Book news, reviews and recommendations
Given how much I enjoyed both her short story collection, How to Gut a Fish, and her debut novel, Falling Animals, you’d think I’d jump at the change to read Sheila Armstrong’s The Red Mouth, but the blurb’s hints of otherworldliness, curses and strange magnetism put me off. Fortunately, the supernatural strand proved to be […]
The Red Mouth by Sheila Armstrong: Uncovering the past Read More »
I was delighted to spot a new Ann Patchett in the publishing schedules, even more so when a proof dropped through my letterbox. Whistler begins with Daphne and her husband sharing a day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art when he spots an elderly man who seems to be following her. I hadn’t known there
Whistler by Ann Pattchett: Doing what she does best Read More »
I dithered over Debra Curtis’s Laws of Love and Logic which sounded from the blurb as if it might be a straightforward tragic love story. There was also a worrying degree of brouhaha around it but I decided to take the plunge. Spanning three decades, beginning in the 1976, Curtis’s debut follows Lily, the elder
Laws of Love and Logic by Debra Curtis: ‘Guilt is both long and cruel’ Read More »
It was Ann Patchett’s glowing puff that swung it for me with acclaimed short story writer Patrick Ryan’s, Buckeye. I liked the sound of its premise but thought I might find the spiritualism mentioned in the blurb a bit too much to swallow. Ryan’s first novel follows two families, linked by a devastating secret, over
Buckeye by Patrick Ryan: If you like Ann Patchett… Read More »
Five years ago, I reviewed Niall Williams’s This is Happiness which I very much enjoyed despite his somewhat florid writing style, very different from my preferred pared-back prose. A pleasing coming-of-age story, Williams’s novel was set in the rain-soaked coastal community of Faha, on the cusp of entering the modern world as the village welcomes
Time of the Child by Niall Williams: A Christmas tale 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 in as many hands as I could. The son of a forensic psychiatrist, Patrick McGrath grew up near Broadmoor, the high security mental hospital for
Blasts from the Past: Port Mungo by Patrick McGrath (2004) 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 »
When I spotted Rare Singles on NetGalley I’d read just one novel by Benjamin Myers – The Offing – although I have The Perfect Golden Circle on my TBR shelves and Cuddy on my ‘to buy’ list. Spanning three days, it’s about an American singer in his seventies with the slimmest of back catalogues who’s
Rare Singles by Benjamin Myers: ‘Grief is the price of love’ Read More »
Three things attracted me to Alan Murrin’s The Coast Road: it’s a debut, he’s Irish and that cover suggested something small town. Set the year before Ireland’s 1995 referendum on divorce, Murrin’s novel explores the state of three marriages – two under strain and one broken – through the women whose independence is thwarted by
The Coast Road by Alan Murrin: Opening the door to change Read More »
It was its Georgian setting that attracted me to Leo Vardiashvili’s debut, Hard by a Great Forest. It’s a part of the world I know little about although what I’ve read suggests that it’s beautiful enough to make me want to visit were it more peaceful. Vardiashvili’s novel takes its narrator back to the country
Hard By a Great Forest by Leo Vardiashvili: ‘They say you can never go home again.’ Read More »
A copyediting friend alerted me to Canadian poet Anne Michaels’ Held, her first novel since The Winter Vault was published back in 2010, urging me to read it. Michaels is the author of Fugitive Pieces which made a deep impression on me when I read it many years ago. Held is her third novel, making
Held by Anne Michaels: ‘Who can say what happens when we are remembered?’ Read More »