Volume

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The Interesting Times #288 (12.8.26) — VOLUME Issue #288 Presences and forgotten voices . >> Said the Dead . Off to the races . >> It Gets in Your Blood . >> Kick the Latch . >> Something for the Pain . Understood, remembered, and interpreted . >&

We’re reading less. And it’s making us stupid Books have never been trendier, but studies show that as more and more things compete for our frazzled attention spans, we’re reading less and less. This is a problem because reading has a wealth of cognitive benefits that we’re in danger of missing out on.To find out why declining literacy coul...

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A Review - No Money, Nice C**k by Victor Brooks Published by Burnt Books Press. A couple of weeks ago I was reading No Money, Nice C**k on my morning bus ride. A standing, sleepy looking commuter swayed in the aisle ahead of me. Her disconnected gaze slipped across the  front cover and she snapped awake. Eyes widened, shocked, but now fully present. This is a book that gets attention. NMNC is a book of many parts; gender transition journey, s*x confessional, dodgy business handbook, Auckland hospitality Babylon, travel guide and a consideration on aspects of secondary school teaching. What holds these diffuse elements together is Victor, direct, vulnerable and fierce, and the quality of the writing, clear and vital, also honest and funny and humane. The language is precise, at times subtly beautiful. "Three times this young woman escaped from Carrington, arriving at the mustard house barefoot: once muddy and twice on a Sunday afternoon." But NMNC is not a book of descriptive excess, rather it is a novel of incident and action, of encounters with family and lovers and strangers, (highlighting the fact a good biographer is as much interested in others as themselves). It's also a book of places and journeys; Sydney, London, Delhi, Bankcock, Port-au-Prince. Auckland. Hamilton. These various aspects do not compete but wind in and out of one another, creating  space for rumination, where Victor learns to understand and accommodate himself across decades. NCNM is also about surgery and surgeries, about options, possibilities and choices, about understanding what you need, about the relationship between patient and surgeon and about Victor's relationship with a new body and a newly afirmed gender and how all  these things are not simple and not always easy.  NMNC is a vital book that should be read. Kelly NMNC is an autobiographical, non-fiction prose novel, available from @thewomensbookshop , @volumebooks , @scorpiobooks , @timeoutbookstore , @universitybookshopcanterbury , @huntersandcollectors1987 and @worldbrandinnz NMNC is listed with Nielsens and Wheelers, so is available to order from bookshops and accessible for libraries to purchase..

Moses and Gaspar by Amparo Dávila, translated by Audrey Harris & Matthew Gleeson The train arrived at about six o’clock on a cold, wet November morning. The fog was so thick it was almost impossible to see. I was wearing my coat collar up and my hat shoved down around my ears, but still the fog penetrated all the way to my bones. The apartment where Leonidas lived was in a n.....

Marina Warner · The Politics of Translation: Translate this! Vol. 40 No. 19 · 11 October 2018The Politics of TranslationMarina WarnerShare on BlueskyShare on FacebookShareEmailPrint 4471 wordsThis Little Art by Kate Briggs. Fitzcarraldo, 365 pp., £12.99, September 2017, Show MoreTranslation as Transhumance by Mireille Gansel, translated by Ros Schwartz....

Doireann Ní Ghríofa and Rachael Allen: Said the Dead | London Review Bookshop Doireann Ní Ghríofa and Rachael Allen discuss Said the Dead

Is Beauty Good by Rosalind Belben review – the literary equivalent of free jazz Combining hilarious detail with harsh observation, this rediscovered novel takes the reader on an exhilaratingly strange journey

Podcast: Sarah Howe and Sandeep Parmar · Poetry and the Turning World: Work The LRB PodcastPoetry and the Turning World: WorkSarah Howe and Sandeep Parmar10 June 2026Is writing a poem work? In the first episode of their series exploring the ways in which poetry responds to our personal and collective challenges, Sarah Howe and Sandeep Parmar start by considering the concept...

Volume Focus: DOUBLES — VOLUME A selection of books from our shelves. Click through to find out more: Septology The Notebook Trilogy As If Transcription The Double The Book of Guilt Nothing to See Sublimation

‘I hate what AI is doing to the minds and happiness of the young’: Katherine Rundell on the view from the classroom Education is at a crossroads, argues the author and academic. Should we embrace new technology in the name of efficiency, or is it time to fight back?