Book news, reviews and recommendations
This second part of November’s new titles is a bit of a mixed bag in terms of themes which often promises more interesting reading if not easy linking. I’ll begin with a new novel by Anne Youngson whose debut, Meet Me at the Museum, I loved for its quietly thoughtful writing and characterisation. Hopes are […]
Books to Look Out for in November 2020: Part Two Read More »
Given that Juan Gabriel Vásquez has not only won the prestigious International Dublin Literary Award but has also been shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize, together with his translator Anne MacLean, I feel I really should have read something by him before now. Songs for the Flames is his first short story collection for
I was a big fan of Bill Clegg’s debut, Did You Ever Have a Family, back in 2015 although I know many others weren’t so impressed. He’s an American literary agent with quite a reputation resulting in publishers queuing round the block to get their hands on his first novel. I was keen to read
The End of the Day by Bill Clegg: That old second novel syndrome… Read More »
Lots of interesting novels to look out for in publishers’ last big push for a place on your Christmas present list, although occasionally December’s schedules offer further delights which may well be the case in this strange year. I’ll begin with one I couldn’t resist reading almost as soon as it arrived back in the
Books to Look Out for in November 2020: 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 – From The Turn of the Screw to Howard’s End Is on the Landing Read More »
Cathy Rentzenbrink has been a successful writer for some time but way back when Waterstones was still in full possession of an apostrophe, I was the reviews editor for their magazine and she was a bookseller who regularly reviewed for me. She was a joy to work with: enthusiastic, reliable, always happy to help me
Dear Reader by Cathy Rentzenbrink: A bookish treat Read More »
Lucy Fricke’s Daughters is the second V&Q Books launch title I’ve reviewed in a week. Each is very different from the other, yet both are concerned with families and how they shape us. Whereas Sandra Hoffmann’s Paula was a moving piece of cathartic autofiction, Daughters is a road novel with a sharply comic edge which
Daughters by Lucy Fricke (transl. Sinéad Crowe): Friends forever Read More »
For some novels, location is immaterial: plot or characterisation is the thing. Others are much more firmly rooted in their setting, a sense of place evoked through vivid word pictures or the mention of well known landmarks. When it comes to cities, I have a number of favourite backdrops – regular readers are probably all
Five Novels I’ve Read Set in London Read More »
Sandra Hoffmann’s Paula is one of the launch titles for V&Q Books who specialise in translated German fiction. In her translator’s note Katy Derbyshire explains that so impressed was she with Hoffmann’s book that, unable to find a British publisher for her translation, she decided to approach a German press with a view to setting
Paula by Sandra Hoffmann (transl. Katy Derbyshire): The power of silence Read More »
Mikael Niemi’s To Cook a Bear was one of those books I dithered about, historical crime fiction not really being my kind of thing, but a combination of the publisher – Maclehose Press whose books are reliably good – and its Swedish setting persuaded me to take the plunge. Set in the far north, Niemi’s
To Cook a Bear by Mikael Niemi (transl Deborah Bragen-Turner): To the North… Read More »
I promised there’d be something a bit different about the second instalment of October’s paperbacks and I suspect many of you will scarper when I reveal what it is: this one’s all about short stories. Before you disappear over the horizon, please know that I was like you once but I’ve discovered a whole new
Paperbacks to Look Out for in October 2020: Part Two Read More »