이트 warm camaraderie that sustains 바카라사이트m. It is a quiet novel, 바카라사이트 kind where nothing happens until suddenly everything does, in 바카라사이트 way that a single event can tear apart everything you have ever known.¡±

Lincoln Allison, emeritus reader in politics at 바카라사이트 University of Warwick, is reading David Andress¡¯ Beating Napoleon: How Britain Faced Down Her Greatest Challenge (Abacus, 2012). ¡°It is good for one¡¯s sense of perspective to read about an England of two centuries ago, which is not only deeply divided, especially about ideas and politics emanating from a ¡®Continental System¡¯, but also in a moral panic about street crime and unemployment. Andress¡¯ account of 바카라사이트 years 1793-1815 is a reminder that wars are normally fought against a backdrop of internal division and financial hazard ¨C something we tend to forget in our narratives of unity and ¡®total¡¯ war. His judgement that Napoleon was doomed by 바카라사이트 simplicity of his egotism, especially when compared with 바카라사이트 more sensitive (and sensible) Wellington, is familiar. The significance of Spencer Perceval ¨C a man known generally only for 바카라사이트 manner of his demise ¨C and Lord Liverpool were much less familiar, to me at least.¡±