A Life in Books

Cover image for Body Kintsugi by Senka Maric

Body Kintsugi by Senka Marić (transl. Celia Hawkesworth): ‘You are life itself’

21 October 2022 / 8 Comments

I’ve come to expect challenging books from Peirene Press although the last one I read, Marzhan, Mon Amour, turned out to be full of gentle humour and affection for the titular former East Berlin suburb. Senka Marić’s Body Kintsugi is a tough though ultimately optimistic read covering two years in which our unnamed protagonist undergoes

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Cover image for Liberation Day by George Saunders

Liberation Day by George Saunders: A smartly delivered collection

19 October 2022 / 16 Comments

I couldn’t get on with George Saunders’ 2017 Man Booker Prize-winning Lincoln in the Bardo but made a mental note to try his short stories which were much lauded in the novel’s publicity material. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t get around to it until Liberation Day popped through my letterbox. Comprising nine stories, Saunders’ new collection ranges

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Cover image for Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Paperbacks to Look Out For in November 2022

17 October 2022 / 24 Comments

No contest as to which book to begin November’s paperback preview. Shortlisted for this year’s Booker, Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These was one of my books of last year. Set in 1985, it follows Bill Furlong who finds himself faced with a moral dilemma. Bill’s illegitimacy marks him out in New Ross but he’s

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Ravished by Anna Vaught: A nice slice of Gothic spiced with black humour

14 October 2022 / 11 Comments

I’m not much of a horror fan but I do enjoy the occasional slice of gothic, preferably something with a slightly surreal edge to it, and a sample short story on Reflex Press’ website suggested Welsh author Anna Vaught’s Ravished fit that bill. Comprising nineteen stories, some so short you might call them flash fiction,

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Cover image of I Am Not Raymond Wallace by Samy Kenyon

I Am Not Raymond Wallace by Sam Kenyon: Things do get better

12 October 2022 / 6 Comments

I’d already spotted Sam Kenyon’s I Am Not Raymond Wallace in the schedules when it was pitched to me for review, struck by its blurb. Opening in 1963, it follows a Cambridge undergraduate, fresh out of college, who’s won a three-month bursary at The New York Times and meets the love of his life. Some

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Cover image for Flight by Lynn Steger Strong

Books to Look Out For in November 2022: Part Two

10 October 2022 / 18 Comments

I’m kicking off this second instalment of November titles with a novel which suits the season well. Set in snowy upstate New York, Lynn Steger Strong’s Flight follows three siblings and their families facing their first Christmas without their beloved mother. Tess and Martin are late setting off from their smart, new city apartment. Kate and

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Total by Rebecca Miller: Written with a filmmaker’s eye

7 October 2022 / 14 Comments

I was stunned to find two decades had passed since I’d read Personal Velocity, Rebecca Miller’s first collection. Time does funny things as you get older. Perhaps better known as a filmmaker, Miller adapted both her short stories and her equally enjoyable novel, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, for the screen. Comprising seven stories,

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Cover image for Best of Friends By Kamila Shamsie

Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie: The personal and the political

5 October 2022 / 25 Comments

It feels like a very long time since Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire dropped through my letter box and indeed it is five years but given all that’s happened in the world, it seems much longer. I’ve read all her novels and, despite enjoying each of them, Burnt Shadows remained my favourite but with its exploration

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Cover image for Bourneville by Jonathan Coe

Books to Look Out For in November 2022: Part One

3 October 2022 / 26 Comments

Enough juicy novels due in November to more than make up for a thin October beginning with Jonathan Coe’s new one which sees him back on home ground giving me hope for a return to form after the major disappointment of the Costa-winning Middle England, at least for me. Bournville follows a family living in

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Six Degrees of Separation – Notes on a Scandal to The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

1 October 2022 / 24 Comments

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,

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Blasts from the Past: The Orchard on Fire by Shena Mackay (1995)

30 September 2022 / 17 Comments

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. The Orchard on Fire was the first novel I read by Shena Mackay and I loved it. Childhood

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