Andrew Blackman, literary fiction writer, traveller, book reviewer and essayist

Andrew Blackman
Literary fiction writer

Welcome to my blog. You'll find 15+ years of posts about books, reading, politics and travel. You can also find out more about my two published novels and hundreds of published articles, essays, book reviews and short stories.

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Tetragrammaton

Reading

Borges Marathon, Part 21: Death and the Compass

In this short story by Jorge Luis Borges, a detective tale becomes a labyrinth in which the usual crime fiction tropes are subverted.

Reading

The Story of the Night by Colm Toibin

A fascinating window into a difficult life. Richard Garay is a young gay man trying to find his way in Argentina after the death of his parents, navigating homophobia and…

Fergus Kilpatrick

Reading

Borges Marathon, Part 20: The Theme of the Traitor and the Hero

Treachery and heroism blur in this meticulously plotted short story by Jorge Luis Borges, with noticeable echoes from history and literature.

All the Books on One Shelf

How would you approach the task of presenting all of English literature on a single shelf display? Here's how one Serbian bookshop handled it.

Reading

Borges Marathon, Part 19: The Shape of the Sword

With shifting narrators and a big twist at the end, this short story by Jorge Luis Borges tackles themes of violence, vengeance, the clash of theory and practice, and how…

forest euphoria

Reading

Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian

Professional mycologist Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian demolishes any idea of rigid boundaries and hierarchies in this glorious celebration of the diversity and queerness of nature.

rss

Thinking

No, RSS isn’t dead!

Why a technology that many people seem to think is obsolete may actually be perfect for these times.

Reading

Books I Read in April 2025

From a plea for moral AI to a British state of the nation novel, here's what I read this month.

The Shelf of Trump

What if we could extract a creative and inspiring new reading project from the man at the centre of the dark times we're living through?

parallel lines

Reading

Parallel Lines by Edward St Aubyn

My take on the new novel by this Booker Prize winning author, in which the lives of a disparate set of characters suddenly intersect.

Perfection

Reading

Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico

My thoughts on Vincenzo Latronico's beautiful novel about millennial expats in Berlin, recently longlisted for the International Booker Prize.

funes the memorious

Reading

Borges Marathon, Part 18: Funes, His Memory

My thoughts on Funes, His Memory, aka Funes the Memorious, a short fiction by Jorge Luis Borges about a man with an infinite memory.

Clear by Carys Davies

Reading

Reading Wales Month: Clear by Carys Davies

A church minister is sent to evict the last inhabitant of a remote island, but things don't go as planned.

Bookselling Is Not a Crime

Join bookshops around the world to celebrate the right to read freely.