Book news, reviews and recommendations
I dithered about reading Andrew Michael Hurley’s Saltwash, put off by his reputation for writing folk horror, not a genre I’m attracted to, but I liked its premise so decided to take the plunge, helped along by a few NetGalley reviews by fans disappointed by its lack of menace. Tom and Oliver have been matched […]
Saltwash by Andrew Michael Hurley: ‘Tide in, tide out. All’s forgotten’ Read More »
I can’t resist an art theme as regular readers of this blog will know and Lucy Steeds’s debut The Artist sounded particularly intriguing. Set in Provence over the summer of 1920, it begins and ends in 1957 with a woman gazing at a painting she knows intimately in London’s National Gallery. No. Ettie knows better
The Artist by Lucy Steeds: ‘I want you to see me’ Read More »
Fiona Mozley’s Elmet has already snagged the attention of several literary prize judges: it was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction earlier this year and shortlisted for 2017’s Man Booker Prize. Set on the fringes of what was once a mining village, it’s about Daniel and Cathy whose father has built a house on
Jo McMillan’s debut has an unusual subject for what is essentially a commercial novel: life in the 1980s German Democratic Republic as seen through the eyes of Tamworth’s only deeply committed Communist and her teenage daughter. That alone would have been enough to catch my eye but two trips to Berlin, where commemoration of the
Motherland by Jo McMillan: From Tamworth to Berlin with love Read More »
Pamela Erens’ second novel comes with not one but two glowing quotes from John Irving’s New York Times Book Review piece on the cover. I’m amazed that even the New York Times can persuade an author of Irving’s lofty stature to review a book but clearly they have an impressive literary editor. It’s set in
The Virgins by Pamela Erens: When things aren’t quite what they seem Read More »
Alexander Maksik’s A Marker to Measure Drift is a novel of such intensity that I had to put it down every so often just to catch my breath and anchor myself in my own comfortable world. Written in lyrical often dreamlike prose, it takes us into the mind of Jacqueline who has fled the rebel
A Measure to Marker Drift by Alexander Maksik: Makes you thank your lucky stars Read More »