Mr Saito’s Travelling Cinema – set on Puffin Island

Submitted: 5th January 2026

Mr Saito’s Travelling Cinema – set on Puffin Island

Boarding now….

….for an adventure taking you from Buenos Aires to a small remote island far off the coast off Canada. Now this island has an travelling circus that visits it every year. Are you ready to discover the journey that storytelling really can take you on?

Location map of Mr Saito’s Travelling Cinema

boarding pass new

Location map of Mr Saito’s Travelling Cinema

Translated fiction

This is a book originally in Danish by the author Annette Bjergfeldt but even having read the blurb and learned about it in Danish, when I saw it translated into Spanish I KNEW I had to have it in this language. The nuances of the words, the rhythm of the words I knew would be epic. And I wasn’t wrong.

It was Book of the Year by its Spanish publisher Maeva so trusting them implicitly, I headed to Madrid and to the church that is Casa of Libros – quite literally the House of Books – to seek it out.

Mr Saito

Location map of Mr Saito’s Travelling Cinema

Review

I read this in Madrid, on the plane via Amsterdam and have finished it in England so a literary adventure in more ways than one.

It’s quite tricky to get across how magical this book is. The story is a story across time which starts in 1910 and then in several waves takes us closer to the present day. The entire journey takes in some of the biggest events of history across time but what really matters are the small things such as the day to day life on the island. A good lesson for life in general I guess and that raw honesty and way of looking into your soul really touched me. That the small stone can cast the biggest ripples. That kind of thing.

Location map of Mr Saito’s Travelling Cinema

The book is told from the daughter’s perspective, so at the start I felt I was discovering the world through the eyes of a child which was very special. The mother was abandoned as a baby at a convent in Buenos Aires and later on she flees with her daughter when war hits the shores. They end up on Puffin Island. There a small community of quirky characters take them in….and what an island it is. I need to live here!

On the island there is a magical cinema that comes once a year and has quite an effect on all those who watch it. There are so many layers to this magical tale – if you mix the Night Circus with The Shipping News with All the Light They Cannot See, you might get a bit of an idea what this book makes you feel. But you have to read it for real if you can.

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