Book news, reviews and recommendations
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 »
I was in two minds about reading Tom Lamont’s debut, Going Home. The synopsis made me think it might wander off into mawkishly sentimental territory but Lamont appeared on the Observer’s ’10 Best New Novelists of 2024’ list alongside Leo Vardiashvili whose Hard By a Great Forest I’d very much enjoyed so I decided to
Going Home by Tom Lamont: We are family Read More »
The Start of Something is Holly Williams’ second novel although some might call it a very closely linked set of short stories or, perhaps, episodes. Somehow, I missed her debut but will be adding it to be my TBR list. This new book follows ten characters over the course of a summer, stringing their stories
The Start of Something by Holly Williams: One thing leads to another Read More »
Scarlett Thomas is an idiosyncratic writer several of whose novels I’ve enjoyed, not least the slightly bonkers The Seed Collectors. I was a little disappointed in her last novel but was keen to read The Sleepwalkers when I spotted it on NetGalley. It follows a newly married couple who’ve been booked into a hotel on
The Sleepwalkers by Scarlett Thomas: Cliffhanging to the end Read More »
I so enjoyed both Naomi Wood’s Bauhaus themed thriller The Hiding Game and Mrs Hemingway, a wry take on what it might have been like to be married to Ernest, that I jumped at the chance to read her short story collection. This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things comprises nine lengthy stories, all
This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things by Naomi Wood: A debut short story collection Read More »
I knew I wouldn’t be in for a straightforward piece of linear narrative when I was pitched Helen Oyeyemi’s Parasol Against the Axe but I hadn’t realised that her adopted home city is Prague, the narrator of her new novel which sees a hen party descend on the city. Hardly an unusual event except that
The Lodgers is acclaimed poet Holly Pester’s first novel. I’m partial to novels by poets and the premise of this one sounded interesting: a woman returns to her hometown, subletting an apartment overlooking her mother’s house, imagining the life of the lodger who’s taken over her room in the last house she lived. Sounds simple
The Lodgers by Holly Pester: Living on the margins Read More »
A little under a year ago I read Huma Qureshi’s short story collection Things We Do Not Tell the People We Love, enjoying it so much I jumped at the chance to review her first novel. Many of Qureshi’s stories explore family and relationship dynamics, a perennially interesting theme for me, as does Playing Games
Playing Games by Huma Qureshi: ‘I thought I must have lost you’ Read More »
That eye-catching jacket, redolent of movie star glamour, might suggest a setting more alluring than Weston-super-Mare for Elizabeth Delo’s debut, Becoming Liz Taylor. No disrespect to any readers from the seaside resort but I have childhood memories of mud rather than the glorious sandy beaches of my hopeful imagination. Delo’s novel begins in Weston where
Becoming Liz Taylor by Elizabeth Delo: ‘It was probably safe to dress up now’ Read More »
I finally got around to reading Caleb Azumah Nelson’s Costa First Novel Prize-winning Open Water just before putting my hand up for a copy of Small Worlds. Like many bloggers I follow, I was very taken with it. Hard to imagine that Small Worlds would be better but, for me, it was. Beginning in 2010,
Small Worlds by Caleb Azumah Nelson: A place of safety and love Read More »
At first glance the blurb for Chetna Maroo’s Western Lane didn’t appeal with its mention of squash courts but it’s published by one of my favourite imprints so when it popped through my letterbox, I decided to give it a try. Maroo’s quietly perceptive debut follows a family, paralysed by grief and an inability to
Western Lane by Chetna Maroo: A grief observed Read More »