Book news, reviews and recommendations
Slim pickings for October’s paperback preview, sadly. I’m beginning with the only one I’ve yet to read – Tish Delaney’s Before My Actual Heart Breaks which is about Mary who grew up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Five children and a quarter of a century later, she’s finally glimpsed a chance of the happiness […]
Paperbacks to Look Out For in October 2021 Read More »
From Grey Souls, a novel about three murders set in First War France, to Parfums, his scent memoir, each book I’ve read by Philippe Claudel has been different from the others. What they have in common is a strong sense of humanity and all are beautifully expressed. Set on a tiny volcanic island in a
Lots of interesting novels to look out for in publishers’ last big push for a place on your Christmas present list, although occasionally December’s schedules offer further delights which may well be the case in this strange year. I’ll begin with one I couldn’t resist reading almost as soon as it arrived back in the
Books to Look Out for in November 2020: Part One Read More »
If you haven’t yet come across Philippe Claudel’s books you may know his work from I Loved You So Long starring Kristin Scott Thomas. Ranging from Parfums, a sensuous fragrance memoir, to Monsieur Linh and His Child, one of the saddest pieces of fiction I’ve read, his writing is as elegantly understated as his movies,
The Tree of the Toraja by Philippe Claudel (transl. Euan Cameron): Death, grief and hope Read More »
Yes , I know – it’s not even Christmas week yet but if you’re a little weary of the same old titles popping up on Books of the Year lists – mine included – you might like a peek at what’s to come in 2016 which gets off to a very exciting start with a
Books to Look Out For in January 2016: Part 1 Read More »
This is the first novel I’ve read by the famously reclusive Nobel Prize-winning Patrick Modiano. He’s been on my list since I read Victoria’s excellent piece on him at Tales from the Reading Room. He also made a little cameo appearance in The Red Notebook which I read a little while ago and when So
The last of my ‘books of the year’ posts begins with one of my two September favourites, Steven Galloway’s The Confabulist which tells the story of the man who killed Houdini not once, but twice. Far from a straightforward reimagining of the Houdini story Galloway’s novel is a very clever bit of business which didn’t
Books of the Year 2014: Part 3 Read More »
I’ll read anything by Philippe Claudel. His prose has a lovely, elegant expressiveness to it, trimmed of the flourishes and curlicues that some writers indulge in. All four of his novels are very different, from the dystopian The Investigation to Monsieur Linh and his Child, one of the most heart-wrenching novels I’ve ever read. He’s