Book news, reviews and recommendations
This is the fourth novel by Robbie Arnott I’ve reviewed here. Having been a wee bit reluctant to read Flames, his debut, it ended up on my Booker wishlist as did Limberlost in 2023, and now Dusk which sees the Renshaw twins, desperate for money, on the trail of the eponymous black puma who’s already […]
Dusk by Robbie Arnott: Beauty and the beast Read More »
I was in two minds about reading Miriam Robinson’s And Notre Dame is Burning, attracted by the idea of a fragmented, non-linear narrative which I often enjoy but wondering if it might be too ambitious for a debut. Robinson’s novel follows Esther over five years or so in which time seems to flatten for her
And Notre Dame is Burning by Miriam Robinson: ‘Do you know this man?’ Read More »
Unsurprisingly, given that publishers have Christmas in their sights come September, a couple of the month’s titles struck me as on their way to the bestseller lists including the first which I’ve already read. The Two Roberts grew out of a fascination with Robert MacBryde and Robert Colquhoun after Damian Barr spotted a social media
Books to Look Out For in September 2025: Part One Read More »
Six Degrees of Separation is a meme hosted by Kate over at Books Are My Favourite and Best. It works like this: each month a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six others to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the titles on the list,
Six Degrees of Separation – The Safekeep to Metamorphosis Read More »
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. Water Music is the first T. C. Boyle novel I read back when he was T Coraghessan Boyle.
Blasts from the Past: Water Music by T. C. Boyle (1981) Read More »
I’ve often mentioned the power of novellas on this blog, how in the right hands a few pages can convey much more than several hundred. Mai Ishizawa’s prize-winning debut, The Place of Shells, is a fine example of that for me. Set during the pandemic, it’s narrated by an unnamed academic from Tōhoku, whose coastline
The Place of Shells by Mai Ishizawa (Transl. Polly Barton): Trauma, grief and memory Read More »
This second instalment of August paperbacks begins with Lissa Evans’s Small Bomb at Dimperley, one of last year’s favourites for me. There’s no money for the patching up Dimperely so desperately needs when Valentine returns from the war in 1945, finding himself elevated to the baronetcy when his missing eldest brother is declared dead, but
Paperbacks to Look Out For in August 2025: Part Two Read More »
Liadan Ní Chuinn’s debut collection comes garlanded with praise from a fistful of my favourite Irish writers including Wendy Erskine, Louise Kennedy and Lucy Caldwell, all heralding the arrival of a brilliant new talent. Every One Still Here comprises six stories, several quite brief, bookended by two lengthier pieces, all more than worthy of a
Every One Still Here by Liadan Ní Chuinn: A hard legacy Read More »
Not my favourite prize but, for some reason, I can’t resist putting together a wish list for the Booker. To be eligible for this year’s prize all books must be published in the UK or Ireland between 1st October 2024 and 30th September 2025 and have been written in English. The judges usually stick to
My 2025 Booker Wish List Read More »
August’s first batch of paperbacks begins a step or two outside my usual reading territory with Sam Mills’s The Watermark. Trapped in reclusive, once renowned author Augustus Fate’s work-in-progress, Jaime and Rachel are desperately trying to escape. To do so they move from Victorian Oxford to utopian Manchester landing themselves in a Russian winter before
Paperbacks to Look Out For in August 2025: Part One Read More »
I’d not read anything by Benjamin Wood when Seascraper was pitched to me. It’s his fourth book but this is his first novella, beautifully packaged with a cover that fits it well. Set sometime in the 1950s, it takes place over a single day which sees Thomas Flett lifted out of his hardscrabble life for
Seascraper by Benjamin Wood: Vividly atmospheric Read More »