Book news, reviews and recommendations
March’s snapshot includes a Swedish short story collection from a writer whose novels I’ve enjoyed, a piece of non-fiction in which the author is absent, and a novel largely set in 1990s New York. The short story collection I’m reading is Sara Stridberg’s beautifully expressed Hunter in Huskvarna. Her writing is often lyrical, vividly summoning […]
A Snapshot of My Reading #13 Read More »
August can be a dull month for new fiction given that the holiday season is in full swing but this first instalment starts off with a novel that’s far from boring although it may not suit everyone. Nicola Barker’s TonyInterruptor explores the fallout from a question shouted from the audience at a jazz gig which
Books to Look Out For in August 2025: Part One Read More »
The second part of January’s preview starts with a crime novel, an uncharacteristic choice for me. I enjoyed Louise Welsh’s The Second Cut so much last year that I put up my hand for To the Dogs which also has a foot in Glasgow’s murky underworld. Professor Jim Brennan is called away from a graduation
Books to Look Out For in January 2024: Part Two Read More »
Unusually for me, I’ve read just two of the second batch of January paperbacks. I put up my hand for Neel Patel’s Tell Me How to Be in response to the heartfelt, very personal enthusiasm of its editor. There’s such a difference between that and the hype that so often puts me off. Patel’s debut
Paperbacks to Look Out For in January 2023: Part Two Read More »
Given how much of my viewing time has been spent there thanks to Walter Presents, you’d think I’d have read more Scandinavian fiction but perhaps it’s because so much of the translated variety is crime related. Below are five striking Swedish novels I’ve read, all with links to my reviews, beginning with an award-winning piece
Five Swedish Novels I’ve Read Read More »
Back from Genoa – of which more on Wednesday – with the second batch of May paperbacks starting with the only one I’ve read. Lena Andersson’s Acts of Infidelity features the same sharply observed protagonist as her witty novella, Wilful Disregard, which I reviewed here a couple of years ago. Once again Ester is in
Paperbacks to Look Out for in May 2019: Part Two Read More »
A new Zadie Smith novel is always the cause of a great deal of pre-publication anticipation. Twitter has been all agog for some time ensuring that Swing Time will turn up in quite a few Christmas stockings. Moving between Smith’s home territory of north-west London to West Africa and New York, it spans the years
Books to Look Out for In November 2016 Read More »