'Sidewalks' by Valeria Luiselli

“A writer is a person who distributes silences and empty spaces,” writes Luiselli in this book in which she distributes silences and empty spaces to specific locations in various cities around the world (Mexico City, New York, Venice) and uses these silences and empty spaces to think about everything from the quicksilver of identity to the enduring yet strangely erasable legacies of history, to the penumbral meanings of words. From a manifesto for viewing the city and achieving solitude on a bicycle to speculations on the idea of ‘home’ and the relationship between a place and the individuals who live in it, Luiselli writes with subtlety, elegance and wry humour. This is a book I will enjoy reading again.

April 2016