Fiction Reviews Archives - Page 48 of 123

Cover image for The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller: ‘This is the end of a long story’

28 July 2021 / 12 Comments

I’m incapable of resisting a novel with a Cape Cod summer setting. Something about families thrust together in unaccustomed closeness, brought face to face with their pasts, usually with a few dark secrets thrown in, plus lovely descriptions of the New England coast. There’s usually one every year and this year’s is Miranda Cowley Heller’s

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Cover image for Three Roooms by Jo Hamya

Three Rooms by Jo Hamya: Just passing through

23 July 2021 / 18 Comments

I seem to have been on a novella roll this year: Wherabouts, Blue Highway, Assembly and Stella to name but four outstanding ones. Jo Hamya’s Three Rooms looked like a possible addition to that list with its premise of a young woman who passes through the titular three rooms, barely scraping a living over the

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My 2021 Booker Wish List

21 July 2021 / 50 Comments

When I first started this year’s Booker Prize wish list, I found it a bit of a struggle. Several of the books I’ve loved most this year have been translations – Jhumpa Lahiri’s Wherabouts, for instance – and obviously those don’t qualify. Then I read a novel I wanted to include at the last minute

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Cover image for The Echo Chamber by John Boyne

Books to Look Out For in August 2021

19 July 2021 / 22 Comments

Not unexpectedly in a month when publishers’ sights are firmly set on summer reading, I’ve only come across enough titles for a single preview post although it’s a pleasingly mixed bag, several of which I’ve already read. I’m starting with John Boyne’s The Echo Chamber which I practically inhaled as soon as it arrived. It

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Cover image for We Need to Talk by Jonathan Crane

We Need to Talk by Jonathan Crane: Mustn’t grumble

16 July 2021 / 16 Comments

There was the hint of a state-of-the-nation novel about the blurb for Jonathan Crane’s We Need to Talk, a theme I find hard to resist whether it’s mine or someone else’s nation. It’s also published by small indie Eye/Lightning Books whose Good Riddance and An Isolated Incident I enjoyed very much. Crane’s novel is set

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Cover image for People Like Them by Samira Sedira (transl Lara Vergnaud

People Like Them by Samira Sedira (transl. Lara Vergnaud): An unthinkable crime

14 July 2021 / 16 Comments

I wasn’t at all sure I’d read Samira Sedira’s People Like Them. It’s published under Bloomsbury’s crime imprint and I’m a crime watcher rather than a crime reader but it was the quote from Leila Slimani about its exploration of racism which made me think again. Based on a true story, Sedira’s novella is about

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Seven Days in Sussex and Kent plus One and a Half Books

12 July 2021 / 40 Comments

I’d booked the lovely Cottage in the Garden back in January, calculating that summer self-catering was a safe bet whatever happened with Covid. It’s a delightful rustic cottage full of generous, thoughtful touches: fresh flowers from the garden and the table laid with a welcoming cream tea. It also comes complete with its own wildflower

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Cover image for Olympus, Texas by Stacey Swann

Olympus, Texas by Stacey Swann: Divinely dysfunctional

9 July 2021 / 18 Comments

Back from Sussex (more of that next week) with Stacey Swann’s reworking of Classical myth, Olympus, Texas, which came with a persuasively thumping endorsement from Richard Russo. Set in the titular small town, Swann’s debut sees the supremely dysfunctional Briscoes brought face-to-face with some harsh facts when two of its members are caught up in

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Cover image for The View Was Exhausting by Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta

The View Was Exhausting by Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta: The high price of fame

30 June 2021 / 24 Comments

I couldn’t resist its clever proof jacket, whose wine stain hinted at hedonism (sadly ditched in the final version), and intriguing title so I put up my hand for a copy of Mikaella Clements’ and Onjuli Datta’s The View Was Exhausting. I was also fascinated by the idea of two authors, who turn out to

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Cover image for A Little London Scandal by Miranda Emmerson

Paperbacks to Look Out For in July 2021: Part Two

28 June 2021 / 22 Comments

This second batch of July paperbacks begins with a book I wasn’t at all sure I’d like given that it’s a crime novel but its location and period appealed. Miranda Emmerson’s A Little London Scandal is set in 1967, on the eve of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales. When a body is

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Cover image for The darlings by Angela Jackson

The Darlings by Angela Jackson: No denying the past

25 June 2021 / 16 Comments

I spotted Angela Jackson’s The Darlings in the publishing schedules back in April 2020 and liked the look of it. Like so many other titles, her novel fell foul of the pandemic which threw a multitude of publishing dates up in the air, this one landing in bookshops a year or so after it should

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