The Bibliophile's Compass

Title : Then the Fish Swallowed Him Author : Amir Ahmadi Arian Publication Year : 2020 Rating : ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Pages : 288 Source : audiobook @storytel.tr Genre : historical fiction, Iranian fiction, political fiction I cannot decide whether this is a 3.5-star or 4-star book, which feels strangely appropriate for a novel that left me unsettled rather than satisfied. Let’s start with the title and cover, because I was deeply curious about them. Then the Fish Swallowed Him immediately calls to mind the story of Jonah, the prophet swallowed by a fish until he learns his lesson and returns to the right path. Here, the main character is named Yunus — aka Jonah — and the parallel feels painfully ironic. Or maybe irony is too soft a word for it. I believe the author somehow subverts the story, though I am not entirely sure how to name it. If we consider Yunus as Jonah and the solitary cell as the fish, then what does that leave the despotic system to be? Yunus Turabi is an ordinary man: a bus ...

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Title : Artful Author : Ali Smith Publication Year : 2012 Rating : ⭐⭐⭐💫 Pages : 203 Source : book Genre : literary fiction, nonfiction Awards : Best Book of Ideas Prize (2013), Goldsmiths Prize Nominee (2013) I take genre and classification very seriously. Perhaps too seriously. If a book is marketed as fiction and I open it expecting a novel, but suddenly find myself attending a lecture series, I feel not merely surprised — I feel personally betrayed by publishing. I usually don’t check too many details before reading a book, unless I get so confused within the first few pages that I have to investigate like a literary detective. Otherwise, there will be confusion, frustration, and a significant amount of cursing from the reading chair. Anyway, I picked up Artful thinking I was about to read a novel. How wrong could I be? Apparently: very. It started beautifully. The grief pulled me in immediately, and I was ready to be devastated in a controlled, literary way. But then, s...

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