Book news, reviews and recommendations
Published in the States under Sarah Jessica Parker’s imprint, Alina Grabowski’s Women and Children First came billed as perfect for Elizabeth Strout fans but it was its structure and small-town setting that made me read it. Grabowski traces the lives of ten woman and girls before and after the death of a high school student […]
Women and Children First by Alina Grabowski: A small town tragedy Read More »
Perhaps because I’ve only lived in one country, I’m perennially attracted to the immigrant experience in fiction which is why Elaine Castillo’s debut caught my eye. Set in the Californian city of Milpitas in the early ‘90s, it’s about a Filipino community and I’m ashamed to say that before I read it I knew next
America is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo: Home is not necessarily where the heart is Read More »
All That’s Left to Tell caught my eye on Twitter – just a few tweets, nothing shouty but it sounded intriguing. Two people tell each other stories: one is a hostage, the other a female interrogator who visits him at night after he’s been blindfolded by his guards. These are the bare bones of Daniel
All That’s Left to Tell by Daniel Lowe: Stories within stories Read More »
Sometimes you come across a debut so striking that it leaves you wondering how the author’s second novel can possibly match it. It’s already happened to me once this year with Jennifer Down’s compassionate, clear-eyed and lovely Our Magic Hour. Emily Ruskovich’s Idaho is very different but equally impressive, both in its writing and its
Idaho by Emily Ruskovich: Imagining the unimaginable Read More »
I have a weakness for debuts. There’s always the hope that I’m about to be introduced to an author who will make their mark or take me somewhere I haven’t been before. It’s not unusual, either, for a writer’s first novel to be their best. Perhaps it’s all that time spent perfecting the writing, none
Love Me Back by Merritt Tierce: A startlingly accomplished debut Read More »