A small room above a bay window. A single bed, a table and chair, and a sink. I could manage something larger, with more conveniences, but I could never match the view.

Someone replaced the flowers -- with dead ones. More dead flowers. But they were dead when I bought them. A fish still cooks when you take it out of the oven.

I have new books. Two of them. New as in recently published. In English. David Homel's 2010 translation of Dany Laferriere's I Am a Japanese Writer. Or: Je suis un écrivain japonais (2008) by Dany Laferriere, translated into English by David Homel.

Laferriere's best known book is How To Make Love to a Negro Without Getting Tired (1985). Or: Comment faire l'amour avec un nègre sans se fatiguer. Which is close.