Book news, reviews and recommendations
Perhaps the most famous recent fictionalisation of a life is Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell but I’ve chosen some less well known examples for this post. Below are five novels based on real lives, all with links to reviews on this blog, beginning with one by a writer who excels at this form of fiction. I’ve […]
Five Fictionalisations of Real Lives I’ve Read 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 in as many hands as I could. The son of a forensic psychiatrist, Patrick McGrath grew up near Broadmoor, the high security mental hospital for
Blasts from the Past: Port Mungo by Patrick McGrath (2004) Read More »
I’d not come across Malachy Tallack before his second novel, That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz, popped up on NetGalley. Tallack’s a singer-songwriter as well as an established writer of books about his beloved Shetland. The blurb promised a story about a man who has spent almost his entire life in one place who finds unexpected friendship
That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz by Malachy Tallack: Never too late to change Read More »
Lean pickings for November’s paperback preview although it begins with a novel heading for my books of 2024 list. Set in early 2020, Sigrid Nunez’s witty, erudite, wonderfully discursive The Vulnerables follows an unnamed writer as she takes up residence in a palatial apartment to care for a parrot whose owner has been stranded during
Paperbacks to Look Out For in November 2024 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 in as many hands as I could. There’s more fiction telling the story of the Second World War from the German point-of-view these days but
Blasts from the Past: Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi (1994) Read More »
James Roseman’s Placeholders is the fourth novel I’ve read published by Verve Books, a comparatively new imprint, all of them good if not excellent. If you’re interested the others are Sunburn, How Can I Help You and Blue Hour, my favourite and an unfulfilled wish on my Booker Prize list. Roseman’s novel follows Aaron and
Placeholders by James Roseman: Crossing the cultural divide Read More »
This is my second post on small town American novels, a setting I find almost as irresistible as New York, and not one I’m likely to tire of anytime soon. Below are five more favourites, all with links to reviews on this blog. Sue Miller’s The Arsonist is set in the New Hampshire town of
Five More Small Town American Novels Read More »
I’ve not read Rumaan Alam’s Leave the World Behind or watched the Netflix movie but I do remember it being much admired predisposing me to read Entitlement when it popped through my letter box. Alam’s new novel follows a young black woman as she navigates the world of the super-rich in her new job working
Entitlement by Rumaan Alam: ‘Money, money, money’ Read More »
I was thrilled when I spotted a new Lissa Evans on social media, knowing that not only would I be in for a treat but that it would be a cheery one. I wondered if Small Bomb at Dimperley might follow the characters I’d become so fond of in V for Victory and Old Baggage
Much of my reading can be described as contemporary fiction but I sometimes stick my toe in the historical fiction water. I was convinced that was a rare occurrence but, apparently, I’ve read enough to put together several of these posts spread across different centuries. I should start off in the twentieth century but that
Five Novels Set in the Nineteenth Century I’ve Read Read More »
As regular readers will know, I’m a keen Elizabeth Strout fan. I’ve been reading her fiction since Amy and Isabelle was first published in the UK, over twenty years ago now, and have enjoyed every one of her novels. Occasionally, there’s a tinge of disappointment but a slightly disappointing Strout is very much better than
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout: When Olive met Lucy Read More »