Stick Out Your Tongue by Ma Jian

When I was walking down a quiet road in Rome about a year ago, searching for a present for Miss Jiwaku, I stumbled upon a little English bookstore, which according to the bookmark I got there was called “The Almost Corner Bookshop,” at 45 Via del Moro, Trastevere. I remember the shop a little, and it put me in mind of a little English bookshop I visited in Thailand, somewhere near Khao San Road, before I learned to avoid that district. Both of those shops were unusual in that they seemed to have a really literary clientele, well, assuming the …

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