Places to Go: extract from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad

The Reader's Head of Teaching and Learning, Dr. Clare Ellis, takes us on today's audio adventure and reads from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad. The theme for our readings in February is 'Close to the Heart' and we hope the poetry, readings and recommendations we have chosen can help us stay connected over the coming weeks.

I thought I’d share a small extract from the story Amy Foster for our Friday Places to Go feature this week, following in the footsteps of a young emigrant man called Yanko.

The story of the castaway feels somehow universal to me – even if we have not been literally shipwrecked (as is the case with the unfortunate Yanko) we may have felt psychologically shipwrecked, cast adrift in our own minds so to speak, and that can feel a rather frightening place to be. But having a language to make sense of what it feels like to find oneself truly lost feels very important somehow, a way to make sense of the otherwise confused horror of feeling lost. And I feel that Yanko’s story might give us some of that.

I hope Yanko’s journey brings much for us all to reflect upon – both in relation to our own lives and what might be happening for the many fellow travelers that cross the earth.

At this point in the story, a local doctor is beginning to narrate some of Yanko’s story – the early parts of how he first came to England and began to make a life for himself in this new world. See what you make of Yanko and his new neighbourhood.