Book news, reviews and recommendations
I’d taken on too many titles for review when Andrew Porter’s The Imagined Life popped up on NetGalley but I couldn’t resist both its premise and that cover so jumped in. Porter’s novel sees a middle-aged man who’s been carrying the burden of his father’s disappearance since he was twelve years old, determined to get […]
The Imagined Life by Andrew Porter: ‘In the imagined life, so much is different’ Read More »
Slim pickings for October’s new fiction with a couple outside my usual literary territory including Harriet Lane’s Other People’s Fun which sees Ruth facing an empty nest and the end of her marriage while enduring a humdrum job. Her tedium is brightened by the reappearance of Sookie, confident, vivacious and keen to be Ruth’s pal
Books to Look Out For in October 2025 Read More »
I’ve enjoyed several novels over the past few years about the ownership of stories – Andrew Lipstein’s Last Resort springs to mind as does Hanff Korelitz’s The Plot – which is why I put up my hand for Dominic Amerena’s debut, I Want Everything. When our unnamed narrator is discharged from one of his many
I Want Everything by Dominic Amerena: Who owns the story? Read More »
It’s nine years since I reviewed Nicola Barker’s The Cauliflower® describing it as a Marmite novel – love it or hate it for those not acquainted with the expression. Her new one, TonyInterruptor, is more conventional although not a novel that lends itself to an easy synopsis, tossing around ideas between its small cast of
TonyInterruptor by Nicola Barker: ‘Is this honest? Are we all being honest here?’ Read More »
Old women aren’t a common subject for contemporary fiction, not one that captures agents’ or publishers’ commercial attention, I suspect. Even that description is uncomfortable for many, but old lady somehow feels more so to me, genteel and patronising. Below are five novels whose authors have created strikingly memorable old woman, three with links to
Five Novels About Old Women I’ve Read Read More »
I was in two minds about reading Ruth, Kate Riley’s debut, but that clever cover and a pithy one-line puff from Jenny Offill swung it for me. It’s told from the point of view of the eponymous character, born into an Anabaptist community in 1963, following her through childhood, marriage and motherhood into middle age.
Ruth by Kate Riley: A world apart Read More »
This month’s snapshot includes a much-acclaimed Booker Prize winner, a short story collection by the mother of one of my favourite novelists and an account of a year spent sampling Britain’s subcultures The novel I’m reading is Samantha Harvey’s Orbital which follows six astronauts aboard a space station as they encircle the earth multiple times
A Snapshot of My Reading #7 Read More »
September’s a lean month for paperbacks but there are a few that stand out, beginning with one of my books of last year which won the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and is now longlisted for this year’s Booker Prize. Andrew Miller’s The Land in Winter is set over a few months in 1962/3
Paperbacks to Look Out For in September 2025 Read More »
Andrev Walden’s Bloody Awful in Different Ways was a huge bestseller in Sweden, winning the country’s prestigious August Prize in 2023. It’s pitched at readers who loved Frederik Bachman’s A Man Called Ove which didn’t appeal to me but I liked the sound of this slice of autofiction which begins with young Andrev, aged seven
I was taken by the blurb for Nell Stevens’s The Original but its 400-page length kept me dithering. It was the puffs from Olivia Laing and Claire Fuller that finally decided me. Largely set in the last year of the nineteenth century, it follows Grace, an unhappy, unwelcome addition to Inderwick Hall, and the dilemma
The Original by Nell Stevens: The value of a copy Read More »
The second batch of September fiction begins with a novel heading straight to my books of the year list. I snapped up Pick a Colour having greatly enjoyed Souvankham Thammavongsa’s Giller-Prize-winning short story collection, How to Pronounce Knife. Her new one is set over one day in a nail salon run by Ning who, in
Books to Look Out For in September 2025: Part Two Read More »