Book news, reviews and recommendations
I was looking for something reasonably untaxing when Erin Somers’s novel popped up on NetGalley. Set in gentrified smalltown America, The Ten Year Affair follows Cora, Sam and their families through a decade after they meet and instantly click at a baby group. She thought Eliot and Sam would get along. She could picture their […]
The Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers: Will they won’t they? Read More »
As he mentions in his acknowledgements, Damian Barr’s The Two Roberts grew out of a fascination with Robert MacBryde and Robert Colquhoun after he spotted a social media post during lockdown. The two Roberts, as they came to be known, were working class Scottish artists who met on their first day at the Glasgow School
The Two Roberts by Damian Barr: ‘The Golden Boys of Bond Street’ 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. I might well not have read Michel Faber’s The Crimson Petal and the White which weighs in at
Blasts from the Past: The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber (2002) Read More »
This is the fourth novel by Robert Seethaler I’ve reviewed on here. The first was A Whole Life which sees a man lead a simple yet rich life, leaving his alpine valley just once. After that I snapped up both The Tobacconist and The Field as soon as they appeared. All offer a slice of
I’d not come across Malachy Tallack before his second novel, That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz, popped up on NetGalley. Tallack’s a singer-songwriter as well as an established writer of books about his beloved Shetland. The blurb promised a story about a man who has spent almost his entire life in one place who finds unexpected friendship
That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz by Malachy Tallack: Never too late to change Read More »
I was surprised and delighted when a proof of Mary Costello’s new short story collection popped through my letter box. I’d had no inkling that there was a new one on the horizon from her. Academy Street, her 2014 novella, is one of my favourite books, epitomising the spare, quietly understated style I so admire.
Barcelona by Mary Costello: A curate’s egg Read More »
Having enjoyed last January’s The Second Cut, Louise Welsh’s sequel to The Cutting Room, I couldn’t resist To the Dogs, particularly after visiting Glasgow in June. Welsh’s new novel follows ambitious vice chancellor Jim Brennan, called away from Beijing when his son is arrested on a drugs charge. He had forgotten how afraid he had
To the Dogs by Louise Welsh: ‘Corruption doesn’t happen in a vacuum’ Read More »
I tend to bracket Ron Rash’s Appalachian novels alongside Kent Haruf’s Holt series – both explore big themes on a small canvas; both are carefully expressed – which is why I put up my hand for The Caretaker as soon as I spotted it. Set in 1951, during the Korean War, it has at its
The Caretaker by Ron Rash: The unravelling of deceit 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 into as many hands as I could. Stephen Sherrill’s debut was much talked about just after I started work as a reviews editor. I wasn’t
Blasts from the Past: The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break by Stephen Sherrill (2000) Read More »
I’ve long felt uneasy about the relationship between celebrities and the public, not least the way the media refers to them by their first name as if we know them intimately. It’s particularly painful when the celebrity in question was a child star. Rin Usami’s Idol, Burning examines that relationship through a young girl who
I was stunned to find two decades had passed since I’d read Personal Velocity, Rebecca Miller’s first collection. Time does funny things as you get older. Perhaps better known as a filmmaker, Miller adapted both her short stories and her equally enjoyable novel, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, for the screen. Comprising seven stories,
Total by Rebecca Miller: Written with a filmmaker’s eye Read More »