Yusuf Toropov's Blog: Literary Striver, page 8

Meet me in Bristol at Crimefest 2016!

20 May 4pm / 21 May 9am / Can't wait!
Info here.

THE ROAD

Cormac McCarthy's masterpiece unsettled, terrified, and inspired me.

I won't try to summarize it here -- any plot summary of this book won't do it justice -- but I will tell you that THE ROAD is among the most engrossing, powerful, and technically perfect novels I've ever read. Echoes of Beckett and bleak-phase Shakespeare were hard for me to ignore, and while Godot and Lear certainly informed this universe, I finished the book with a firm but cautious sense of hope in the Divine that felt for...

Newcastle Noir: Is a thriller "literature"?

I'll be tackling this topic in Newcastle on the 30th of April during a panel discussion that starts at 5:30. 

As I see it, a thriller is a story that matches a resourceful human protagonist, often cut off from his or her support network, against one or more better-equipped villains who are out to destroy the protagonist, his or her nation, and/or world stability.

Here's a preview of my position, via Shots Magazine. In the meantime, let me state my firm belief that, under this definiti...

Eleven Words William Shakespeare DID NOT Invent, as We Celebrate (Wait, That Really Feels Like the Wrong Verb) His Death 400 Years Ago

1. Creepy

2. Inappropriate

3. Creepilyinappropriate

4. Morbidandthensome

5. Morethanslightlycreepilyinappropriateandmorbid

6. LiterarygraverobberishinacravencommercialwaydoyouknowwhatImean

7. Imeanreallywhydowehavetomakeabigdealoutofspansoftimethatendinzeroanyway

8. Arewesolackinginthingstocelebratethatwehavetostartcelebratingpeopledyingevenbrilliantpeople

9.Seriouslywhenwasthelasttimeyouhadapartyofanykindtocommemoratethedateonwhichsomeonedied

10.Isn'tthatsomethingyouwouldsaveforawriteryoureallydidn't...

Eleven Words William Shakespeare DID NOT Event, as We Celebrate (Wait, That Really Feels Like the Wrong Verb) His Death 400 Years Ago

1. Creepy

2. Inappropriate

3. Creepilyinappropriate

4. Morbidandthensome

5. Morethanslightlycreepilyinappropriateandmorbid

6. LiterarygraverobberishinacravencommercialwaydoyouknowwhatImean

7. Imeanreallywhydowehavetomakeabigdealoutofspansoftimethatendinzeroanyway

8. Arewesolackinginthingstocelebratethatwehavetostartcelebratingpeopledyingevenbrilliantpeople

9.Seriouslywhenwasthelasttimeyouhadapartyofanykindtocommemoratethedateonwhichsomeonedied

10.Isn'tthatsomethingyouwouldsaveforawriteryoureallydidn't...

Words William Shakespeare DID NOT Event, as We Celebrate (Wait, That Really Feels Like the Wrong Verb) His Death 400 Years Ago

Creepy

Inappropriate

Creepilyinappropriate

Morbidandthensome

Morethanslightlycreepilyinappropriateandmorbid

LiterarygraverobberishdoinacravencommercialwaydoyouknowwhatImean

Imeanreallywhydowehavetomakeabigdealoutofspansoftimethatendinzeroanyway

Arewesolackinginthingstocelebratethatwehavetostartcelebratingpeopledyingevenbrilliantpeople

Seriouslywhenwasthelasttimeyouhadapartyofanykindtocommemoratethedateonwhichsomeonedied

Isn'tthatsomethingyouwouldsaveforawriteryoureallydidn'tlikeatallorevenapersonalene...

Somalia

Just as they do in in Syria, catastrophic ecological shifts underpin the long-running political trauma in Somalia.

Westerners may be used to filing news from Somalia under such headings as "failed state" and "religious conflict," but these simplistic tags don't come close to telling the whole story, and they certainly don't give us the information that is most relevant to Somalis at the moment: The country is on the brink of yet another major famine. The last one, in 2011, took the lives of a...

Cause in the matter

“To take a stand that you are cause in the matter contrasts with it being your fault, or that you failed, or that you are to blame, or even that you did it. That you are the cause of everything in your life is a place to stand from which to view and deal with life – a place that exists solely as a matter of your choice. The stand that one is cause in the matter is a declaration, not an assertion of fact. It simply says, 'you can count on me (and I can count on you) to look at and deal with li...

JIHADI: A LOVE STORY hits #1 on IPG's Goodreads "Not-To-Miss" List

The US launch of my debut novel from Orenda Books approaches, and the excitement is mounting.

Orenda's American distributor, Independent Publishers Group, keeps an interactive list on Goodreads where users can vote on hot new releases to watch. As of this morning, JIHADI: A LOVE STORY is number one on that list!


So grateful to the readers who voted and wrote reviews that rated this book so highly. The support has truly been extraordinary. Thank you!
To order JIHADI: A LOVE STORY, click here.
To s...

An excerpt from JIHADI: A LOVE STORY, courtesy of Espresso Coco and Orenda Books

For Chapter Two of the novel,  click here.