Book news, reviews and recommendations
Those of you with long memories might recall M. L. Stedman’s debut, The Light Between Oceans, published in the UK back in 2012. I loved it which made me keen to read her new one, A Far-flung Life. Largely set in the 1950s and ‘60s on a sheep station in Western Australia, it follows the […]
We’re in New York for the first three titles in April’s second preview, Ireland for the last three and Iceland for one in the middle. Jay McInerney’s See You on the Other Side is the fourth and final instalment of the series which spans four decades in the lives of New York golden couple, Russell
Books to Look Out For in April 2026: Part Two 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 – Wuthering Heights to The Sound of One Hand Clapping 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 in as many hands as I could. I read anything I could get my hands on by Barbara Trapido back in the ‘90s. She’s one
Blasts from the Past: The Travelling Hornplayer by Barbara Trapido (1998) Read More »
I’d not come across Stephanie Sy-Quia before a proof of A Private Man turned up. She’s an award-wining poet which predisposed me towards reading it. Like many debut novelists, Sy-Quia draws on her family history and, as the granddaughter of a Catholic priest, hers is a fascinating one. A Private Man tells the story of
A Private Man by Stephanie Sy-Quia: ‘There are many different ways to have an affair.’ Read More »
The first instalment of April’s preview begins with two I’ve already read. Divided into three parts, Ben Lerner’s Transcription follows an unnamed narrator who knocks his phone into a filled washbasin while preparing to interview his mentor, the father of Max, his best friend. Setting off fretfully to Thomas’s house, he finds him disconcertingly altered.
Books to Look Out For in April 2026: Part One Read More »
I dithered over Debra Curtis’s Laws of Love and Logic which sounded from the blurb as if it might be a straightforward tragic love story. There was also a worrying degree of brouhaha around it but I decided to take the plunge. Spanning three decades, beginning in the 1976, Curtis’s debut follows Lily, the elder
Laws of Love and Logic by Debra Curtis: ‘Guilt is both long and cruel’ Read More »
It’s almost longlist time for the Women’s Prize for Fiction although it hardly seems five minutes since the last one. Wednesday March 4th is the date to add your diary. Only novels written by women in English published between April 1st, 2025, and March 31st, 2026, qualify. I’ve followed the same format as previous years,
My Women’s Prize for Fiction 2026 Wish List Read More »
March’s second paperback preview begins with one from an author I’ve long admired, now a Nobel Prize winner. Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Theft is a tale of family and obligation set in postcolonial Zanzibar, now a tourist destination thanks to its beautiful archipelago. When his mother and stepfather take young Badar into their home, Karim is puzzled
Paperbacks to Look Out For in March 2026: Part Two Read More »
February’s snapshot includes a novel I’m crossing my fingers for, a short story collection from a favourite author and a well-known critic’s very personal piece art history. The novel I’m reading is Rupert Thomson’s How to Make a Bomb which begins with an academic returning from a conference, experiencing what may be a breakdown. I’ve
A Snapshot of My Reading #12 Read More »
H and I had been toying with going to Oslo or Helsinki for this year’s chilly break but decided to plump for Copenhagen instead which we’d visited twice before in February and enjoyed. A lucky choice as temperatures sank to -10 C in Helsinki last week. I had my eye on the Design Museum for
Four Days in Copenhagen and One Book Read More »