Book news, reviews and recommendations
I was hesitant about Olivia Laing’s The Silver Book when it was pitched to me. I’d been impressed by The Lonely City and The Trip to Echo Spring but writers who excel at non-fiction sometimes lard their novels with too much research. Its premise, though, is such an interesting one I accepted. Set during in […]
The Silver Book by Olivia Laing: ‘We are all in danger’ Read More »
Oliver Lovrenski’s Back in the Day topped the bestseller lists in Norway for months, winning the country’s prestigious Bookseller Prize when Lovrenski was just nineteen. Set in Oslo, his episodic, fragmented novel follows four boys through their school days onto the streets into a life that will likely lead to an early death. argan was
I liked the premise of Orla Mackey’s Mouthing. It put me in mind of Robert Seethaler’s The Field in which the dead remember their village, filled with all the gossip, machinations and scandalmongering you might expect from such a small community. Mackey’s debut tells the story of Ballygowan, tucked away in rural Ireland, over several
Mouthing by Orla Mackey: ‘Night night now. Tomorrow will be lovely’ Read More »
Michael Magee’s Close to Home first caught my eye on Twitter, partly thanks to that quietly striking cover, partly lots of people whose opinions I trust impressed by it. Drawing on his own experience, Magee’s debut follows Sean from his squalid Belfast flat the night after a bender has seen him assault a guy at
Close to Home by Michael Magee: ‘There’s a lot you don’t know, son’ Read More »
The blurb for Swedish writer Johanna Hedman’s The Trio put me in mind a little of Liza Klaussmann’s slightly disappointing This is Gonna End in Tears which I reviewed last week. Both feature a group of close friends revisited later in life, which is what attracted me, but that’s where the similarity ends. As you’ll
The Trio by Johanna Hedman (transl. Kira Josefsson): If you like Sally Rooney… Read More »
Natasha Brown’s Assembly weighs in at a mere 112 pages – it would be even fewer if you stripped the white space from its fragmented narrative – but it’s an astonishingly powerful novel that leaves you a little breathless. Not an easy book to write about but I’ll do my best. My style, my mannerisms,
Assembly by Natasha Brown: ‘To protect myself, I detach’ Read More »
What to read when you have a house full of carpenters and decorators? Even when they’re as polite, careful and quiet as they can be, they’re still disruptive. With the good old British rain pelting down outside there’s not much else to do but retreat to the one room whose windows are not being replaced,
Tuesday Nights in 1980 by Molly Prentiss: Adventures in the New York art world Read More »
Alain de Botton’s first novel, Essays in Love, was published when he was a mere stripling of twenty-three. Since then he’s written essays about travel, architecture and literature returning to love for his second novel two decades after his first. I’ve long been a fan of his gentle, humane writing. The Pleasures and Sorrows of
The Course of Love by Alain de Botton: Never did run smooth Read More »