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Showing posts with the label Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Blogging Anniversary - 10 years

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A while ago I checked when I did my first blog post, in order to celebrate with an anniversary post. Well, that day came and went without any reaction from me. Better late than never, so here a reminder of my very first blog post from 24 October 2012.  The book was New Finnish Grammar  by Diego Marani. Marani is an Italian novelist, translator and newspaper columnist. While working as a translator for the European Union he invented a language ‘Europanto’ which is a mixture of languages and based on the common practice of word-borrowing usage of many EU languages. It was a suitable book to start with, being a book about letters, languages and memories. With a beautiful prose, the novel went directly to my heart.  "One night at Trieste in September 1943 a seriously wounded soldier is found on the quay. The doctor, of a newly arrived German hospital ship, Pietri Friari gives the unconscious soldier medical assistance. His new patient has no documents or anything that can ide...

The Disappeared by Ian Crofton

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We all like a mystery and when the mystery is a real one it is somewhat even more exciting. The only thing is, you don't get an answer in the end. This is a book I found at the Book Festival last week. It tells the stories of 35 historical disappearances from the Mary Celeste to Lord Lucan. Some of the stories I was familiar with, but most of them I had not heard about before. The more familiar ones are; The Princes in the Tower, Mary Celeste, Agatha Christie (although she did return), Amelia Earhart and Raoul Wallenberg. The stories concern armies disappearing, lost people in wars and dictatorships, air planes disappearing, explorers and so forth. I have chosen one of the stories about Antoine de Saint-Exupéry who disappeared during a flight in 1944. He is also a writer so I think it is appropriate. Saint-Ex, as he was called by his friends, was a writer, poet, philosopher and pioneering aviator. He actually disappeared twice, but returned the first time. It was in 1935 that...