Trieste
A philosophical quest: A Fictional Inquiry, by Daniele del Giudice, reviewed
The pacing and tone are noirish in this metaphysical detective story, set in Trieste, about the space between writing and life
Faith – and why mountains move us
The French writer Sylvain Tesson feels anxiety lift, bitterness vanish and travel transform into prayer in the course of a ski journey across the Alps, spread over four winters
The enlightened rule of the Empress Maria Theresa
‘She hates to see anyone put to death’, said one contemporary of the monarch who abolished torture and serfdom and pioneered the practice of open weekly audiences with the public
Beautiful untamed Trieste, aka the Capital of Nowhere
‘Welcome to the free territory of Trieste,’ reads the sign in the shop window. ‘US and UK come back!’ For…
Reaping the whirlwind of climate change
I spent part of the summer sailing around Ithaca and the Ionian Sea. It was a good reminder of how…
The evil that men do
The first thing to say about Claudio Magris’s new novel is that it is, in an important sense, unreadable. There…
