Book news, reviews and recommendations
I’m always pleased to spot a new Philppe Claudel in the offing. I’ve read all his books available in translation from Parfums, a strikingly unusual scent memoir, to the achingly sad novella Monsieur Linh and His Child. All of them share a strong sense of humanity and a beauty of expression as does his new […]
German Fantasia by Philippe Claudel (transl. Julian Evans): The legacy of war Read More »
Lots of paperback goodies to look out for this February, several tried and tested by me beginning with Louise Welsh’s The Second Cut, published twenty years after her brilliant debut, The Cutting Room, starred the unforgettable Rilke, given to dicey sexual encounters in Glasgow parks by night, mixing with morally dubious individuals in his job
Paperbacks to Look Out For in February 2023: Part One Read More »
Sidik Fofana’s Stories from the Tenants Downstairs instantly appealed to me: a tightly linked set of short stories about the tenants of a Harlem apartment block ticked two of my literary boxes, and that cover sealed the deal. Fofana’s collection sees many of the inhabitants of Banneker Terrace threatened with eviction thanks to the new
Stories from the Tenants Downstairs by Sidik Fofana: No place like home Read More »
I’m not the target market for Monica Heisey’s Really Good, Actually but occasionally I find myself seduced by hype, wanting to know what all the fuss is about. For those who don’t already know, Heisey is a comedian and Schitt’s Creek scriptwriter. Her debut covers a year in twenty-nine-year-old Maggie’s life after her husband takes
Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey: ‘Is everything okay?’ Read More »
I’ve read just one of the titles in February’s second instalment but it may well be the one that scoops the most attention. I enjoyed both The Borrower and The Hundred-Year House so put up my hand for Rebecca Makkai’s I Have Some Questions for You which follows, Bodie, a misfit at the boarding school
Books to Look Out For in February 2023: Part Two Read More »
The pitch for Dawn Raffel’s Boundless as the Sky was such an intriguing one, I couldn’t resist although I wasn’t at all sure it would work for me. I’m more circumspect about accepting books for review published by small presses such as Sagging Meniscus Press, the book’s wonderfully named publishers. The first part is billed
Boundless as the Sky by Dawn Raffel: Fables and Tales Some of Them True Read More »
I’ve not had much success with Nell Zink’s writing, not quite getting what all the fuss was about with both Nicotine and The Wallcreeper, but I liked the sound of Avalon’s premise so thought I’d give it a go. A young woman with a less than favourable upbringing, tries to find her place in the
Avalon by Nell Zink: A curate’s egg of a novel Read More »
I’ve read two from February’s first instalment of new fiction, both of which deal with families hit by tragedy in very different ways. Laurent Petitmangin’s What You Need from the Night sees an unnamed father, left to bring up his two sons alone after their mother’s death, finding a chasm opening between him and his
Books to Look Out For in February 2023: 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 – Beach Read to A History of the World in 10½ Chapters 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. Coupling sensual prose with perceptive, sometimes chilling, characterisation, Joanna Briscoe’s Sleep with Me grips from the first page
Blasts from the Past: Sleep with Me by Joanna Briscoe (2005) Read More »
I’d expected Guy Ware’s The Peckham Experiment to be about the eponymous community health initiative set up in the ‘20s which is what originally piqued my interest. That, and the premise of a brother spending the night before his identical twin’s funeral remembering the part they played in each other’s lives. In the event it
The Peckham Experiment by Guy Ware: Building the New Jerusalem, or not Read More »