Book news, reviews and recommendations
The Lodgers is acclaimed poet Holly Pester’s first novel. I’m partial to novels by poets and the premise of this one sounded interesting: a woman returns to her hometown, subletting an apartment overlooking her mother’s house, imagining the life of the lodger who’s taken over her room in the last house she lived. Sounds simple […]
The Lodgers by Holly Pester: Living on the margins Read More »
I often read for the writing as much as for storytelling and although I rarely read poetry, I’ve found that novels by poets are often written with a pleasing attention to language, each word carefully chosen and not one wasted. Below are five favourite novels by poets, all with links to my reviews. Helen Dunmore
Five Novels I’ve Read by Poets Read More »
This is the latest in a series of occasional posts featuring books I read years ago about which I was wildly enthusiastic at the time, wanting to press a copy into as many hands as I could. Fugitive Pieces is one of those excellent books that sold satisfyingly well when I was a bookseller. I
Blasts from the Past: Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels (1996) Read More »
Sometimes I read for the storytelling, sometimes for the writing. With The End We Start From I suspected it was going to be the latter – Megan Hunter is a poet and in my experience poets often write beautifully crafted novels. The book also sounded as if it fell into dystopian territory, something I usually
The End We Start From: Megan Hunter: Hopes springs eternal Read More »
This is the latest in a series of occasional posts featuring books I read years ago about which I was wildly enthusiastic at the time, wanting to press a copy in as many hands as I could. David Malouf is one of those writers who seems to be able to turn his hand to anything:
Blasts from the Past: Remembering Babylon by David Malouf (1993) Read More »