Book news, reviews and recommendations
Cynthia Ozick’s The Puttermesser Papers was one of those books that made me think I’d hit gold – an interesting author with a nice long backlist – so I was delighted to see that Atlantic were reissuing The Messiah of Stockholm, dubbed her masterpiece, particularly as it’s about literature. Lars is the Monday book reviewer
The Messiah of Stockholm by Cynthia Ozick: A shortish post about a short book Read More »
I started Burial Rites in the anything but quiet carriage on our way to London on Saturday. Set in 1829, it’s based on the case of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, the last person to be executed in Iceland. Convicted of the murder of Natan Ketilsson and Pétur Jónsson, Agnes is to be lodged until her execution with
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent: One book leads to another Read More »
If you’re the kind of reader that trawls through all the bits and pieces at the start of a book – the dedication, review quotations and credits, biographical notes (often at the back but useful to know while you’re reading a novel) – you’ll spot Toni Jordan’s note telling you that Nine Days was inspired
Nine Days by Toni Jordan: A cleverly constructed heartbreaker Read More »
Having read all but one of her novels I was looking forward to Meg Wolitzer’s new book. It has the kind of structure much beloved by film and TV writers – a group of young people form an enduring friendship which survives the buffeting of adulthood and all that the outside world throws at it
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer: More than lives up to its title Read More »
It was announced last week that ebooks made up 20% of Random House’s sales worldwide in the first six months of this year. Zillions of readers have enthusiastically embraced the digital age and with good reason. Social media and books work beautifully together; since blogging I’ve had the kind of exchanges that I’ve missed having
Bookish social media and unsociable e-books Read More »
This slim, beautifully written novel begins one evening when, ordering a meal at a bar, Tsukiko sits next to an elderly man who chooses exactly the same dish. She recognises him as her teacher from her secondary school days but cannot remember his name saying nothing until he notices her. To cover her embarrassment she
I started The Glass Ocean on Sunday evening. Twenty pages in and nothing had stuck. It seemed a little disjointed somehow; snippets of glittering prose shone out but I couldn’t seem to get a purchase on it. Monday afternoon, after a lovely Bank Holiday walk through woods near Iford Manor – too soon for tea,
The Glass Ocean by Lori Baker: Garlanded with well deserved praise Read More »
It’s always fun to try to predict what’s going to make it onto the Man Booker longlist but I think most people were caught out this year. Of my own predictions only Colum McCann’s Transatlantic made the grade so I thought it was time that I read another longlisted novel. Set against the backdrop of
Unexploded by Alison Macleod: A wartime marriage under strain Read More »
Catherine O’Flynn’s new novel comes with the kind of bright and breezy jacket that makes you want to pick it up plus a recommendation from Jonathan Coe praising her writing to the skies. Expectations were high, then, for this story of a father and son viewing each others’ lives uncomprehendingly across the chasm of misunderstandings,
Mr Lynch’s Holiday by Catherine O’Flynn: A novel with heart and humour Read More »
When I was a reviews editor I tried my best to make sure that translators were credited in the bibliographic information that accompanies reviews. It didn’t always work: sometimes space was tight and the sub-editors had to cut the copy but sometimes the fact that it was a translated work was not immediately apparent. Perhaps
Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann (transl. Carol Brown Janeway) Lost in Translation Read More »
Alexander Maksik’s A Marker to Measure Drift is a novel of such intensity that I had to put it down every so often just to catch my breath and anchor myself in my own comfortable world. Written in lyrical often dreamlike prose, it takes us into the mind of Jacqueline who has fled the rebel
A Measure to Marker Drift by Alexander Maksik: Makes you thank your lucky stars Read More »