"The sea closes up, and so does the land"

Richard Ford's Frank Bascombe Trilogy (December 2006)

Looking and Looking Away

WG Sebald's fiction and On the Natural History of Destruction (April 2004)

Interlaced with Night

Jacques Roubaud:The Great Fire of London: a story with interpolations and bifurcations (May 2003)

Maurice Blanchot

The Absent Voice: an introduction to the French novelist, critic and philosopher, born in 1907. (May 2002)

Thomas Bernhard

Failing to Go Under: an introduction written for the tenth anniversary of death of the Austrian novelist, playwright and poet. This version is a clarification of the one on SPIKE. (January 1999)

Misanthropy? Moralizing. Cynicism: a brilliant essay on the same writer by Igor Marojevic, Serbian novelist, poet, essayist and Bernhard fan. Translated by Aleksandar B. Nedeljkovic.

Playing Dead: a review of two new books about Bernhard by Gitta Honegger and JJ Long. (January 2002)

Thomas Bernhard in English: A brief guide to Bernhard's work in translation

Will Oldham

Songs of the Human Animal: an attempt to understand why I place this American singer-songwriter in the same class as my favourite writers. (February 1999)

Paul Celan

Exposing Poetry: another introductory essay written, this time, to coincide with the thirtieth anniversary of the poet's death. (April 2000)