Book news, reviews and recommendations
The first instalment of April’s preview begins with two I’ve already read. Divided into three parts, Ben Lerner’s Transcription follows an unnamed narrator who knocks his phone into a filled washbasin while preparing to interview his mentor, the father of Max, his best friend. Setting off fretfully to Thomas’s house, he finds him disconcertingly altered. […]
Books to Look Out For in April 2026: Part One Read More »
April signals spring for most of us in the UK although I tend to get excited about it in early March. This year there’s more hope than usual vested in the longed-for change of weather and the possibility of socialising outside. Plenty of books to keep us occupied if that hope proves unfulfilled, four of
Books to Look Out For in April 2021: Part One Read More »
There’s an abundance of paperback treats coming up this September, so many that I’ve split them into two posts. Top of my list is Jake Arnott’s rollicking tale of thieves and whores, The Fatal Tree, set in 1726. Told to us by Billy, a confessional writer with his own story, it’s about Edgeworth Bess, banged
Paperbacks to Look Out for in September 2017: Part One Read More »
I seem to have reviewed several books about marriage in the first few months of this year – from the comparatively happy Wait for Me, Jack, to the decidedly bleak First Love, to the seemingly inextricable entanglement of A Separation – each one very different from the other, as are relationships of course. Domenico Starnone’s
Ties by Domenico Starnone (transl. Jhumpa Lahiri): Three sides of a marriage Read More »
I tend not to get caught up in literary prize fever these days but there is one for which I make an exception – The Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction whose longlist is due to be announced next Wednesday. Only novels written by women in English published between April 1st 2016 and March 31st 2017
My wish list for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction 2017 Read More »
Gwendoline Riley is one of those authors whose work I feel I should have read before now but for some reason I’ve never got around to it. She’s quietly gathered a good deal of acclaim over the years since her first novel, Cold Water: First Love is her fifth. Given its title, you could be
First Love by Gwendoline Riley: A pin-point sharp novella Read More »