Book news, reviews and recommendations
I reviewed Stephanie Bishop’s The Other Side of the World back in 2015 describing it as an unexpected treat. The novel’s cover had suggested a light diversion but it turned out to be much more than that which is what made me want to review The Anniversary despite its chunkster proportions. Bishop’s new novel sees […]
The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop: ‘There is never only one version’ Read More »
Part of my attraction to Fracture was its jacket which seemed to fit the title so beautifully. Andrés Neuman’s novel is largely set in Japan and, thanks to BBC4’s excellent series of documentaries about Japanese culture, I knew about the practice of kintsugi: repairing broken porcelain emphasising the cracks rather than disguising them as we
This is the second novel I’ve read recently in which two women become close to each other, one knowing very much more about the other. In Tayari Jones’ Silver Sparrow, a half-sister is entirely ignorant of her new friend’s relationship to her. Ilaria Bernardini’s The Portrait sees a celebrated writer whose lover of several decades
The Portrait by Ilaria Bernardini: Every picture tells a story Read More »
I’d not heard of Elleke Boehmer before To the Volcano turned up, despite the five novels she has under her belt. She’s also the author of an acclaimed biography of Nelson Mandela not to mention editor of the bestselling 2004 edition of Baden-Powell’s Scouting for Boys. I knew about the latter from Waterstone’s Books Quarterly
To the Volcano by Elleke Boehmer: Stories of longing and loneliness Read More »
I remember being very impressed by Tash Aw’s debut, The Harmony Silk Factory, which was surrounded by a great deal of hype when it was published back in 2005 but for some reason I’d not got around to reading anything else by him until We,The Survivors turned up. Set in rural Malaysia, it tells the
We, The Survivors by Tash Aw: Confession of a decent man Read More »
Last month I posted a review of Addison Jones’ Wait for Me, Jack, a novel about a long marriage which survived a multitude of difficulties, the premise of which I found fascinating. As you can tell from the title, Katie Kitamura’s A Separation is the other side of that coin, a marriage that doesn’t endure.
A Separation by Katie Kitamura: Ties that can’t be unbound Read More »
This novel is unlikely to appeal to everyone although we should all read it. It’s about assisted suicide, one of the great moral dilemmas of the twenty-first century Western world where medicine has advanced in leaps and bounds but not the ethical framework for dealing with its unintended consequences. Steven Amsterdam’s sharp, funny novel explores
The Easy Way Out by Steven Amsterdam: There isn’t one Read More »