05/24/2026
This year we've been reading our way around the world.
We kicked off in Italy with Nives by Sacha Naspini, one of my all time favorite books. An entire novella that unfolds inside a single late-night phone call about a paralyzed chicken that also somehow covers an entire lifetime.
In February we travelled to Ireland with The Dirty Dust by Máirtín Ó Cadhain, the most important prose work in modern Irish, translated into English more than 65 years after it was first published. Every character in the novel is dead, buried in a graveyard, and still obsessed with gossip and grudges. It is so funny. If you loved Lincoln in the Bardo, you would likely enjoy this one too, though the two are very different in tone.
Then we were off to India with Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree, the first International Booker Prize winner ever translated from Hindi. Shree plays with language in the most extraordinary way, weaving the story together like a tapestry.
From there, Japan with The Tale of Genji, written over 1,000 years ago and widely considered the world's first novel. In Japan it holds a place in the literary canon similar to how we think about Shakespeare.
And most recently, Mexico with Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo, voted the most important book written in Spanish in the 20th century. Gabriel García Márquez claimed he could recite the entire novel from memory.
Every month our subscribers also get travel tips and a recipe inspired by the book from our friends at The Roving Baker, a keepsake passport to track your reading journey, passport stamp stickers for each country, and access to our monthly online book club.
June's destination is coming soon, and you can sign up before the end of the month to join us. Link in bio.
