Book news, reviews and recommendations
I’ve read all six of Austrian writer Daniel Kehlmann’s novels and reviewed four on here, each of them very different from the others. The Director tells the story of film director G. W. Pabst who found himself trapped after the annexation of Austria, apparently with no choice but to produce films for Goebbels’s Ministry of […]
The Director by Daniel Kehlmann (transl. Ross Benjamin): In a bind Read More »
The second instalment of May’s new fiction begins with a novel by one of my favourite writers. Sarah Moss’s Ripeness sees a woman in her seventies remembering the months she spent in Italy as a seventeen-year-old in the 1960s. Edith is the child of a Derbyshire hill farmer and a refugee whose family disappeared in
Books to Look Out For in May 2025: Part Two Read More »
Before writing this, I thought I’d check the definition of gothic literature of which, naturally, the internet being what it is, there are many to pick from. There seems to be general agreement that a gothic novel includes terror, the macabre or the bizarre which fits the five novels below, all written in recent years,
Five Modern Gothic Novels I’ve Read Read More »
Finding links between novels in the first part of February’s paperback preview was hard enough but it’s even worse with the second, I’m afraid. Best start off with what I’ve already read. Daniel Khelmann’s Tyll was one of my books of last year, an uncharacteristic choice for me but I’m a huge fan of Kehlmann’s
Paperbacks to Look Out for in February 2021: Part Two Read More »
Strange to remember writing my books of the year posts for 2019 last December, blissfully unaware of the surreal year that lay ahead for us all. I’ve been one of those fortunate people whose concentration didn’t take too much of a pandemic hit instead burying myself in reading and blogging, finding solace in books and
Books of the Year 2020: Part One Read More »
I’ve read all of Daniel Kehlmann’s translated novels, each very different from the others but all witty and smart. His last book, You Should Have Left, was a short, gothic number, both chilling and riveting. In comparison Tyll is a lengthy, historical novel set against the backdrop of the Thirty Years War which raged across
Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann (transl. Ross Benjamin): Telling truth to power Read More »
This second batch of February’s new titles begins with one I’m eagerly anticipating although a novel set against the backdrop of the Thirty Years’ War wouldn’t usually appeal. Daniel Kehlmann’s Tyll is based on the German legend of the eponymous trickster, born in an ordinary village but destined to expose the folly of kings and
Books to Look Out For in February 2020: Part Two Read More »
I’m a great fan of Daniel Kehlmann’s fiction which is why I was so keen to see his first play, The Mentor, premiered in my home town’s Ustinov Studio a couple of months ago. There I was all agog, tickets at the ready only to be too unwell to attend on the night but I
You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann (transl. Ross Benjamin): Short but not sweet Read More »