#Spooktober 25 – The Girl from the Other Side

October 25, 2023

Originally titled “Foreign Girl”, and with an Irish song as a subtitle, this 11-volume manga is one of the finest things produced in the last ten years and it tells the story of Shiva, a young girl, who is abandoned in a cursed forest and lives with one of the “others”, creature who can curse you with their touch. The girl and the monster, whom she calls “Teacher”, develop a complex relationship which eventually boils down to the ultimate question: what is a monster?
Both the drawings and the delicate narration will have you into tears by the end of it.

comics and illustration

Leo Ortolani, Tapum

A un certo punto ci sarà una battuta, in questo fumetto, e riderete. Sappiate che è l’unica. Com’è giusto che sia. Se devo paragonare quest’opera a qualcosa, il confronto più azzeccato è probabilmente lo spettacolo che Marco Paolini trasse dal Sergente nella neve di Rigoni

August 9, 2026 9:00 am

Summertime

Omeros in the Caribbeans

Derek Walcott was a Saint Lucian poet, playwright, and painter, and one of the major voices of Caribbean literature. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992, and his work often explores Caribbean history, identity, colonial inheritance, and the meeting of European and African

August 9, 2026 6:00 am

books and literature

Ioanna Papadopoulou’s The Castaway and the Witch

I had a genuine “oh shit” moment when I read the author’s preface saying this was darker than “Winter Harvest” because – and I absolutely ADORED “Winter Harvest” – that was pitch-black dark. I thought “we’re all going to die”. This maybe has something to

August 8, 2026 9:00 am