Book news, reviews and recommendations
I liked the premise of Hal Ebbott’s debut and the starry endorsements from the likes of Miranda Cowley and Cate Lombardo suggested that it might appeal at a time when I was after a bit of quality easy reading. Beginning with a weekend when two wealthy New York couples celebrate a birthday in the country, […]
Among Friends by Hal Ebbott: A curate’s egg Read More »
I’m sucker for author endorsements from favourite writers. Eric Puchner’s Dream State comes with lots of them including Danielle Evans and Andrew Sean Greer, but it was Alice McDermott’s that swung it for me. It’s a doorstopper which takes its readers from wedding preparations in the late twentieth century through to the mid-twenty-first before coming
Dream State by Eric Puchner: ‘Marriage, the only adventure open to the cowardly’ Read More »
Jessica Soffer’s This Is a Love Story is an exploration of a long marriage between an artist and a writer, played out against a New York City background. Knowing that she’s dying, Jane tells Abe she wants to remember their many decades together, the good times and the bad, many spent in their brownstone apartment
This is a Love Story by Jessica Soffer: ‘Don’t go’ Read More »
I was surprised to spot a novella-length book by Anne Tyler on NetGalley. It seemed like a new departure for her or perhaps I’ve missed a previous piece of her short fiction. Three Days in June follows Gail whose daughter is about to be married, beginning with the wedding rehearsal day. Boundaries; that was his
Three Days in June by Anne Tyler: ‘Another chance to get it right’ Read More »
I remember Clare Sestanovich’s short story collection, Objects of Desire, being much praised when it was published which is what made me want to read her first novel, Ask Me Again. It begins with sixteen-year-old Eva meeting James in a Brooklyn hospital waiting room where her parents are anxiously sitting at her comatose grandmother’s bedside,
Ask Me Again by Clare Sestanovich: More questions than answers Read More »
The premise of Elizabeth Harris’s How to Sleep at Night was catnip for me. Happily married and bringing up their daughter, Ethan and Gabe find themselves at opposite ends of the political spectrum. When Ethan announces he wants to run for Congress on a Republican ticket, he tells Gabe that he will only do it
How to Sleep at Night by Elizabeth Harris: A step too far? Read More »
I’ve not read Rumaan Alam’s Leave the World Behind or watched the Netflix movie but I do remember it being much admired predisposing me to read Entitlement when it popped through my letter box. Alam’s new novel follows a young black woman as she navigates the world of the super-rich in her new job working
Entitlement by Rumaan Alam: ‘Money, money, money’ Read More »
As regular readers will know, I’m a keen Elizabeth Strout fan. I’ve been reading her fiction since Amy and Isabelle was first published in the UK, over twenty years ago now, and have enjoyed every one of her novels. Occasionally, there’s a tinge of disappointment but a slightly disappointing Strout is very much better than
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout: When Olive met Lucy Read More »
It’s become something of a tradition for Barack Obama to issue his summer reading list. It seems to have been extended to an end of year favourites now, too. I bet publishers’ hearts sing with joy if one of their titles appears on either, the next best thing to an Oprah recommendation. I won’t lie,
I jumped at the chance to read Sarah Manguso’s new novel when it was pitched to me. Very Cold People was one of my books of 2022. Written in spare, crisp prose, it’s a bleak novella about an abusive childhood, extraordinarily powerful. Liars is the equally bleak story of a dysfunctional marriage told from the
Liars by Sarah Manguso: ‘I was in charge of everything and in control of nothing.’ Read More »
August Thompson has chosen an unusual structure for his debut which is what made me want to read it. Anyone’s Ghost is a love story which hinges on three car crashes involving two men, boys at the beginning of the novel, the last of which is fatal for one of them. I wanted Jake as
Anyone’s Ghost by August Thompson: A love story in three parts Read More »