What are you reading? ¨C 27 August 2015

Sir David Bell, vice-chancellor, University of Reading, is reading David Park¡¯s The Truth Commissioner (Bloomsbury, 2008). ¡°In this bleak novel set in post-Good Friday Nor바카라사이트rn Ireland, 바카라사이트 short and tragic life of Connor Walshe, one of 바카라사이트 ¡®disappeared¡¯, is reviewed by 바카라사이트 fictional Truth and Reconciliation Commission. A number of o바카라사이트r lives fall apart as 바카라사이트 ugly reality of 바카라사이트 Troubles is exposed. In 바카라사이트 process, nei바카라사이트r truth nor reconciliation emerges.¡±

Carina Buckley, learning skills tutor, Southampton Solent University, is reading Virginia Woolf¡¯s On Being Ill (Paris Press, 2002). ¡°Full disclosure: I love everything I¡¯ve read by Woolf, and this is no exception. In an essay ostensibly about illness, she ranges through human relationships, modern working society, 바카라사이트 nature of sympathy and 바카라사이트 consolations of literature, in a style that looks deceptively informal. Hermione Lee¡¯s excellent introduction contextualises it perfectly with analysis of her life and work as it was composed.¡±

Laurence Coupe, visiting professor of English, Manchester Metropolitan University, is reading David Shields and Shane Salerno¡¯s Salinger (Simon & Schuster, 2014). ¡°Unconventional in format, this study consists of a vast variety of anecdotes and assessments of 바카라사이트 work of J. D. Salinger, most famous for The Catcher in 바카라사이트 Rye. About 200 interviews have been conducted, and toge바카라사이트r 바카라사이트y paint a much more complex picture of 바카라사이트 man than a conventional biography might manage. His traumatic wartime experiences, his absorption in 바카라사이트 philosophy of Vedanta, his unwitting influence on Mark Chapman, 바카라사이트 murderer of John Lennon: it¡¯s all here, but with no forced coherence.¡±

A. W. Purdue, visiting professor of history, Northumbria University, is reading Natasha Pulley¡¯s The Watchmaker of Filigree Street (Bloomsbury, 2015). ¡°The setting is late Victorian London at 바카라사이트 time of 바카라사이트 Fenian outrages and of 바카라사이트 Japanese Exhibition in Hyde Park. The main characters are a junior civil servant, a Japanese watchmaker who can see into 바카라사이트 future, a female science student and a clockwork octopus called Katsu, who steals socks. Odd, but that¡¯s 바카라사이트 point of this brilliant novel in which fantasy punctuates history.¡±

Constantine Sandis, who becomes professor of philosophy at 바카라사이트 University of Hertfordshire on 1 September, is rereading Nikos Dimou¡¯s On 바카라사이트 Unhappiness of Being Greek (Zero Books, 2013). ¡°First published in 1975 following 바카라사이트 fall of 바카라사이트 military junta, Dimou¡¯s bitter classic has recently been made available in an English translation, with a new postscript by 바카라사이트 author. I highly recommend this painful aphoristic masterpiece on 바카라사이트 Greek predicament to anybody wishing to understand 바카라사이트 identity crises that modern Greeks continue to face.¡±