Fiction Reviews

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Cover image for Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater

Books of Year 2023: Part Two

After last year’s surprisingly sunny visit to Manchester we decided we’d probably used up our Northern spring good weather luck, heading off to St Leonards-on-Sea in Sussex for a short break to see family in April. The month’s reading got off to a brilliant start with ex-bookseller Alice Slater’s Death of a Bookseller which took …

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Cover image for Boundless as the Sky by Dawn Raffell

Books of Year 2023: Part One

I’m feeling quite pleased with myself having pared back this year’s list to twenty books, a first for me, although I’ll have to guard against more sneaking in as I look back over 2023. As usual, I’m planning four posts, one per quarter, beginning with a remarkable piece of writing which got my reading year …

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Cover image for Kids Run the Show by Delphine de Vigan

Kids Run the Show by Delphine de Vigan (transl. Alison Anderson): No, they don’t

I was a little wary of reading Delphine de Vigan’s latest novel having had mixed experiences with her writing – I loved Based on a True Story, was disappointed by Loyalties and enjoyed Gratitude – but the premise of Kids Run the Show was such an interesting one I put up my hand when I …

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Cover image for Playing Games by Huma Qureshi

Playing Games by Huma Qureshi: ‘I thought I must have lost you’

A little under a year ago I read Huma Qureshi’s short story collection Things We Do Not Tell the People We Love, enjoying it so much I jumped at the chance to review her first novel. Many of Qureshi’s stories explore family and relationship dynamics, a perennially interesting theme for me, as does Playing Games …

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Cover image for Nothing Belongs to You by Nathacha Appanah

Nothing Belongs to You by Nathacha Appanah (transl. Jeffrery Zuckerman): No denying the past

I remembered enjoying Nathacha Appanah’s beautifully crafted The Sky Above the Roof last year which prompted me to put up my hand when a proof of her new novel was offered. Nothing Belongs to You is about a young woman, recently widowed, who buried her traumatic past when she married the doctor who helped save …

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Cover image for Hled by Anne Michaels

Held by Anne Michaels: ‘Who can say what happens when we are remembered?’

A copyediting friend alerted me to Canadian poet Anne Michaels’ Held, her first novel since The Winter Vault was published back in 2010, urging me to read it. Michaels is the author of Fugitive Pieces which made a deep impression on me when I read it many years ago. Held is her third novel, making …

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Cover image for Bird Life by Anna Smail

Bird Life by Anna Smaill: A beautiful novel of madness and grief

I remember choosing not to read New Zealand writer Anna Smaill’s Man Booker longlisted debut The Chimes thinking it sounded a little too fantastical for me, although I may well overcome that objection having read her new novel, Bird Life. Set in Tokyo, it’s the story of two women, both suffering terrible loss, each seeing …

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