Book news, reviews and recommendations
I’d read and enjoyed Paula Cocozza’s debut, How to Be Human, back in 2017 but it was the enthusiasm of Rebecca at Bookish Beck that persuaded me to read her second novel. It also has an appealing premise, a riff on the social media theme which has emerged in fiction over the past few years. […]
Speak to Me by Paula Cocozza: ‘There are three of us in this marriage’ Read More »
It was its structure that attracted me to Ore Agbaje-Williams’ debut. Set over one day, The Three of Us is told from three points of view: a wife, a husband and the best friend who has known the wife since school. Lots of room there for unreliable narrators and tense relationship dynamics. She was the
I’m more of a novella than a chunkster reader but now and again one comes along that sounds irresistible. Despite the inevitable comparisons with Succession, which I didn’t get on with at all, Sarah May’s twenty-first century take on William Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, looked as though it would fit that bill with its story of
Becky by Sarah May: ’When it comes to the past, I enjoy being flexible with the truth’ Read More »
I still haven’t got around to reading Jessica Andrews’ debut, Saltwater, leapfrogging over the copy on my TBR to read her new novel. Milk Teeth follows an unnamed young woman, restless and unable to define quite what she wants from life, who falls in love with a man who seems to want her as much
Milk Teeth by Jessica Andrews: ‘I want everything’ Read More »
I read the Stinging Fly Press edition of Wendy Erskine’s Sweet Home a while ago mainly because I’ve yet to read anything published by them that hasn’t impressed. I enjoyed its quiet stories of everyday people very much which is what made me put up my hand for Dance Move and it didn’t disappoint. I’ve
Dance Move by Wendy Erskine: Quiet brilliance Read More »
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
Three Rooms by Jo Hamya: Just passing through Read More »
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
Summerwater by Sarah Moss: The longest day Read More »
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 »