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Hello Mekong Review,

I am here in Ottawa, Canada. We have just had a terrible storm that has knocked out power, internet, and people have died. Two days after the storm we are still sawing, chopping, helping our neighbours remove fallen trees from our homes, cars, yards and highways.

Amid all this chaos, your most recent issue (May-July 2022) arrived.

I read it cover to cover last night by candlelight. The evening was humid and very quiet. I could hear the birds, squirrels, chipmunks, owls and rabbits munching their way through the grass, bird feeders, garden, tulips. It was quite wonderful.

I opened your magazine and could smell such a different and unique scent coming from the newsprint. It was subtle, evocative and almost aromatic. Lemongrass? Citrus? Lotus? Jasmine? Most likely me alone in the dark, a single flickering light, remembering something.

Your book reviews and poetry are wonderful. My next purchase will be Cambodian Wooden Houses by Darryl Collins and Sokol Hok. I spent seventeen years in Canada’s Arctic putting in the foundations for homes there. The homes were built on steel metal poles drilled into the permafrost 20-40 ft deep and I have always marvelled at the architecture of homes all over the world. How small homes sit so neatly on thin wooden stilts, balanced like puppets with no strings.

Keep up the fine work.

Yours sincerely,

Shawn Gilarowski

• Tags: Canada, Free to read, Notebook, Shawn Gilarowski