Book news, reviews and recommendations
Given that it features a child narrator, I was a wee bit wary of Miriam Toews’ Fight Night despite having enjoyed her previous novels. It’s such a difficult trick to pull off, painfully clunky if mishandled. Toews’ new novel takes the form of a letter written by nine-year-old Swiv to her father who her grandmother […]
Fight Night by Miriam Toews: ‘That’s patriarchy, Swiv, make a note’ Read More »
Assisted dying isn’t the easiest theme to explore but it was what attracted me to New Zealand writer Chloe Lane’s The Swimmers set over a long holiday weekend in which a daughter visits the family home for the first time. We know within a few pages that Erin’s terminally ill mother has asked her sister
The Swimmers by Chloe Lane: We are family Read More »
I’ve read and enjoyed David Park’s fiction before, admiring his quietly elegant style, and was keen to read Spies in Canaan, putting it aside for a little while after it popped through my letterbox. In the event, I read it against the backdrop of Russia’s preparations for invading Ukraine, horribly appropriate for this novel which
Spies in Canaan by David Park: ‘Stand up straight and true’ Read More »
Six Degrees of Separation is a meme hosted by Kate over at Books Are My Favourite and Best. It works like this: each month a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six others to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the titles on the list,
Six Degrees of Separation – Sorrow and Bliss to That They May Face the Rising Sun Read More »
I was keen to read Stewart O’Nan’s Ocean State having enjoyed his sympathetic, wryly humorous portrait of ageing, Henry, Himself, a few years ago. This new novel sounded entirely different. Opening just before Halloween in 2009, it arrived with a handful of American sweets as part of the marketing package including Tootsie Rolls which frequently
Ocean State by Stewart O’Nan: A keeper of secrets Read More »
Following on from her non-fiction handiwork, described as a ‘sister publication’ by the publishers, Sara Baume’s Seven Steeples is the latest in what I hope will be a continuing line of excellent books by Irish women writers this reading year. It spans eight years in the lives of Bell and Sigh who move into an
Seven Steeples by Sara Baume: Leaving the world behind Read More »
The first part of June’s paperbacks started with a novel hyped to the skies ahead of publication as does the second, although this time it’s a debut. Set in a prestigious New York publishing house, Zakiya Dalila Harris’ The Other Black Girl follows Nella, the only Black employee on the editorial staff until Hazel is
Paperbacks to Look Out For in June 2022: Part Two Read More »
Both its blurb and that empty chair on its cover warned me that Sarah Manguso’s Very Cold People was likely to be a bleak read but it was also what attracted me to this brief novella. Set in a small New England town, buttoned up and demarcated between rich and poor, Very Cold People sees
Very Cold People by Sarah Manguso: ‘I felt indistinct, like someone else’s dream’ Read More »
Five years ago, I reviewed Jennifer Egan’s Manhattan Beach, noting that it was seven years since her Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad had been published. I was a little disappointed in it, truth be told, but when I spotted The Candy House in the schedules, I put up my hand, attracted by
The Candy House by Jennifer Egan: Virtual dystopia Read More »
Enough June paperbacks to more than make up for the lack of new titles that caught my eye I’m pleased to say, beginning with a book surrounded by huge amounts of brouhaha last year. Readers would have to have been living on Mars not to know about Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You. She’s
Paperbacks to Look Out For in June 2022: Part One Read More »
We’d rented an apartment in Milan, planning to give our stomachs a rest after a week of delicious but rich food although the excellent bakery just a few metres from our front door put paid to that. Unsurprisingly, the weather in Milan was very different from the Lakes, justifying my-pack-for-every-temperature tendency. We headed off to
Seven days in the Italian Lakes, Four Days in Milan and Four Books: Part Two Read More »