Book news, reviews and recommendations
It took me some time to get around to reading a John Boyne novel probably because they tend to be chunksters rather than the pared-back novellas I favour. I took A Ladder to the Sky on holiday to Portugal then read and thoroughly enjoyed The Heart’s Invisible Furies. The Echo Chamber follows the Cleverleys, made …
The Echo Chamber by John Boyne; ‘Cancelling the Cleverleys’ Read More »
I seem to have been on a novella roll this year: Wherabouts, Blue Highway, Assembly and Stella to name but four outstanding ones. Jo Hamya’s Three Rooms looked like a possible addition to that list with its premise of a young woman who passes through the titular three rooms, barely scraping a living over the …
I’m sure readers will have gathered that Naomi Ishiguro is the daughter of Kazuo by now, although that’s not the reason I wanted to read Common Ground. She was once a bookseller at my lovely local indie, Mr B’s, which piqued my interest, that and a glowing quote from Rowan Hisayo Buchanan adorning its rather …
Common Ground by Naomi Ishiguro: ‘Solidarity and friendship’ Read More »
Georgina Harding is one of those writers whose work I’ve long thought underrated. Her elegant, understated prose is meticulously crafted, never more so than in Harvest, her third novel about the Ashe family which echoes both The Gun Room and Land of the Living in its exploration of the legacy of war. The brooding that …
Harvest by Georgina Harding: ‘But this was only a moment of sunlight’ Read More »
As regular readers may know, I’ve been a Sarah Moss fan for quite some time. I was delighted when Ghost Wall made a splash not so long ago, thoroughly deserving of all the praise heaped upon it, and Summerwater looks set to do the same. Set over a single drenching day, Moss’ new novella takes …
Jo Baker seems to be one of those writers who can master any genre. Her last novel, A Country Road, a Tree, was a fictionalised account of Samuel Beckett’s involvement with the French Resistance. Not a theme that appealed to me but I remember very much enjoying her ghost story, The Telling. In The Body …
The Body Lies by Jo Baker: ‘Giving up is not consent’ Read More »
This is the second jacket I’ve fallen in love with this year, another which fits its book perfectly. The other was the gloriously pink cover for Aylet Gundar-Goshen’s Liar. Always a joy when publishers use an image which is both strikingly original and appropriate. Vesna Main’s Good Day? recounts a daily conversation between a Writer …
Good Day? by Vesna Main: When life mirrors fiction, or not Read More »
After three tries by Linda Grant’s patient and determined publicist, A Stranger City finally arrived through my letter box. I’ve no idea what happened to the other two copies but I hope someone’s enjoying them somewhere and telling all their friends about it. Grant’s novel paints a picture of a post-referendum London through the stories …
A Stranger City by Linda Grant: A river runs through it Read More »
This is the first Tessa Hadley novel I’ve read in some time. It’s not that I don’t enjoy her writing but she sets her books in a world that can feel a little too small for me. It was clear from its premise that the same would be true of Late in the Day but …
Late in the Day by Tessa Hadley: Painting on a small canvas 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. I remember being deeply impressed with Nadeem Aslam’s writing when I first read Maps for Lost Lovers, not …
Blasts from the Past: Maps for Lost Lovers by Nadeem Aslam (2004) Read More »
This is one of those novels that’s been gathering a head of steam in my neck of the Twitter woods. Not in an off-putting, shouty, endless-stream-of-gushy-tweets way – just enough to pique my interest. It’s a debut from a young Irish author about two best friends – once lovers – who fall into a friendship …
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney: Mulling things over Read More »