Book news, reviews and recommendations
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. Tobias Hill’s Underground is an unusual one for me. It’s a thriller, not a genre I read much […]
Blasts from the Past: Underground by Tobias Hill (1999) Read More »
Perhaps because I’m in one, I’m attracted to fiction about long relationships which are as different from each other as the couples involved. I included a post in my Five Books I’ve Read series and could probably write several more on the theme. Acclaimed Swedish writer Moa Herngren’s The Divorce explores the end of a
The Divorce by Moa Herngren (transl. Alice Menzies): Two sides of the story Read More »
Part two of July’s paperback preview kicks off with two superb novels from Irish writers, both favourites from last year. Sheila Armstrong’s Falling Animals spans a year in which the authorities try to trace the identity of a corpse found on an Irish beach within sight of the shipwreck that caught fire a while ago,
Paperbacks to Look Out For in July 2024: Part Two Read More »
So many readers whose opinions I trust enjoyed Catherine Newman’s We All Want Impossible Things that I snapped up Sandwich which came with a feelgood billing and a Cape Cod setting, one of which I was sorely in need of after thinking too much about the state of the world, the other I find irresistible
Sandwich by Catherine Newman: Learning to let go Read More »
I was in two minds about reading Tom Lamont’s debut, Going Home. The synopsis made me think it might wander off into mawkishly sentimental territory but Lamont appeared on the Observer’s ’10 Best New Novelists of 2024’ list alongside Leo Vardiashvili whose Hard By a Great Forest I’d very much enjoyed so I decided to
Going Home by Tom Lamont: We are family Read More »
This first, disappointingly thin, instalment of July paperbacks begins with one I’ve already read. C. Pam Zhang’s Land of Milk and Honey is a slice of dystopian fiction in which a chef recalls her year in an Italian mountain top restaurant sufficiently elevated to lift it above the smog that enveloped the world. While everyone
Paperbacks to Look Out For in July 2024: Part One Read More »
I’ve been reading Anna Quindlen’s quietly perceptive novels for years, wondering if she might get the Elizabeth Strout style recognition she deserves here in the UK. It didn’t happen with either Still Life with Breadcrumbs or Alternate Side but perhaps it will with After Annie which spans the year after Annie Brown’s death, following her
After Annie by Anna Quindlen: ‘There’s no right or wrong way to grieve’ Read More »
I liked the premise of Orla Mackey’s Mouthing. It put me in mind of Robert Seethaler’s The Field in which the dead remember their village, filled with all the gossip, machinations and scandalmongering you might expect from such a small community. Mackey’s debut tells the story of Ballygowan, tucked away in rural Ireland, over several
Mouthing by Orla Mackey: ‘Night night now. Tomorrow will be lovely’ Read More »
This second instalment of July’s fiction is a very mixed bag beginning with the second novel from an author whose debut couldn’t be more different. As the title suggests Paddy Crewe’s True Love is a love story but far from what you might call a romance. Keely and Finn are two damaged young people who
Books to Look Out For in July 2024: Part Two Read More »
H and I enjoyed our 2022 stay in The Hague so much we wanted to explore more of the Netherlands but after spending more hours of my life than I care to think about looking for somewhere as nice as Residenz Stadslogement, decided to return and use it as a base again. The first two
Eight Days in the Netherlands and One Book Read More »
July’s publishing schedules are stuffed full of summer reading for those seeking beach reads and the like. There are several that might fit that category in this first batch, beginning with one I’m very keen to read. I loved Claire Lombardo’s wonderfully entertaining The Most Fun We Ever Had so am looking forward to Same
Books to Look Out For in July 2024: Part One Read More »