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Rupert Thomson

@rupert_thomson

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London Edition

Which one do you miss the most? Comment below 👇

📸 (Last slide @areasvellas) (Sampson House - gregorzoyzoyla)

#Demolished #welbeckstreetcarpark #robinhoodgardens #thamesmead #heygateestate

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Monday night spec fic workshop! In attendance, from bottom left clockwise: Jared Poon, Choo Zheng Xi, Rupert Thomson (our host), Davian Aw, Yuen Xianghao & Zhuang Xinyu. Quite a sausage party, which is pretty unusual for us.

This was the first time a lot of the participants were meeting for this, which meant they were super-impressed by the rooftop of Rupert's condo (this used to be our default meetup spot when we started years ago, so I've seen it all). The actual workshopping went pretty smoothly, though—was amazed that we managed to get through 7 people before 10:30pm, w/o our energy flagging too much.

Was also grateful for the pressure to finish something to share. These guys have novels they're querying, quadriliogies they've reivising, novelettes they're experimenting with—all I had was a microfiction. I've been busy this year, but not actually v prolific!

#singlitftw

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Barcelona Dreaming by Rupert Thomson | ⭐️⭐️⭐️½

Barcelona Dreaming is a sultry, atmospheric collection of three interweaving novellas by the very talented Rupert Thomson, set just before the financial crash of 2008, a beautiful and poetic piece of literature, a love letter to Barcelona and its people.

I really enjoyed this one a lot, it was fun I read it over the course of a day and each novella was perfectly paced and very different from the last. Each character well thought out and unique in their own way. The stand out for me was the first novella titled “The Giant of Sarrià” I could have read a whole book about these characters and story.

I love that these stories captured both the touristic charm of Catalonia and the nitty gritty of everyday life in the city, perfectly balanced with beautiful descriptive writing with wide themes of denial, racism and addiction.

A perfect book to take on your next trip to Barça!

#bookreview #reading #booksta #bookstagram #bookish

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It was a beautiful evening last night in Peckham at the inaugural, and packed, Salon39. I was delighted to be reading from Something Might Fall and answering questions about the book from @rupert_thomson, and in turn hearing from and about his gloriously eerie and painful Dark is the Morning. It's a great format, beautifully hosted by @benmurphy_photography and @badgersvelvet in their beautiful house. The audience was terrific too, interested, interesting, with very insightful questions. I'm looking forward to the next one, as a punter (or maybe that should more properly be salonist? habitué?)

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ABRUZZO

🇮🇹

Dark is the Morning by Rupert Thomson

The author is one of David Bowie’s favourite authors, apparently. I have read a couple of his novels in the past and was fondly transported via curious, imaginative and in many ways alluring stories to the chosen setting. This time the locale is Abruzzo – “.. the region characterised by a deep affinity with magic and superstition…”

Gino is a young and troubled young man. The story opens in his earlier years when he is still at school, followed by mention of a short period of psychiatric hospitalisation. Short interactions with his father underpin a dysfunctional relationship, some violence and a general undermining attitude by the parent to his child.

Franca has been in his orbit since childhood and finally they decide to get married, she affirming that he is the one for her. However, once he discovers that she had a previous boyfriend - whom he unwisely confronts - he struggles to fight his obsession with the intimacies they must have shared. Once Gino and Franca have had a child, a beautifully unifying moment, his focus becomes unswerving and, as a reader, one observes his mental machinations which ultimately take him down a dark path.

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Full review via 🔗 in bio

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#tripfiction #darkisthemorning #rupertthomson #abruzzo #readtheworld #triplit #literarytourism #literarywanderlust #literarytravel #books #destinationfiction #readtheworld #fiction #literature #booksbooksbooks #bookboundtravel

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Read the World Cup with us! 🌍🏆 Check out our stories throughout the week to vote for your favorites and discover new books from around the world! ⚽📚

Which country/book are you rooting for? 👇

#worldcup #readtheworld #bookstagram #booksandballs📚⚽️

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Thanks to @foylesforbooks for carrying What the Bouncer Saw as one of their literary biographies. Went to the Charing Cross shop years ago to pick up Divided Kingdom by @rupert_thomson on hardback. Good job we’re all more united these days.

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5 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 BOOK REVIEW

Thanks so much to @bloomsburypublishing for sending me the copy of Dark is the Morning by @rupert_thomson .

@headofzeus .

About the book:

Sometimes love isn't where you belong

In a mountain village in the Abruzzo region of Italy, Gino, a troubled young man, realises that his childhood sweetheart Franca can give his life the happiness and stability he needs. They seem made for each other, and move to a remote house in the countryside - but there is something in Franca's past that haunts Gino.

Descending into pathological jealousy and resentment towards a married man who had been Franca's lover, Gino is unable to stop himself imagining the worst, and embarks on a violent path that has catastrophic consequences.

REVIEW:

Dark is the Morning is a beautifully simple tale in which we follow Gino and Franca, a young Italian couple from the small town of Abruzzo but move to a farmhouse. It's not long before Franca give birth to a handsome baby boy. But Gino has severe doubts as to whether he is truly the father and soon decends into a fever of jealousy and obsession, that's sure to end in catastrophe.

Want to know more? Be sure to pick your copy up to find out.

So I must admit, this isn't my typical reas. But I'm a firm believer that authors should have the perspective of readers who are not necessarily their target audience so I try to read outside of my comfort zone as often as possible and on this occasion, I'm incredibly glad I did.

This was a refreshing change for me.

It's intense, moody and haunting, with a wonderfully colourful, descriptive story. So much so that you really can see the sights, smell the smells and hear the sounds.

It's tender, it's tragic, it's dark and compelling.

5 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 's from me.

#fatguyreading #Ad #rupertthomson #Bookstagram #bloomsburycreatorcircle

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#bookpost

There is some great #literarytourism to be had in this book stack

Which titles catch your eye?

#tripfiction #travelbybook #readtheworld

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A stupendous turn out to celebrate @aswulf and her latest adventure The Traveller with many travelling to London from foreign parts and many of us ending up in the same old place - our home away from home The Academy. ❤️

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[Book 23 of 2026] It feels pleasingly magical to read a book set in a place you have recently been to, like finding out some surreptitious truths about the place inaccessible to the passing tourist. This is the feeling author Rupert Thomson’s Barcelona Dreaming imparts me. 🇪🇸

Consisting of three connected stories, this novel reveals the realities, dreams, and delusions of characters living in the Spanish city. Themes such as racism, addiction, loneliness, and unrequited love are covered in a way that makes me curious to read on, and the prose’s well-established sense of place make the stories realistic and believable. 🗺️

I particularly enjoyed the writing style, and am curious about the author’s other works—this being the first of his that I’ve read! If you like Haruki Murakami’s work, I think you might enjoy this book! ✍️

My rating: 4.25/5

#barcelonadreaming #barcelona #rupertthomson #spain #stories
Year Published: 2021

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Shelf Spotlight: Page-Turners with Social Purpose⁠
⁠
Books that grip you and give back. Be thrilled, fascinated and entranced by our hand-picked page-turners. Every purchase puts more books into the hands of children who need them.⁠
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Don't just read, do good while you're at it.⁠
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House of Flies by Graham Masterton, Aries Fiction⁠
Kane by Graham Hurley, Aries Fiction⁠
Her Perfect Escape by @rachelwolfauthor, Aries Fiction⁠
Dark Is the Morning by @rupert_thomson, Apollo, @headofzeus⁠
Havisham by @elle.andthebooks, @harpernorthuk⁠
The Colwyn Bay Killings by @simonmccleaveauthor, @canelo_co⁠
The Tomorrow Project by @heather.critchlow, Canelo

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