Book news, reviews and recommendations
You may remember Steven Galloway’s name from a few years back when The Cellist of Sarajevo was published. Beautifully written, it’s a poignant novel which offered readers a glimpse of the life under siege that we’d seen playing out surreally on our TV screens only a few years before. It became a massive bestseller, and […]
The Confabulist by Steven Galloway: A very clever bit of business Read More »
Mr Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore was one of the most enjoyable books I read last year. Clichéd as it may sound it made me laugh, it made me cry and kept me thoroughly entertained while doing so. I’d been told there might be a spin-off but had forgotten all about it until a neat little hardback
This is the third novel I’ve read by Richard Powers – The Echo Maker and Generosity were the first two. Both deal with complex issues in erudite, meticulously crafted prose: The Echo Maker looks at identity and neurology through the plight of Mark Schluter who suffers from Capgras syndrome – an inability to recognise the
Orfeo by Richard Powers: A journey through a very modern underworld Read More »
Three German soldiers – Bauer, Emmerich and an unnamed narrator – stride out into the frigid Polish winter, their minds on keeping warm and their empty stomachs. They’ve missed breakfast, determined to avoid the daily round of executions by volunteering to hunt down Jews and bring them back to the camp. Emmerich frets about his
With its puff from J. Courtney Sullivan, Ann Leary’s The Good House looked a promising choice for my cold-befuddled brain – absorbing but relatively unchallenging. Set in the kind of small New England seaside town where families have lived for so long that there are coves named after them, it’s narrated by Hildy Good, successful
The Good House by Ann Leary: Secrets and lies Read More »
Cynthia Ozick’s The Puttermesser Papers was one of those books that made me think I’d hit gold – an interesting author with a nice long backlist – so I was delighted to see that Atlantic were reissuing The Messiah of Stockholm, dubbed her masterpiece, particularly as it’s about literature. Lars is the Monday book reviewer
The Messiah of Stockholm by Cynthia Ozick: A shortish post about a short book Read More »
Hard to beat the satisfaction of reading a book you’ve been looking forward to for months and finding it to be even better than your sky high expectations. I’ve been eagerly anticipating Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore ever since I spotted it in Atlantic’s catalogue way back in January. Set in the near future, it playfully
Mr Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan: Satisfaction Guaranteed Read More »