Book news, reviews and recommendations
The Lodgers is acclaimed poet Holly Pester’s first novel. I’m partial to novels by poets and the premise of this one sounded interesting: a woman returns to her hometown, subletting an apartment overlooking her mother’s house, imagining the life of the lodger who’s taken over her room in the last house she lived. Sounds simple […]
The Lodgers by Holly Pester: Living on the margins Read More »
I’d only read one book by a Syrian author – Nihad Sirees’ Tales of Passion – before Samar Yazbek’s novella which seems a bit of a gap. Yazbek is acclaimed, both within her country and outside it, and has written in an impressively wide number of genres, from journalism to television drama. Where the Wind
Spring’s finally on my horizon, optimist as I am. Quite a few goodies to tide us over until it properly arrives beginning with Adelle Waldman’s Help Wanted set in a superstore where the poorly managed, poorly paid logistics team start their day at 3.55 am, restocking the shelves. With a promotion in the offing, the
Books to Look Out For in March 2024: Part One Read More »
It was its Georgian setting that attracted me to Leo Vardiashvili’s debut, Hard by a Great Forest. It’s a part of the world I know little about although what I’ve read suggests that it’s beautiful enough to make me want to visit were it more peaceful. Vardiashvili’s novel takes its narrator back to the country
Hard By a Great Forest by Leo Vardiashvili: ‘They say you can never go home again.’ Read More »
The second batch of February’s paperback treats begins with one of my books of 2023. Sebastian Barry’s Old God’s Time follows a recently retired police officer whose ex-boss has been told to reopen a cold case which involved two priests, both child sex abusers, one of whom had been brutally murdered while the other was
Paperbacks to Look Out For in February 2024: Part Two Read More »
I was delighted when I spotted a new Nathan Hill in the schedules having thoroughly enjoyed The Nix which I’d originally spotted it in Dussmann’s, Berlin’s wonderful bookshop and arts centre, but its chunkster proportions meant I couldn’t buy it on holiday. Wellness weighs in at roughly the same length, exploring a multitude of themes
Wellness by Nathan Hill: Soulmates or placebo love Read More »
I read Sigrid Nunez’s The Friend a few years ago and although I enjoyed it I wasn’t nearly as impressed as many readers I trust so approached The Vulnerables with caution, particularly as it came billed as a pandemic novel featuring a parrot. Set during the spring of 2020, Nunez’s novel follows an unnamed writer
The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez: A treat from start to finish Read More »
I’ve read all but one of the novels in the first part February’s paperback preview, not all of them typical of my usual taste in fiction but that’s not such a bad thing. I’m kicking off with one which should have been the perfect read for me but about which I had mixed feelings. I
Paperbacks to Look Out For in February 2024: Part One Read More »
I was thrilled when a new Michael Cunningham popped through my letter box. I’ve been a fan since A Home at the End of the World which I loved for its depiction of a different sort of family from the conventional norm. It’s remained my favourite Cunningham novel, still fresh in my mind, which is
Day by Michael Cunningham: Love, loss and carrying on Read More »
Having enjoyed last January’s The Second Cut, Louise Welsh’s sequel to The Cutting Room, I couldn’t resist To the Dogs, particularly after visiting Glasgow in June. Welsh’s new novel follows ambitious vice chancellor Jim Brennan, called away from Beijing when his son is arrested on a drugs charge. He had forgotten how afraid he had
To the Dogs by Louise Welsh: ‘Corruption doesn’t happen in a vacuum’ Read More »
I’m starting off the second instalment of February’s potential goodies with one that’s already earned a place on my books of the year list. Set over a single day in 1982, Laird Hunt’s Float Up, Sing Down tells the stories of fourteen inhabitants of the Indiana town where the eponymous star of his brilliant last
Books to Look Out For in February 2024: Part Two Read More »