Book news, reviews and recommendations
Alexis Schaitkin’s Saint X suffered more than most from the upheavals which struck last year’s schedules, appearing in print nine months or so after it was first due to be published. Truth be told I wasn’t at all sure about it when it arrived. I wondered if it might be a step too far into […]
Saint X by Alexis Schaitkin: Paradise lost Read More »
It was its setting and structure that attracted me to Claire Thomas’ The Performance, although that brightly coloured jacket played some part. A clever design which fits the novel well. As its title suggests, the backdrop for Thomas’ novel is a Melbourne theatre where three women are watching a performance of Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days
The Performance by Claire Thomas: A night at the theatre Read More »
I couldn’t resist that jacket which I spotted on Twitter earlier in the year accompanied by complimentary comments about the book by people whose opinions I trust. The Inverts is Crystal Jeans’ first novel from a large publisher having had two published by Welsh indie Honno Press. With luck, if this one is as successful
The Inverts by Crystal Jeans: A marriage of convenience Read More »
It was the mention of The Stinging Fly in her biographical notes that made me want to read Louise Kennedy’s The End of the World Is a Cul de Sac. I’ve yet to read a set of stories from one of their contributors that hasn’t hit the spot for me. Someone there has a very
The End of the World is a Cul de Sac by Louise Kennedy: A smartly delivered collection Read More »
That vibrant jacket with its singing colours played some part in my considering Peace Adzo Medie’s His Only Wife for review. It was one of those dreary winter days with little good news to be had and I needed cheering up. Then I noticed Medie lectures at a local university but it was its striking
His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie: How to be strong Read More »
I’m sure readers will have gathered that Naomi Ishiguro is the daughter of Kazuo by now, although that’s not the reason I wanted to read Common Ground. She was once a bookseller at my lovely local indie, Mr B’s, which piqued my interest, that and a glowing quote from Rowan Hisayo Buchanan adorning its rather
Common Ground by Naomi Ishiguro: ‘Solidarity and friendship’ Read More »
I’m not one for wackiness, tending to run in the opposite direction at the mere mention of magic realism. I hope that description doesn’t put you off but I can’t think of a more apposite word: whimsical doesn’t cover it as you’ll see from the list below. Here then are five novels I’ve read with
Five Weird and Wonderful Works of Fiction I’ve Read Read More »
Unsettled Ground is Claire Fuller’s fourth novel. She’s one of those authors whose writing straddles the often very thin line between literary and commercial fiction, not that I’m sure I could define either of those terms. Suffice to say I’ve read and enjoyed all four, beginning with her debut, Our Endless Numbered Days, back in
Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller: No pastoral idyll here Read More »
Georgina Harding is one of those writers whose work I’ve long thought underrated. Her elegant, understated prose is meticulously crafted, never more so than in Harvest, her third novel about the Ashe family which echoes both The Gun Room and Land of the Living in its exploration of the legacy of war. The brooding that
Harvest by Georgina Harding: ‘But this was only a moment of sunlight’ Read More »
Back in 2015, I reviewed Robert Seethaler’s A Whole Life, a beautifully written novella about a man who’d barely left his mountain hamlet, revealing the richness of even the simplest of lives. The following year’s The Tobacconist, set in Vienna in the months before Hitler annexed Austria, was equally striking raising high hopes for his
The Field by Robert Seethaler (transl. Charlotte Collins: Giving voice to the dead Read More »
Two years ago, I reviewed Takis Würger’s The Club whose exploration of entitlement through the appalling behaviour of an Oxford University boxing club struck horribly familiar chords. Stella, his new novel, also tackles discomfiting territory this time through a love story about a wealthy young Swiss man and the beautiful artists’ model he meets in
Stella by Takis Würger (transl Liesl Schillinger): In search of truth Read More »