Welcome to Litsy!

In this post-modern classic, nothing is what it seems. The main character, Nicholas Urfe, goes to teach on a Greek island, and is impressed by his erudite and art-loving host. But along the way, Nick becomes entangled in a labyrinth of truths and untruths, of the psychological games of a master trickster, which become increasingly dark and serious.

#1001books #Audiobook
(📸 Utrecht, Netherlands)

I loved this, it was brilliant, but then maybe it is something only another Classicist would love? I have beef with the blurb calling it a comedy, it is def a tragedy, if a madcap one, and it is about POWs being forced to perform in order to eat, so rather brutal for even dark comedy. But there were still some flashes of beauty, and I appreciate the decisions the author made in plot and execution. #tob25 #tob25longlist

Not gonna lie. I had to read some reviews & take time to think about this before I could write a review. It is still reverberating through my system. Deceptively simple & short but it carries so much weight - of personal power or lack thereof, of being given up at birth, of music (I found myself listening to the music that the main character refers to), of hidden memories. My first Levy and I‘ve already grabbed a second of hers from the library.

I didn't mean to sound like I hadn't found new things to read in the #tob2025 longlist! Above the line are books that have been on and off my monthly tbr stacks all year and which I'll now try harder to fit in, and below the line are books newly on my radar 🥰 I can't believe I missed the newest Rivers Solomon!

Elsa is a famous concert pianist who drifts around Europe after she, mid-performance, walked off stage.
In meeting her doppelgänger, she sees a signal to figure out who she really is.

As a child she was adopted by Arthur Goldstein, a genius piano teacher, when her talent became clear.
Now he is dying and she can‘t keep sheltering in the trance of performance.

As always, I love reading Deborah Levy‘s words and sentences.

Love this. Bumblers into heroes arc, beautiful prose, beautifully paced. Set in Sicily during the Peloponnesian War, but laced with Irish jargon and a stripped-down setting of quarries & markets for a sense of timelessness near the “wine-dark” sea. Brutality & art. Preservation of culture. Entertaining the enemy. Funny & sentimental. Crazy premise (stage Medea with actors now prisoners of war) becomes a beautiful mediation on art & freedom. 2024

My first #10BeforetheEnd book. I did enjoy it, particularly in its frank depiction of ancient Athens society during the Peloponnesian Wars. The main character comes from a noble Athenian family and Renault doesn‘t try to hide the ways Athenian culture differs from our modern sense of morality or ethics. At the heart of this is a love story between two men, which was completely accepted then. It was a slow and dense read, but worth the time.

Super heavy on the introspection. But I think I gained something from reading it.

4.5/5 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗

Stephen Fry once again delivered a brilliant book about the e Greek myths. An amazing addition to his series.

#myths #greek

You read something and it makes you think about your young adult life transitioning out of high school and the friendships you make in life at that time. This book did this. How as young adults we “feel” like it‘s the end of the world and when we‘re young we‘re so passionate about life. This book was a journey in that sense but that‘s not only what it was about it‘s also about friends “losing” a friend in a tragic death and the truth comes out.