Book news, reviews and recommendations
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. There are far fewer novels by Australian and New Zealand writers available in the UK than might be […]
Blasts from the Past: Mateship with Birds by Carrie Tiffany (2012) Read More »
Based on real life figures, Philippe Collin’s The Barman of the Ritz isn’t an obvious choice for me, but I’ve enjoyed several novels translated by Frank Wynne so decided to give it a try. Collin reimagines bartender Frank Meier’s four years at the Parisian hotel during the Occupation, from 1940 to Liberation in August of
Andrew Cunning’s debut, Clara and Christina, instantly appealed with its premise of a friendship which grows between a young academic and the author whose first novel entranced her, picked up by chance at her university bookshop when she was a first-year undergraduate. Clara is in her early thirties and Christina in her seventies, a reclusive
Clara and Christina by Andrew Cunning: A literary treat Read More »
I thoroughly enjoyed Laura Sims’s How Can I Help You with its increasingly unhinged librarian narrator prompting me to read The Man. Set in the 1960s, it follows Judith Stanley, an unassuming, middle-aged housewife whose formidable photographic talent is immediately apparent to her instructor when she shows her work to him after class ends. As
The Man by Laura Sims: Not one, but two unreliable narrators. Read More »
Donal Ryan is the author of seven bestselling novels, six of which I’ve reviewed on this blog, plus a short story collection, all within fourteen years: quite a feat. His latest novella follows twelve-year-old Jack over the two years after a terrible loss sees his grandmother and grandfather take him into their home. And they
Where Are the Kings by Donal Ryan: Grief will out Read More »
I’d not come across Louise Wallace before I spotted her first novel on NetGalley. She’s a poet from New Zealand whose work isn’t easily available in the UK. Ash is a brief novella which follows a country vet on maternity leave living with her young family in the shadow of a volcanic mountain. Work is
Ash by Louise Wallace: Risky but impressive Read More »
I’d already managed to overcommit myself when Alex Hyde’s Exhibition appeared on NetGalley. It ticked so many boxes for me, I had to have it. Spanning several decades, it follows the musings of photographer Rabble Stone on her relationship with the unnamed artist whose work is about to be the subject of a major retrospective.
Exhibition by Alex Hyde: ’Who is the artist, and who is the muse?’ Read More »
Over recent years, I’ve enjoyed several novels which explore the idea of who owns the story which is what attracted me to Marta Pérez-Carbonell’s debut, I Made You Up Inside My Head. That, and the strangers on a train trope described in the blurb which sees a writer, his friend and a translator meet on
Daniel Mason is probably best known for the much acclaimed North Woods which has been recommended by several bloggers whose opinions I trust but I still haven’t got around to reading it. Country People is also set in New England this time in Vermont where a Californian family are spending a year, Miles ostensibly to
Country People by Daniel Mason: In which the hero is a dog Read More »
I thoroughly enjoyed Chloë Ashby’s debut, Wet Paint, back into 2022 which was why I put up my hand for Family Friends, although the setup of two families who’ve been getting together once a year in a run-down chateau for two decades piqued my interest. Family Friends spans two weeks in a French heatwave after
Family Friends by Chloë Ashby: Happy holidays Read More »
I snapped up Rebecca Birrell’s Venus, Vanishing, as soon as it was pitched to me. Opening in Berlin just as Hitler’s rise in popularity has begun, art historian Birrell’s first novel follows eighteen-year-old Hannah Sherman, determined to become an artist rather than marry into a life of domestic drudgery. Elke wanted me to know how
Venus, Vanishing by Rebecca Birrell: Art, deception and desire in 1930s Berlin Read More »