“Cursed bunny”, short stories by Korean author Bora Chung, will not surprise readers acquainted with the genre-bending delights of Korean cinema.   Sean Sheehan   The stories mix fairy-tale elements with the diabolic, the gothic and the grotesque, throwing into the mix cruelties of life under patriarchy and capitalist social […]

The floor plan leaflet for the Prado in Madrid includes thumbnail images and the gallery locations of nearly 40 paintings that are part of its collection.   Sean Sheehan   They have been selected because they are particularly acclaimed works of art and the information helps visitors who want to […]

Two books -“Crashed” (2018) and “The Passage to Europe” (2013)- by Adam Tooze and Luuk van Middelaar have been justly celebrated for their respective studies of the global economic crash of 2008 and the complexion of EU integration.   Sean Sheehan   Perry Anderson is fulsome in his praise of […]

After the Russian takeover of the Crimea but before the invasion of Ukraine, the astute Perry Anderson described Zelensky’s state as “a client regime mentored by US proconsuls in Kiev”.   Sean Sheehan   Neoliberalism has certainly been the order of Kiev’s day: privatization, de-regulation, de-unionization. Zelensky, as evidenced by […]

It is a bit of a truism to say that good science fiction offers more insight into our present state than some future, imaginary one.   Sean Sheehan   The claim can be put to the test when reading “A desolation called peace”, a tale as intriguing as its author, […]