Book news, reviews and recommendations
August’s second instalment begins with a book from a favourite author of mine. Donal Ryan’s Where Are the Kings follows twelve-year-old Jack over two years after a terrible loss sees his grandparents take him in. One day his mother sets off in the battered family car with Jack careering after her on his bike, too
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August’s new fiction’s a bit of a mixed bag, beginning with an author whose debut was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize in 2023. Jacqueline Crooks’s Sky City is set in the eponymous north London housing estate where Jaycee lives after years in a homeless hostel. When she finds a clue that may help her best
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Back from my travels (more of which later in the week) with the second batch of July paperbacks beginning with one of last year’s favourites for me. Souvankham Thammavongsa’s Pick a Colour spans one day in a nail salon run by Ning who, in another life, was a boxer. Everyone’s called Susan at Ning’s: it
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The first batch of July’s paperbacks begins with one I enjoyed much more than I’d expected. When the unnamed narrator of Dominic Amerena’s I Want Everything spots a dead ringer for Australia’s most notorious bestselling novelist who apparently disappeared in the ’70s, he hatches a plan to rescue his own flagging writing career. Tracking her
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The second part of July’s preview begins with a book by an author whose bestseller I still haven’t got around to. Daniel Mason’s Country People is set in Vermont where a Californian family is spending a year, Miles ostensibly to finish his thesis which he’s continually chopping and changing, Kate as a visiting professor. When
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With much of new fiction aimed at the holiday reading market, July’s often a patchy month for me but not so this year beginning with a novel by an author whose debut I loved. Chloé Ashby’s Family Friends is set over a fortnight in a crumbling chateau where two couples have holidayed for almost two
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Part two of June’s paperback preview begins with one of my 2025 favourites. Opening in the early 2000s, Alexander Starritt’s Drayton and Mackenzie follows two very different men. Driven and intensely competitive, even with himself, James is the affable, indolent Roland’s antithesis. He’s a rising star with McKinsey’s consultancy, set on becoming their youngest partner;
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June’s paperback preview begins with one I was sure would appear on the Women’s Prize for Fiction list. Set during Italy’s Years of Lead, marked by violent clashes between the extreme Left and Right, Olivia Laing’s The Silver Book follows Nicholas who’s fled London for Venice. After a chance encounter with costume and set designer,
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June’s second fiction preview begins with one I took a punt on largely because of the publisher, World Editions, whose list is always interesting. Kit Fan’s Goodbye Chinatown explores events in Hong Kong since the 1997 handover through the experience of Amber whose parents brought her to London after the horrors of Tiananmen Square in
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Lots of goodies to look out for in June beginning with one from a favourite author of mine. In Ann Patchett’s Whistler, Daphne and her husband are visiting a museum before Jonathan sets off for Wisconsin to help his sister clear their late mother’s house. The dapper elderly man so interested in Daphne turns out
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Back from my travels (more of which later in the week) with the second instalment of May’s paperback preview which kicks off with a book from one of the most inventive British authors I know although I’m pretty sure Helen Oyeyemi’ A New New Me will be a Marmite novel, rather like Parasol Against the
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