Book news, reviews and recommendations
I’m starting off the first instalment of May’s fiction with two novels I’ve already read the first of which is Catherine Chidgey’s The Book of Guilt. Largely set in an alternate version of 1979, close to reality but unsettlingly different, it follows a set of thirteen-year-old triplets living in a children’s home in the New […]
Books to Look Out For in May 2025: Part One Read More »
Fire is the third in John Boyne’s novella series preceded by Water and Earth both of which I’ve reviewed. It follows Freya, already an eminent surgeon at thirty-six, living alone in a luxurious flat, once the home of a footballer who she helped convict of rape as a jurist. Since my twelfth summer, I have
Fire by John Boyne: Are abusers born or made? Read More »
November’s the month when publishers line up their big titles ready for Christmas, two of which I’ve included here, both from old favourites of mine, beginning with the one I’ve already read. Jonathan Coe’s The Proof of My Innocence opens in early September 2022 against the backdrop of Liz Truss’s brief disastrous premiership. Newly graduated,
Books to Look Out For in November 2024 Read More »
Despite a preference for spare, concise fiction, I do enjoy a good chunkster. Done well, they can be the perfect escape when all you want is lose yourself in a good old-fashioned piece of storytelling. Below are five doorstoppers, each with a link to a review on my blog. Set in an Irish seaside town,
Five More Doorstopping Novels I’ve Read Read More »
I read the first in John Boyne’s four-novella series last year, ending my review with reservations but planning to read the next instalment. While Water looked at the complicity of a wife in her husband’s sexual abuse of minors, Earth is set in the world of professional football where two players are accused of a
Earth by John Boyne: A modern morality tale Read More »
All but one of the books in this second instalment of May’s new fiction are by Irish writers, beginning with one from one of my favourites. Colm Tóibín’s Long Island is the sequel to his much-loved Brooklyn, taking up the story of Eilis Lacey in the 1970s, twenty years after we left her. Eilis is living
Books to Look Out For in May 2024: Part Two Read More »
Six Degrees of Separation is a meme hosted by Kate over at Books Are My Favourite and Best. It works like this: each month a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six others to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the titles on the list,
Six Degrees of Separation – Western Lane to Water Read More »
I was intrigued when I spotted John Boyne’s Water in The Bookseller, billed as the first in a series of four interlinked novellas each named after the elements, something of a departure from his usual doorstoppers of which I’ve read and enjoyed several including his last, The Echo Chamber. It begins with a woman arriving
Water by John Boyne: First in a series Read More »
Christmas is well and truly in publishers’ sights come November with lots of big hitting titles taking centre stage. Fewer appealed to me than usual, just enough for one lengthy post rather than the two I was expecting, starting with one from an author who was once a favourite of mine. There was a time
Books to Look Out For in November 2023 Read More »
With the exception of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, I’m not such an avid follower of literary prizes as I once was although I can’t seem to resist speculating about the Booker. That said, this year’s shortlist is making me think I need to keep an eye on the Rathbones Folio Prize, two titles from
Paperbacks to Look Out For in May 2022: Part One Read More »
Six Degrees of Separation is a meme hosted by Kate over at Books Are My Favourite and Best. It works like this: each month a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six others to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the titles on the list,
Six Degrees of Separation – No One is Talking About This to Piranesi Read More »