A Life in Books

Wild Swims by Dorthe Nors (transl. Misha Hoekstra): Smart, astute and funny

24 April 2020 / 6 Comments

I first came across Dorthe Nors when I read her novella, Mirror, Shoulder, Signal, shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2017. Her crisp, plain style coupled with an undercurrent of humour hit the spot for me. Wild Swims, exemplifies her rather idiosyncratic style, its apparently simple stories offering their readers much to think […]

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Cover image for The Butchers by Ruthe Gilligan

The Butchers by Ruth Gilligan: The old ways meet the new

22 April 2020 / 14 Comments

It took me some time to get around to reading Ruth Gilligan’s The Butchers. I’m a little squeamish and its blurb plus that title was a little off-putting. Then I saw Kim from Reading Matters praising it on Twitter and decided to give it a try and I’m very glad I did. Gilligan’s novel begins

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Cover image for The Electric Hotel by Dominc Smith

Paperbacks to Look Out For in May 2020

20 April 2020 / 16 Comments

Just as May’s new title schedules suffered a wave of cuts and postponements so, too, have its paperback publications. I’ve read only one of those that have survived the chop, some of which look more enticing than others. I’ll begin with Dominic Smith’s The Electric Hotel which takes its readers to Paris, New Jersey and

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A Theatre for Dreamers by Polly Samson: Trouble in paradise

17 April 2020 / 14 Comments

I’d enjoyed all three books by Polly Samson I’d read before A Theatre for Dreamers arrived, including her cleverly linked collection of short stories, Perfect Lives. I reviewed her last novel, The Kindness, here back in 2015 which feels like an age ago now. She writes the kind of absorbing, character-driven fiction that can offer

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I Am Not Sidney Poitier by Percival Everett: ‘An overlooked genius’

15 April 2020 / 16 Comments

I’ve borrowed that subtitle from Courttia Newland’s introduction to Percival Everett’s novel, first published in the US in 2009. Newland stumbled upon Everett’s Graceland in a second-hand bookshop in London and went back for a copy of Erasure, the book that introduced me to this inventive, smart, very funny novelist. He’s prolific, too, but few

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Books to Look Out For in May 2020

13 April 2020 / 32 Comments

Spare a thought for poor publishers who’ve been wrestling with the nightmare of rejigging their schedules to give their books the best possible exposure now that bookshops are shut thanks to the corona virus. Poor authors, too, left in limbo with all that nervous excitement at the prospect of the longed-for publication day now delayed.

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The Waiter by Matias Faldbakken (transl. Alice Menzies): Fraying at the edges

10 April 2020 / 20 Comments

I’ve spotted Matias Faldbakken’s The Waiter popping up several times in the paperback publishing schedules only for it to disappear. I’ve no idea why but I hope it’s because it was selling so well in its neatly proportioned hardback edition that its publishers though better of it. Its publication in the midst of the covid-19

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Cover image for How Much of These Hills is Gold by C Pam Zhang

How Much of These Hills is Gold by C Pam Zhang: ‘What Makes a Home a Home?’

8 April 2020 / 22 Comments

C Pam Zhang’s How Much of These Hills is Gold is one of those books about which there’s been a great deal of buzz in my Twitter timeline – not always a good thing, I know. It was the many and varied literary names singing its praises that first snagged my attention – everyone from

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Ten More Small But Perfectly Formed Publishers Who Will Send Books to Your Home

6 April 2020 / 26 Comments

Last week’s small publisher post attracted so many hits I thought I’d do another in the hope that some of that interest might have led to a few sales. This time I’ve included a few whose lists I like the look of but have not yet got around to exploring despite having my interest snagged

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Cover image for Stasiland by Anna Funder

Six Degrees of Separation – From Stasiland to The A B C Murders

4 April 2020 / 29 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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The Portrait by Ilaria Bernardini: Every picture tells a story

3 April 2020 / 10 Comments

This is the second novel I’ve read recently in which two women become close to each other, one knowing very much more about the other. In Tayari Jones’ Silver Sparrow, a half-sister is entirely ignorant of her new friend’s relationship to her. Ilaria Bernardini’s The Portrait sees a celebrated writer whose lover of several decades

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