Global Reads.
BY CHRISTIAN ADRIAN BROWN
FIT LIT Body, Mind and Quill
ABOUT THE COLUMNIST
Quadragenarian fitness model, lifestyle coach and bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Feast of Fates, Christian A. Brown received a Kirkus star in 2014 for the first novel in his genrechanging Four Feasts till Darkness series. He has appeared on Newstalk 1010, AM640, Daytime Rogers, and Get Bold Today with LeGrande Green. He actively writes and speaks about his mother’s journey with cancer and on gender issues in the media.
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OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2021
One of the best stories I’d ever known before it became a global video game and Netflix sensation, was The Witcher, by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. I’d say that it’s one of the defining dark fantasy tales of our era, up there with Moorcock’s Elric of Melnibone saga—although different in scope and themes. Likewise, Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist entranced me with its surreal, psychedelic and mystical allure. The common thread between these stories? They’re all from international authors. People talk a lot these days about diversity, and yet we—the colloquial we, not you or I, necessarily—seem to spend our days affixed to social media, watching people parade their eccentricity or failures on TikTok. Although for such a “global” stage, our online realities are remarkably curated, pared down by Zuckerbergian algorithms to reveal an insular and exceedingly domestic world. For all our globalization, we have somehow become further entrenched in national pastimes and identity. I worry about the generation of children weaned on that one-flavoured gruel.
