Book news, reviews and recommendations
Despite the many protestations on this blog that I’m not an historical novel fan, I usually read at least one a year that hits the spot for me, often in autumn or winter. Last year’s was Lucy Jago’s A Net for Small Fishes. This year’s looked set to be Susan Stokes-Chapman’s Pandora. Set in Georgian […]
Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman: Opening the box Read More »
Lots of brouhaha surrounding Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s My Monticello which, as I know from experience, doesn’t always lead to a satisfying read. I wasn’t entirely sure whether to accept when I was offered a copy but decided to give it a try given it’s a Harvill Secker title, one of my favourite lists. Set against
I included Sunjeev Sahota’s The Year of the Runaways in my Five Books I’ve Read post about immigrants, having enjoyed it very much. About a group of economic migrants, it was notable for its empathetic portrayal of their precarious lives. His new novel, China Room, interweaves two stories, both set in the Punjab: the first
China Room by Sunjeev Sahota: The price of love Read More »
I first noticed Ailsa McFarlane’s Highway Blue in The Observer’s ’10 Best Debuts of 2021’ feature at the beginning of the year. Inevitably, given my weakness for first novels, several titles expanded my TBR list but McFarlane’s is the first I’ve read. Highway Blue follows Anne Marie and her estranged husband Cal who are on
Highway Blue by Ailsa McFarlane: A startlingly good debut Read More »
Given my bah humbug attitude, readers are unlikely to have expected a Christmas read from me but I couldn’t resist a literary trip to the snow-covered German landscape with Urs Faes’ Twelve Nights, set not far from the Black Forest. Beginning just before Christmas, Faes’ brief novella tells the story of Manfred who’s returned home
Twelve Nights by Urs Faes (transl. Jamie Lee Searle): Christmas is coming… Read More »
Two things attracted me to Gail Jones’ new novel: its Berlin setting – a city with which I’m almost as infatuated as I am with New York as a backdrop – and the prospect of the elegantly, poetic writing I’d enjoyed so much in her previous novels. I liked the synopsis, too: six people –
A Guide to Berlin by Gail Jones: An homage to Nabokov Read More »
This is my first Gerbrand Bakker. I’ve been aware of a good deal of interest and acclaim around his books for a while but somehow hadn’t got around to him. With its title and glorious blue-skied cover promising summer it seemed appropriate to pick up his new novel on one of the several miserably cold,
June by Gerbrand Bakker (transl. David Colmer): Deceptively simple Read More »
There’s been a great deal of eager anticipation for Kirsty Logan’s debut in my neck of the Twitter woods. Not the rather over-excited ‘whoop, whoop’ that can be a bit trying – more a steady hum, some of it coming from a friend who runs the Bristol Short Story Prize whose opinion I trust. Logan
The Gracekeepers by Lirsty Logan: A rattling good tale, beautifully told Read More »
Don’t you just love that jacket? Having sounded off about the ghastliness of the Aren’t We Sisters? cover a few weeks ago I had to mention it. Brightly coloured, eye-catching and surprisingly well suited to what’s inside it’s perfect, well for me at least. This Should be Written in the Present Tense is a quiet,
You don’t read Per Petterson for his cheeriness but I Refuse seemed even more sombre than usual to me. In it two men, close friends when they were young, meet briefly one morning by coincidence. Expensively dressed, Tommy has just parked his car when he spots Jim, shabby in his old reefer coat. Each recognises
I Refuse by Per Petterson (transl. Don Bartlett): Best read when cheerful Read More »
Those who’ve read and enjoyed Per Petterson’s Out Stealing Horses may be pleased to hear that his 1987 debut has been translated into English for the first time. Petterson is a master of the less is more writing style that I so admire and Don Bartlett has proved adept at keeping to the spirit of