Fiction Reviews

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Cover image for Marzhan, Mon Amour by Katja Oskamp

Marzahn, Mon Amour by Katja Oskamp (transl. Jo Heinrich): An everyday gem

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Peirene Press novellas are reliably excellent but rarely cheery reads. Katja Oskamp’s Marzahn, Mon Amour bucks that trend with its tender, affectionate portrait of a community told through a set of thumbnail sketches of her clients by an unnamed writer turned chiropodist. Regular readers might notice that this is the second visit to Berlin in […]

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Cover image for Friedrichstrasse 19 by Emma Harding

Friedrichstrasse 19 by Emma Harding: ‘You will endure. What else can we do?’

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Telling a city’s story through a single building and its inhabitants is such an appealing device. Żanna Słoniowska did it memorably with Lviv in The House with the Stained-glass Window. Emma Harding’s Friedrichstrasse 19 takes a similar tack with the added lure of exploring the history of Berlin, always a favourite setting, through the lives

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Cover image for Love, If That's What it is by Marjke Schermer

Love, If That’s What It Is by Marijke Schermer (transl. Hester Velmans): One size does not fit all

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I’m a sucker for novels about long term relationships, the complicated kind rather than the reasonably straightforward happy ones although they, too, have their turbulent moments. Marijke Schermer’s Love, If That’s What It Is looked right up that particular alley with its story of the breakdown of Terri and David’s 25-year marriage, told from the

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Cover image for Tell Me How to Be by Neel Patel

Tell Me How to Be by Neel Patel: ‘The things we most desire are not always what we need’

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I put up my hand for Neel Patel’s Tell Me How to Be in response to the heartfelt, very personal enthusiasm of its editor. There’s such a difference between that and the hype that so often puts me off. Patel’s debut brings together a mother and her two sons one year after the sudden death

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Cover image for The Sky Above the Roof by Nathacha Appanah

The Sky Above the Roof by Nathacha Appanah (transl. Geoffrey Strachan): ‘I’m nothing now but a boy from the shadows’

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If you know more about French poetry than I do which, frankly, would not be difficult, you may well recognise the title of Nathacha Appanah’s The Sky Above the Roof as a reference to Paul Verlaine’s Le Ciel, written when he was in prison. Fortunately, Geoffrey Strachan’s translator’s note helped me out, setting the tone

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Cover image for Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King

Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King: Astute observation plus a few dark surprises

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I was delighted to spot Lily King’s Five Tuesdays in Winter on Twitter having enjoyed both Writers & Lovers and Father of the Rain. It’s her first short story collection, comprising ten pieces many of which explore themes of love, relationships and parenthood, some with a darker edge than I remember from her novels. He

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