Book news, reviews and recommendations
Despite her extensive back catalogue which includes five works of fiction, I’d never read anything by Gish Jen. Her new, difficult-to-categorise book, Bad Bad Girl, is the story of her mother’s life in which Jen imagines conversations, seeking answers to questions her mother would never give. It’s a novelisation, leaning very much towards memoir but, […]
Bad Bad Girl by Gish Jen: A novel with some truth in it Read More »
Having written a couple of these posts on Irish fiction, it’s time for a few Scottish favourites, some written in such rich dialect I could hear it as I read. There’s a real skill to that kind of writing as anyone who’s read a cringe-makingly poor version of it will know. Here then are five
Five Scottish Novels I’ve Read Read More »
The blurb for Anika Jade Levy’s Flat Earth suggested an interesting contrast between two friends who meet at a liberal arts college – one looks set for success, the other adrift and unable to make anything stick. Set against the backdrop of the New York art world, Levy’s debut opens with Avery and Frances driving
Flat Earth by Anika Jade Levy: A bleakly funny novella Read More »
I was hesitant about Olivia Laing’s The Silver Book when it was pitched to me. I’d been impressed by The Lonely City and The Trip to Echo Spring but writers who excel at non-fiction sometimes lard their novels with too much research. Its premise, though, is such an interesting one I accepted. Set during in
The Silver Book by Olivia Laing: ‘We are all in danger’ Read More »
Set in seventeenth-century Denmark, Olga Ravn’s The Wax Child grew out of HEX, her play which premiered at the Royal Danish Theatre in 2023. It’s narrated by the titular wax child moulded by Christenze Kruckow, an impoverished noblewoman charged with witchcraft. Is that what harmful magic is? The thing everyone did to stop the hiccups?
Despite preferring novellas to chunksters, I’ve a fair few of the latter under my reading belt. A good doorstopper which swerves baggy over-indulgence can be a source of great pleasure. I’ve already written about five that fit that bill then posted five more. Below is another batch, all but one with a link to a
Another Five Doorstopping Novels I’ve Read Read More »
Chloe Michelle Howarth’s Heap Earth Upon It is very different from Sunburn, her debut, a story of sexual awakening set across glorious hot summer days. This new one is a dark, brooding novel which follows the O’Learys who have left their home village hoping to put a distance between themselves and the most recent of
Heap Earth Upon It by Chloe Michelle Haworth: Truth will out Read More »
I dithered about reading Andrew Michael Hurley’s Saltwash, put off by his reputation for writing folk horror, not a genre I’m attracted to, but I liked its premise so decided to take the plunge, helped along by a few NetGalley reviews by fans disappointed by its lack of menace. Tom and Oliver have been matched
Saltwash by Andrew Michael Hurley: ‘Tide in, tide out. All’s forgotten’ Read More »
I snapped up Souvankham Thammavongsa’s Pick a Colour as soon as I spotted it on NetGalley having enjoyed her 2020 Giller-Prize-winning short story collection, How to Pronounce Knife, in which she writes about the immigrant experience. Her new one is a novella set over one day in a nail salon run by Ning. They all
Pick a Colour by Souvankham Thammavongsa: A day in the life Read More »
As he mentions in his acknowledgements, Damian Barr’s The Two Roberts grew out of a fascination with Robert MacBryde and Robert Colquhoun after he spotted a social media post during lockdown. The two Roberts, as they came to be known, were working class Scottish artists who met on their first day at the Glasgow School
The Two Roberts by Damian Barr: ‘The Golden Boys of Bond Street’ Read More »
It was Ann Patchett’s glowing puff that swung it for me with acclaimed short story writer Patrick Ryan’s, Buckeye. I liked the sound of its premise but thought I might find the spiritualism mentioned in the blurb a bit too much to swallow. Ryan’s first novel follows two families, linked by a devastating secret, over
Buckeye by Patrick Ryan: If you like Ann Patchett… Read More »