Book news, reviews and recommendations
The blurb for John Patrick McHugh’s Fun and Games came garlanded with praise from a slew of starry Irish literary names, not least Sally Rooney. I often wonder how that might feel for a writer; a kind of euphoric anxiety, perhaps. Set in the summer of 2009, McHugh’s novel follows seventeen-year-old John and his footballing […]
Fun and Games by John Patrick McHugh: Growing up is hard to do Read More »
I’ve read none of the novels from this first batch of May paperbacks which begins with one that’s impressed several bloggers I follow. I wasn’t as enamoured with Charlotte Wood’s The Weekend as many readers but I’ll be trying again with her new one, Stone Yard Devotional, which sees a middle-aged woman seeking peace and
Paperbacks to Look Out For in May 2025: Part One Read More »
I loved both The End We Start From and The Harpy which made me keen to read Megan Hunter’s Days of Light. She’s a poet whose use of language is often very striking, part of the attraction for me. This third novel tells the story of Ivy, the daughter of a bohemian Sussex family, through
Days of Light by Megan Hunter: A life in six days Read More »
Oliver Lovrenski’s Back in the Day topped the bestseller lists in Norway for months, winning the country’s prestigious Bookseller Prize when Lovrenski was just nineteen. Set in Oslo, his episodic, fragmented novel follows four boys through their school days onto the streets into a life that will likely lead to an early death. argan was
The second instalment of May’s new fiction begins with a novel by one of my favourite writers. Sarah Moss’s Ripeness sees a woman in her seventies remembering the months she spent in Italy as a seventeen-year-old in the 1960s. Edith is the child of a Derbyshire hill farmer and a refugee whose family disappeared in
Books to Look Out For in May 2025: Part Two Read More »
Recently shortlisted for this year’s International Booker Prize, the first book in Solvej Balle’s septology comes garlanded with praise from a wide range of writers including Jon McGregor whose endorsement swung it for me; that and its intriguing premise. On the Calculation of Volume 1 follows Tara Selter who wakes up every morning to find
Quite a mixture this month including one from a much-loved author with a long career behind her and two others by writers I’d not come across before. The novel I’m reading is My Husband by French writer Maud Ventura (transl. Emma Ramadan) in which the narrator is still in the grips of obsessive passion for
A Snapshot of My Reading #3 Read More »
I’m starting off the first instalment of May’s fiction with two novels I’ve already read the first of which is Catherine Chidgey’s The Book of Guilt. Largely set in an alternate version of 1979, close to reality but unsettlingly different, it follows a set of thirteen-year-old triplets living in a children’s home in the New
Books to Look Out For in May 2025: Part One Read More »
Six Degrees of Separation is a meme hosted by Kate over at Books Are My Favourite and Best. It works like this: each month a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six others to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the titles on the list,
Six Degrees of Separation – Knife to Any Human Heart Read More »
This is the latest in a series of occasional posts featuring books I read years ago about which I was wildly enthusiastic at the time, wanting to press a copy in as many hands as I could. Victoria Glendinning is best known for her literary biographies of such luminaries as Rebecca West, Vita Sackville-West and
Blasts from the Past: Electricity by Victoria Glendinning (1995) Read More »
Louise Hegarty’s debut, Fair Play, had such an intriguing premise I put up my hand as soon as I spotted it on NetGalley. She’s also a Stinging Fly contributor which always sways me in an author’s favour. For several years Abigail has arranged a murder mystery weekend to celebrate her brother’s birthday which falls on
Fair Play by Louise Hegarty: An inventive take on cosy crime Read More »