Fiction Reviews

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Cover image for The Imagined Life by Andrew Porter

The Imagined Life by Andrew Porter: ‘In the imagined life, so much is different’

I’d taken on too many titles for review when Andrew Porter’s The Imagined Life popped up on NetGalley but I couldn’t resist both its premise and that cover so jumped in. Porter’s novel sees a middle-aged man who’s been carrying the burden of his father’s disappearance since he was twelve years old, determined to get

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Cover image for TonyInterruptor by Nicola Barker

TonyInterruptor by Nicola Barker: ‘Is this honest? Are we all being honest here?’  

It’s nine years since I reviewed Nicola Barker’s The Cauliflower® describing it as a Marmite novel – love it or hate it for those not acquainted with the expression. Her new one, TonyInterruptor, is more conventional although not a novel that lends itself to an easy synopsis, tossing around ideas between its small cast of

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Coer image for Bloody Awful in Different Ways by Andrev Walden

Bloody Awful in Different Ways by Andrev Walden (transl. Ian Giles): Seven dads in seven years

Andrev Walden’s Bloody Awful in Different Ways was a huge bestseller in Sweden, winning the country’s prestigious August Prize in 2023. It’s pitched at readers who loved Frederik Bachman’s A Man Called Ove which didn’t appeal to me but I liked the sound of this slice of autofiction which begins with young Andrev, aged seven

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Cover image for And Notre Dame is Burning Down

And Notre Dame is Burning by Miriam Robinson: ‘Do you know this man?’

I was in two minds about reading Miriam Robinson’s And Notre Dame is Burning, attracted by the idea of a fragmented, non-linear narrative which I often enjoy but wondering if it might be too ambitious for a debut. Robinson’s novel follows Esther over five years or so in which time seems to flatten for her

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Cover image for The Place of Shells by Mai Ishizawa

The Place of Shells by Mai Ishizawa (Transl. Polly Barton): Trauma, grief and memory

I’ve often mentioned the power of novellas on this blog, how in the right hands a few pages can convey much more than several hundred. Mai Ishizawa’s prize-winning debut, The Place of Shells, is a fine example of that for me. Set during the pandemic, it’s narrated by an unnamed academic from Tōhoku, whose coastline

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Cover image for Every One Still Here by Liadan Ní Chuinn

Every One Still Here by Liadan Ní Chuinn: A hard legacy

Liadan Ní Chuinn’s debut collection comes garlanded with praise from a fistful of my favourite Irish writers including Wendy Erskine, Louise Kennedy and Lucy Caldwell, all heralding the arrival of a brilliant new talent. Every One Still Here comprises six stories, several quite brief, bookended by two lengthier pieces, all more than worthy of a

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