A girlfriend introduced me to Rabih Alameddine we share our reading experiences but rarely recommend being comfortable in the knowledge that our journeys are different she’s a bit of a swot this girlfriend highly intelligent productive tactile and poised she’s all too aware of her own shortcomings and screw ups and has a characteristic wry smile at the ready when she thinks of such things she’s also a bit of a dag

we were eating cold rolls on a hot day in Adelaide when she told me of a book she had read about a woman translator who translates translations she loved the absurdity the perversity the outsidedness of the premise

this girlfriend of mine wears these huge bug-eye sunglasses which I hate because they cover nearly three quarters of her beautiful face and you can’t see her sparkly eyes when they take you in and the way her cheeks lift even when she doesn’t smile the only feature left to concentrate on is her mouth with its quirky expressions and perfectly-formed petal lips

I love those sunglasses