Book news, reviews and recommendations
Back from my London break (more of which later in the week) with the second instalment of February’s new fiction which kicks off with a couple I’ve already read. The first, Madeline Cash’s Lost Lambs, follows the supremely dysfunctional Flynn family shortly after Catherine, frustrated with her life as a stay-at-home mother, unilaterally declares her […]
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Lots of new fiction to keep those of us in the Northern Hemisphere interested through the winter months beginning with one I’m particularly keen to read. Danish writer Helle Helle’s This Should Be Written in the Present Tense was one of my books of 2014 raising hopes for they translated by Martin Aitken, a name
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The second part of January’s paperback preview begins with two shortlisted for 2025’s Women’s Prize for fiction. In Rósín O’Donnell’s debut, Nesting, a woman flees her home with her two young daughters, convinced that’s it’s no longer safe for them to live there. Her hoped-for escape proves to be tougher than she’d thought with little
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Quite a mixed bag of paperbacks to kickstart January, beginning with one I expect to see piled up on bookshop tables. Anne Tyler’s first novella Three Days in June follows Gail whose daughter is about to be married, starting with the wedding rehearsal day which has already started badly for Gail, summoned to her boss’s
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The second part of January’s preview kicks off with one for which I’m hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. Louise Welsh has followed The Second Cut, her excellent sequel to The Cutting Room, which picked up Rilke’s story two decades on, with a third instalment. The Cut Up sees Rilke deciding to
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I know we’re not done with 2025 but I’ve already got the new publishing year in my sights, starting with a book from a favourite author. Bryan Washington’s Palaver explores what makes a home and family as it follows a mother and her son over the few weeks of her unexpected, unwelcome visit to him
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December’s always a thin month for new titles but a few from indies look worth exploring, all but one with a political flavour. Originally published in 1979 and now appearing posthumously for the first time in the UK, Fanny Howe’s Holy Smoke comes billed as ‘an account of the frenzy and paranoia of US politics
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Another thin month for paperback goodies but there are a few that’ve caught my eye. Beginning in the 1970s, Jami Attenberg’s A Reason to See You has an appealing premise, following a mother and her daughters over forty years of social change. After the death of their father, Shelly heads for the West Coast, working
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This second batch of November titles begins with one I’m particularly keen to read. John Tottenham’s Service sees John working as a bookseller in Los Angeles having failed at journalism and writing fiction. Now in his late forties, he’s dismayed at working in something he considers beneath him, irritated by his privileged customers’ demands, out
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I’ve read three titles from the first part of November’s preview, beginning with Olivia Laing’s The Silver Book. Set during Italy’s Years of Lead, marked by atrocities and violent clashes between the extreme left and right, it follows Nicholas who’s fled London for Venice. After a chance encounter with renowned costume and set designer, Danilo
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Only a few paperbacks caught my eye for October, probably because it’s prime time horror season which I rarely read. There are a few gems appearing on the horizon, though, including two favourites from last year. I was so impressed by singer-songwriter Malachy Tallack’s That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz, I included it on my Booker wish
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