Links go to my GoodReads reviews. Magical Disinformation: A spy novel set in Colombia. Shades of Graham Greene. Law of the Jungle: Medical research and revenge in the jungles of Venezuela and Colombia. Crimechurch: Psychos and troubled teens in NZ’s earthquake-hit city. Teacher, We Girls!: The experience of being a woman from New Zealand teaching in … 8 great self-published/small press books I reviewed in 2021
Lying in bed my eye felt like it was going to explode, finally, after hours, aqueous fluid and pus squirted out relieving the pressure. The pain subsided, but only for fifteen minutes. So began a rewarding experience of the public health sector in Argentina, one winter morning in 2010. After consulting my friend (who I … Argentina Sketches: Story of the Eye
Originally published in the Los Angeles Review of Books China Channel as Forbidden Portrait. In 2016, at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei, I saw a black and white photo that didn’t compute at first. The photo featured a portrait of the Generalissimo, Chiang Kai-Shek, hung above the Tiananmen gate of the Forbidden City … Chiang Kai-shek on the Forbidden City
She checked in wearing dark glasses. It didn’t seem weird as she had platinum blond hair and pale skin. I put her in a six-bed dorm. There was only one other guest in there, a Russian woman of twenty-five. Dorms were officially mixed but in practice, we generally kept men and women separate. We hadn’t … Argentina Sketches: The Albino Thief
One of those old guys, hands clasped behind back, pausing every second step to see if there was something to stick his nose into. The way he dressed, grey slacks, polyester polo shirt with sleeveless pullover on top, didn’t indicate money, time abroad, or working in a big company. He had an educated air though. … China Sketches: BBQ
In Oct 2016 I travelled to North Maluku in Indonesia. Two islands there, Ternate and Tidore, are the most fascinating places I’ve been to in Indonesia. Not exactly tourist hubs, I had some trouble getting around with my basic Indonesian. The main aim was to climb the summits of these two volcanic islands. I managed … The Sultan and the Governor
In the animated film “The Swallows of Kabul” the Taliban force a man to pray in a mosque and his wife must wait outside in the hot sun wearing a suffocating cover-all burqa. We see the world as she does: through the grill of a veil. And we hear her laboured breathing as she nearly … Teacher, We Girls!
A few years ago, the police in Buenos Aires busted a Chinese mafia group known as the Pixiu Triad. I wrote about this group and its activities in my article published in the LA Review of Books, China Channel. Inspired by those real events, I chose the xiezhi to be the symbol of the Chinese … The Xiezhi Triad in Argentina
A foreigner with glassy eyes and a gut, par for the course, it was his ears which caught my attention, like classroom models complete with painted on veins. He was with a diminutive woman, hers was an alcopop, his a large bir Anker. A German, who had lived in Australia for twenty years; when he … Indonesia Sketches: Flag of the Southern Cross
Through the taxi window tens of identical apartment buildings reflected the pink rising sun. After curving down the bridge interchange and taking a number of lefts and rights, our cab pulled over. The train station would already be crowded despite the early hour, but the long distance bus station was quiet. There were empty seats … China Sketches: Yixing Chemical Plant
