Fiction Reviews Archives - Page 82 of 121

Go Went Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck (transl. Susan Bernofsky): Opening the doors

22 September 2017 / 10 Comments

Regular readers of this blog will know I’m a fervent Remainer but I’m not a blindly naïve one. The EU is an institution ripe for reform but I’ve long believed that international issues are best tackled together. We Europeans failed dismally, however, to find a humane solution to the 2015 refugee crisis, dumping responsibility on […]

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Dance by the Canal by Kerstin Hensel (transl. Jen Calleja): Down but not out

20 September 2017 / 12 Comments

Peirene’s novellas come with a brief foreword from Meike Ziervogel, a short personal comment explaining why this particular book caught her eye. The one prefacing Kerstin Hensel’s Dance by the Canal ends ‘This book will make you think’. I’ve yet to read anything published by Peirene which hasn’t done that. Hensel’s book is the story

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The Wardrobe Mistress by Patrick McGrath: A well turned out chiller

13 September 2017 / 15 Comments

I’ve enjoyed several of Patrick McGrath’s novels, some of them with a distinctly Gothic flavour. Those of you who’ve read Asylum will know what I mean. For some reason, I’d got it into my head that The Wardrobe Mistress inhabited similar territory which turns out to be not entirely the case. Set against the background

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My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent: Not for the faint-hearted

8 September 2017 / 20 Comments

If you spend any time in the literary corners of Twitter you will have heard of Gabriel Tallent’s debut already. Lots of readers fervently singing its praises at every turn. I knew from the blurb that it would be a tough read but had no conception of just how gut-wrenchingly nerve-wracking. I nearly gave it

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Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie: Antigone redux

6 September 2017 / 17 Comments

It’s been three years since Kamila Shamsie’s last novel, A God in Every Stone, a book I confidently expected to appear on the following year’s Baileys longlist. This year’s Man Booker judges have followed suit, longlisting Home Fire which I’m sure would have appeared on my own wishlist had I read it in time. It’s

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Blasts from the Past: The People’s Act of Love by James Meek (2005)

4 September 2017 / 12 Comments

This is the latest in a series of occasional posts featuring books I read years ago about which I was wildly enthusiastic at the time, wanting to press a copy into as many hands as I could. The People’s Act of Love is one of those rare things: a novel that came to me via

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Forest Dark by Nicole Krauss: Lost in the desert with Kafka

1 September 2017 / 6 Comments

You probably know Nicole Krauss’ name already. The History of Love, published back in 2004, was a bestseller here in the UK as well as in her native US, thanks in part to its inclusion in the Richard & Judy book club selection. Lots of literary types tended to sneer at R&J but their choices

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The Hidden Keys by André Alexis: A hugely enjoyable, sophisticated caper

30 August 2017 / 13 Comments

This is the first book I’ve read by André Alexis. His last novel was narrated in the voices of its titular dogs which brought back memories of Paul Auster’s Timbuktu, and not happy ones. That said Fifteen Dogs went on to win the Scotiabank Giller prize in 2015 so what do I know? This latest

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Cover image for School of Velocity by Eric Beck Rubin

School of Velocity by Eric Beck Rubin: Friendship and discord

25 August 2017 / 13 Comments

Eric Beck Rubin’s debut is named after Carl Czerny’s eponymous score, much used by pianists to develop their technical skill so the internet tells me. I wish I could say that piece of knowledge popped into my memory while reading Rubin’s novel but I have to admit to being a musical ignoramus. It does give

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Madame Bovary of the Suburbs by Sophie Divry (transl. Alison Anderson): A Flaubert homage

23 August 2017 / 21 Comments

It’s been a very long time since I read Flaubert’s tale of a doctor’s wife, bored to tears by provincial life and seeking diversion in adultery, but not so long since I read Sophie Divry’s slightly eccentric debut, The Library of Unrequited Love which I thoroughly enjoyed. It’s always a risky business when an author

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Often I Am Happy by Jens Christian Grøndahl (translated by the author): A meditation on grief, love and friendship

18 August 2017 / 18 Comments

I remember reading Jens Christian Grøndahl’s Lucca when it was published in the UK in 2003, too long ago to recall the detail of its story but an impression of quietly elegant prose stuck which is what attracted me to Often I Am Happy. Its premise is also an intriguing one: recently widowed, Ellinor stands

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