Book news, reviews and recommendations
Families and their dynamics offer such fertile ground for fiction. Most of us have a family in one form or another, and many of us are mystified by the differences between them, not least when we’re introduced to them by our partners. Marie Aubert’s darkly funny Grown Ups explores that most febrile of family dynamics, …
Grown Ups by Marie Aubert (transl. Rosie Hedger): Life begins at forty Read More »
I’ve spotted Matias Faldbakken’s The Waiter popping up several times in the paperback publishing schedules only for it to disappear. I’ve no idea why but I hope it’s because it was selling so well in its neatly proportioned hardback edition that its publishers though better of it. Its publication in the midst of the covid-19 …
The Waiter by Matias Faldbakken (transl. Alice Menzies): Fraying at the edges Read More »
Although I’ve yet to read Hanne Ørstavik’s The Blue Room reviews of it by bloggers whose opinions I trust were enough to convince me that Love was likely to be something special. This spare novella tells the story of Vibeke and her son, Jon, on the eve of his ninth birthday, each, unbeknownst to the …
Love by Hanne Ørstavik (transl. Martin Aitken): In the deep midwinter Read More »
Norway is the one Scandinavian country I’ve yet to visit, slightly put off by reports of ruinous expense and rain, although I’m sure I’ll go at some stage. It’s part of the reason I was attracted to Lars Saabye Christensen’s first instalment of a planned trilogy, Echoes of the City, set in post-war Oslo where …
I seem to have read more novellas than usual this year. Not entirely a conscious decision – I love that feeling of sinking into a doorstopper, particularly in winter – but several of the shorter novels I’ve reviewed have packed much more of a punch than a luxuriously fat, piece of storytelling often does. Nicolai …