'There was no one in the once-a-monastery-now-a-restaurant but us. A young couple came in with their baby, only to leave after a hushed conversation with the waiters.'

There was no one in the once-a-monastery-now-a-restaurant but us — maybe the festival had booked the whole restaurant, which didn’t strike me as out of keeping with the general oddness of this globetrotting cohort of writers and translators.