"It was a good revolution to miss" ?

"a red city, where they paint wood, tin, even red bricks red, and orange rose flower-pot red that is unlike the colour of any other city in the world yet to the children of the country is the only colour of cities, the colour all cities are."

Beautiful, even if shy of a full stop (or three!).

I adore this book! Everything it does is understated to perfection. The humour is subtle and surreal whilst so much else is quietly poignant. Delisle understands he doesn't require a commentary, just to present the strangeness of life and let us see for ourselves.

This would make a fantastic double bill with Dom Jolly's "the dark tourist".

Reading into Kafka's life, I bet he spent every day waking up feeling like "monstrous vermin" or a "gigantic insect" (depending on who's translating for you).