Book news, reviews and recommendations
After a slightly sticky start with Donal Ryan’s The Thing About December I’ve become an ardent fan of his fiction, my admiration increasing first with All We Shall Know then From A Low and Quiet Sea, both of which shared themes of love and redemption in their different ways as does Strange Flowers. Beginning in […]
Strange Flowers by Donal Ryan: True love Read More »
Just a one-part paperback preview for September, disappointingly, albeit a reasonably long one including two books I’ve already read. I’m starting with Margaret Atwood’s joint Booker Prize-winning sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments, more because I’d find it difficult to leave it out than because I’m looking forward to it. Truth be told, I’m
Paperbacks to Look Out for in September 2020 Read More »
Originally published in I964, William Melvin Kelley’s Dancers on the Shore comprises sixteen stories some of which recall the characters who brought his striking novel A Different Drummer so vividly to life. Its title refers to a lengthy quote from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness setting the tone for a thought-provoking read. Several of the
Dancers on the Shore by William Melvin Kelley: More, please Read More »
As regular readers may know, I’ve been a Sarah Moss fan for quite some time. I was delighted when Ghost Wall made a splash not so long ago, thoroughly deserving of all the praise heaped upon it, and Summerwater looks set to do the same. Set over a single drenching day, Moss’ new novella takes
Summerwater by Sarah Moss: The longest day Read More »
I’ve long been fascinated by Japan, partly because it’s so very different from my own country and partly because it seems to me to be a place of contradictions – on the one hand a set of very traditional, sometimes ancient values and beliefs, on the other an ultra-modern, throwaway urban culture. Or at least
Five Japanese Novels I’ve Read Read More »
I’m not sure how much of Douglas Stuart’s debut is autobiographical but the first paragraph of his acknowledgements page suggests more than a smidgeon. Given that’s the page I often visit before reading a novel, Shuggie Bain was even more poignant for me than it would otherwise have been. Set in ’80s Glasgow, Stuart’s book
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart: ‘I’d do anything for you’ Read More »
Carys Davies’ name will be known to many readers, I’m sure. Her elegantly slim debut, West, was much acclaimed when it was published in 2018. The story of a man so obsessed by reports of ancient bones found in a Kentucky swamp that he leaves his young daughter to fend for herself, it’s very different
The Mission House by Carys Davies: ‘Both strange and familiar’ Read More »
Just a one-part new title preview for September despite it being jam-packed with pandemic-postponed books. I’m beginning with one originally slated for much earlier in the year, Megan Hunter’s The Harpy, which I’ve already read. This brief novella is about a couple in the aftermath of infidelity, narrated from the perspective of Lucy whose husband
Books to Look Out for in September 2020 Read More »
You might remember Eleanor Wasserberg’s debut, Foxlowe, which caught my attention on Twitter a few years back, although not enough for me to read it. Two things drew me to her second novel: first the art theme running through it, always a lure for me, and secondly its Krakow setting. The Light at the End
Kate Reed Petty’s debut was the subject of a great deal of pre-publication brouhaha in my neck of the Twitter woods, including four different covers for advance reviewer copies, all of which appear on the published edition. I landed the dark one featuring a cabin in the woods setting me up for something rather sinister.
True Story by Kate Reed Petty: Truth is in the eye of the beholder 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 into as many hands as I could. I’m not sure if all editors make fine writers but William Maxwell’s prose exemplifies the elegant, clean, quietly
Blasts from the Past: So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell (1979) Read More »