Labyrinths

“‘Everything and Nothing’ is short. It’s just a summary of what Shakespeare feels he is, and that sort of feels like nothing. In both, there’s a sense that he is making plays out of a lack, rather than abundance. He’s driven to it because of what isn’t there as much as what is. His experience is trivial and terrible, but the trivial and terrible for him somehow becomes universal. There’s nothing in his life worth knowing, because he’s just anyone. I love writers’ biographies, whether it’s a TV documentary or a book. But I can really see what he’s saying, particularly in relation to Shakespeare and the Shakespeare industry, which still privileges giftedness of a certain kind—this idea of God-given talents, which set somebody apart. But Borges connects it back to this idea of the extraordinary in the ordinary—that somebody who is not exceptional in their personal qualities or life experience can still be somebody who produces something extraordinary. And how that happens is a mystery. And I think he does that brilliantly.” Read more...

Retellings of Shakespeare

Sally O'Reilly, Novelist

“It’s a collection of various short pieces written around the middle of Borges’s career—mostly fictions but not only fictions. It’s a wonderful selection, very philosophical. Borges is more a creator than an observer of worlds…” Read more...

The best books on Philosophical Wonder

Eric Schwitzgebel, Philosopher

“No writer embodied libraries more than the immobile, blind Argentine, Jorge Luis Borges.” Read more...

Bruce Chatwin: Books that Influenced Him

Nicholas Shakespeare, Biographer

“If you are going to think about Latin American literature, Borges is always a good place to start. This is an anthology that includes a number of his famous short stories and also some key essays.” Read more...

The Best Latin American Novels

John King, Literary Scholar