First Impression Friday will be a meme where you talk about a book that you JUST STARTED! Maybe you’re only a chapter or two in, maybe a little farther. Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions and predict what you’ll think by the end.

Synopsis:

Deftly blending fiction, history, and journalism, Dušan Šarotar takes the reader on a deeply reflective yet kaleidoscopic journey from northern to southern Europe. In a manner reminiscent of W.G. Sebald, he supplements his engrossing narrative with photographs , which help to blur the lines between fiction and journalism. The writer’s experience of landscape is bound up in a [ersona yet elusive search for self-discovery, as he and a diverse group of international fellow travellers relate in their distinctive and memorable voices their unique stories and common quest for somewhere they might call home.

Happy Friday, everyone! We have just completed yet another workweek. *Breathes a sigh of relief*. I hope everyone has ended the workweek on a high note. I hope you were able to tick off all the items on your to-do list. It is now time to dive into the weekend. It is now time to slow down. It’s time to ditch those drab corporate clothes and wear something more comfortable. Let your hair down and give yourself a pat on the back for surviving the workweek. It is time to have some fun, or more importantly, it is time to rest after yet another tedious week at the office. I hope you get to spend the weekend doing things you’re passionate about. I hope you get to spend it with the people you love and/or complete your errands. It is going to be a damp weekend here in the Philippines – it is already raining – but I hope everyone keeps themselves warm and dry. I hope everyone is doing well, in body, mind, and spirit.

Time is zooming past us. It simply takes its natural course, flowing with no regard for anyone. Just like that, we are already halfway through July. Before we know it, we will be welcoming the eighth month of the year already. Anyway, how has your year been? I hope 2025 is treating everyone with kindness. I hope that it is bringing you favors and guiding you closer to your goals and aspirations. With a little under six months remaining, I hope the rest of the year will shower everyone with good tidings, kindness, and overall positive energy. If your year has been difficult, I hope a reversal of fortune in the coming months will bless you. The coming months beckon with hope. But if you’re still figuring things out, take your time. I hope you achieve your goals this year. May positive energy, blessings, and good news flow into your life in the months ahead.

With the end of the workweek comes a fresh First Impression Friday update. First Impression Friday has certainly become a mainstay in my book blogging. This July, I have shifted toward a new literary adventure. After spending the first half of the year reading exclusively works of Asian writers – a memorable one, as always – I now find myself in the midst of a literary immersion in the lush and extensive tapestry of European literature. I kicked it off with Hungarian writer Magda Szabó’s Abigail. Hungarian literature is a part of the literary world that is growing on me. My current read takes me to a part of the literary world I have yet to explore: Slovene literature. Before 2023, I had never known any Slovene writers, nor had I read any books primarily set in Slovenia. This made me look forward to reading Dušan Šarotar’s Panorama.

It was actually through online booksellers that I first came across the Slovene writer. Looking forward to a new literary experience, I acquired a copy of his book and even included it to my 2025 Top 25 Reading List. It is just the tenth book from the list I read; this underlines how much I have been lagging behind on my reading challenges. Originally published in 2014, Panorama is Šarotar’s fourth novel and his first to be translated into English. At the heart of the story is the anonymous narrator who many critics and readers perceive as the author’s alter ego. In his mid-forties, his story commences with him recalling his travels around Ireland to search for peace and inspiration to finally complete the manuscript he was working on. In a way, the writer/narrator was a wandering soul, a drifter even.

It was inevitable that during his journey, the unnamed narrator encountered an interesting cast of characters. Among them is Gjini, an Albanian who emigrated to Ireland eleven (11) years ago. The narrator first met Gjini when he served as his guide/driver in Galway. Gjini expressed his frustration with Ireland and the complexities of immigration. There was even a reference to Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha. Details of history enriched the story, or perhaps fittingly, ruminations. The novel finds strength in the narrator’s keen sense of observation, which allowed him to describe in vivid detail everything that he witnessed or saw. Various structures echoed their story through the narrator. There are even pictures to lend credibility to the story, which also markets itself as a travelogue-cum-journalistic musings. What ensues is a delve into history.

Robust plot it has not, but Panorama finds leisure in regaling the readers with nostalgia and thought-provoking insights. Rather than a straightforward story, Panorama comes across as splintered. Nevertheless, the story finds beauty in its details. Further, there is a layer of enigma that the narrator is shrouded with. There is something subdued in the way the narrator writes his story, opening himself up for scrutiny. Will we somehow get to have glimpses into the narrator’s life? This is something I am looking forward to. Despite the long paragraphs, the novel is quite a quick read, and for sure, I will be able to complete it over the weekend. How about you, fellow reader? What book or books have you read over the weekend? I hope you get to enjoy whatever you are reading right now. Happy weekend!