Book news, reviews and recommendations
I’ve long been a fan of Sue Miller’s intelligent, perceptive fiction and was delighted to see a new title from her in the publishing schedules. It seems ages since I reviewed The Arsonist, her last novel. Like all her books, Monogamy inhabits that territory sometimes dubbed ‘women’s fiction’ which seems a shame to me as …
I’d not come across Hilary Fannin until The Weight of Love started popping up on my Twitter timeline. Her name will no doubt be more familiar to Irish readers thanks to her prize-winning column in the Irish Times. She’s also known as a playwright and memoirist but this is her first novel, a delicately nuanced …
The Weight of Love by Hilary Fannin: ‘There were three of us in this marriage’ Read More »
This is the second jacket I’ve fallen in love with this year, another which fits its book perfectly. The other was the gloriously pink cover for Aylet Gundar-Goshen’s Liar. Always a joy when publishers use an image which is both strikingly original and appropriate. Vesna Main’s Good Day? recounts a daily conversation between a Writer …
Good Day? by Vesna Main: When life mirrors fiction, or not Read More »
Sometimes I cringe when I see the comparisons in publishers’ press releases but in Anna Quindlen’s case Scribner are spot on with Elizabeth Strout and Ann Tyler. She also shares with Strout a far smaller following here in the UK than she deserves, although I can happily put that in the past tense for Strout …
Alternate Side by Anna Quindlen: If you like Elizabeth Strout or Ann Tyler… Read More »
I’d heard nothing about An American Marriage before it arrived, its cover adorned with an Oprah’s Book Club selection tag which always reminds me of Jonathan Franzen’s pompous refusal to have anything to do with Winfrey’s endorsement of The Corrections, considering himself to be part of the ‘high art literary tradition‘. Well, la di da. …
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones: Love in the balance 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 »
Last month I posted a review of Addison Jones’ Wait for Me, Jack, a novel about a long marriage which survived a multitude of difficulties, the premise of which I found fascinating. As you can tell from the title, Katie Kitamura’s A Separation is the other side of that coin, a marriage that doesn’t endure. …
A Separation by Katie Kitamura: Ties that can’t be unbound Read More »
Regular readers of this blog will know that I have a thing about books and their jackets. Without the right jacket, readers can be disappointed – promised something that wasn’t delivered through no fault of the author – and writers can be let down, not reaching as many readers as they should. This particular jacket, …
Wait for Me, Jack by Addison Jones: Marriage and how to survive it Read More »
This is the second novel I’ve read in a year in which traditional gender roles are reversed within a marriage – Andrew Miller’s The Crossing saw Tim decide to stay at home and look after their child while Maud continues her work in clinical research – and I’ve since read a third, Sarah Moss’ superb …
Conrad and Eleanor by Jane Rogers: Absence makes the heart grow fonder Read More »