This month: a spiritual unraveling at the sight of a cockroach, and a recommendation from the archive

A note

Welcome back, it feels good to be consistent in sharing what I read. I definitely underestimate what it takes to stay on top of reading and reviewing, it is so easy to just read and skip writing and sharing (as evidenced by a huge backlog of books I've never written a review for). I hope you appreciate this, and if you missed the last update, it might have gone to spam!

I read some interesting books this month, none I would highly recommend, but I am happy that I am getting into Clarice Lispector. She came highly recommended to me from some colleagues in Brazil, and I read my second book of hers this past month.

— Sabtain

01 — Featured July review

The Passion According to G.H.

Clarice Lispector

★★★☆☆

A wealthy Rio sculptor's stream of consciousness unravels entirely after she encounters a cockroach in her maid's room, spiraling into something between a breakdown and a spiritual awakening. There's no plot to speak of, just Lispector's rhythmic, erratic prose stripping away everything performative about the 'self'.

Read the review →

02 — From the archive

Death and the Dervish

Meša Selimović

★★★★☆

I stumbled upon this novel in early 2024 and still think about it and recommend it at times. It reads a little Kafka-esque but set in Bosnia during the rule of the Ottoman empire. So if that's your jam, you'll fall right into this. Really enjoyed reading this and loved contemplating the internal struggle the protagonist goes through dealing with politics, bureaucracy, inner and outer faith, and his own idea of morality through detachment.

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03 — Currently reading