Book news, reviews and recommendations
Carys Davies’ name will be known to many readers, I’m sure. Her elegantly slim debut, West, was much acclaimed when it was published in 2018. The story of a man so obsessed by reports of ancient bones found in a Kentucky swamp that he leaves his young daughter to fend for herself, it’s very different […]
The Mission House by Carys Davies: ‘Both strange and familiar’ Read More »
Just a one-part new title preview for September despite it being jam-packed with pandemic-postponed books. I’m beginning with one originally slated for much earlier in the year, Megan Hunter’s The Harpy, which I’ve already read. This brief novella is about a couple in the aftermath of infidelity, narrated from the perspective of Lucy whose husband
Books to Look Out for in September 2020 Read More »
You might remember Eleanor Wasserberg’s debut, Foxlowe, which caught my attention on Twitter a few years back, although not enough for me to read it. Two things drew me to her second novel: first the art theme running through it, always a lure for me, and secondly its Krakow setting. The Light at the End
Kate Reed Petty’s debut was the subject of a great deal of pre-publication brouhaha in my neck of the Twitter woods, including four different covers for advance reviewer copies, all of which appear on the published edition. I landed the dark one featuring a cabin in the woods setting me up for something rather sinister.
True Story by Kate Reed Petty: Truth is in the eye of the beholder 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. I’m not sure if all editors make fine writers but William Maxwell’s prose exemplifies the elegant, clean, quietly
Blasts from the Past: So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell (1979) 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 – From How to Do Nothing to Everything Under Read More »
Two things drew me to Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s The Family Clause: I’d enjoyed his previous novel, Everything I Don’t Remember, back in 2016, and the blurb sounded tempting with its promise of chaotic and discordant family life. I’d been expecting a fairly straightforward linear narrative but that’s not Khemiri’s style. This everyday tale of a
The Family Clause by Jonas Hassen Khemiri (transl. Alison Menzies): What Larkin said Read More »
I remember Eley Williams’ collection of short stories, Attrib, being garlanded with praise from all sorts of people whose opinions I trust back in 2017 when it was published. I’ve no idea why I didn’t get around to reading it, being well over my short story aversion by then, particularly as its themes seem to
The Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams: ’The action of telling lies in an artful way’ Read More »
I’m beginning this second instalment of August paperbacks with one I’ve already read. Linda Grant’s A Stranger City looks at how we’re all both connected and unconnected, portraying a post-referendum London through a set of disparate characters brought together by their links with a woman whose body has been pulled from the Thames. Each character’s
Paperbacks to Look Out for in August 2020: Part Two Read More »
I’d heard good things about Fishnet, Kirstin Innes’ first novel, but hadn’t yet got around to reading it when Scabby Queen popped up in my Twitter timeline adorned with a puff from Janice Galloway whose The Trick Is to Keep Breathing and Jellyfish I loved. Innes’ second novel is the story of Clio Campbell, political
Scabby Queen by Kirstin Innes: Setting the world on fire Read More »
Another year, another Booker Prize longlist in the offing although this year has been far from normal both in the book world and beyond with titles bouncing around the publishing schedules like tennis balls thanks to the pandemic. I’d half expected a postponement of the longlist announcement but the Booker brigade seem to be sticking
My 2020 Booker Wish List Read More »