Book news, reviews and recommendations
That subtitle is Help Wanted’s touching dedication which had me predisposed to like Adelle Waldman’s novel from the outset. My only experience of retail is bookselling which has left me with a fellow feeling for all who work in this low wage sector which has become increasingly insecure. Help Wanted is about the logistics section […]
Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman: ‘To all retail workers’ Read More »
I couldn’t resist C. E. Riley’s Is This Love? after reading the blurb: the story of a marriage breakdown is told by one of the parties whose gender is never revealed through a narrative addressed to their wife interspersed with diary entries plus transcripts of her testimony to her solicitor. Something of a daring structure
Is this Love? By C. E. Riley: Who’s telling the truth here? Read More »
Back in 2013, I wrote about meeting Beatrice Hitchman at what was supposed to be a summer afternoon Pimms party in a neighbour’s garden, unsurprisingly relocated to their living room thanks to the British weather. Hitchman’s debut, Petite Mort, was just about to be published. I enjoyed it very much and was delighted when All
All of You Every Single One by Beatrice Hitchman: Choosing your own family Read More »
It was its structure that attracted me to Miranda Popkey’s Topics of Conversation. That and its cover image of two women alongside each other rather than face to face intrigued me. Popkey’s debut tells the story of an unnamed woman through the conversations she has with other women at various points in her life beginning
Topics of Conversation by Miranda Popkey: ‘Conversation is flirtation’ Read More »
I spotted Lila Savage’s debut on Twitter quite some time ago and liked the look of it. Say Say Say explores the job of the caregiver, one which is becoming increasingly common as we call on the services of others to look after us in our old age and one which Savage spent more than
Say Say Say by Lila Savage: Caring for others Read More »
I’m beginning to wonder if I’m undergoing a similar conversion to historical fiction that I did with short stories having read several books over the past year which fit that description, not least Imogen Hermes Gowar’s The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock. Truth be told, many of the novels I read are not bang up to
The Warlow Experiment by Alix Nathan: The rights of man Read More »
This is the third novel I’ve read from this year’s Man Booker International Prize longlist. The other two are Hubert Mingarelli’s Four Soldiers, beautifully translated by Sam Taylor, which didn’t make it onto the shortlist, and Olga Tokarczuk’s quirky Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of The Dead, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, which did alongside
The Pine Islands by Marion Poschmann (transl. Jen Calleja): To the north Read More »
The Gunners is built around a structure that rarely fails to attract me: a group of people, once friends as children or young adults, are brought together by an event which affects them all. Weddings and funerals are a favourite trigger for this kind of reunion and in the case of Rebecca Kauffman’s novel it’s
The Gunners by Rebecca Kauffman: The Big Chill reprised Read More »
I reviewed Philip Teir’s debut, A Winter War, back in 2015 when I described it as the perfect winter read, a book to tuck yourself up with. It may seem a little lazy but it’s hard to resist describing The Summer House as the perfect summer read. Set against a backdrop of a long holiday
It’s rare for me to feel that I owe it to a writer to read their book but the anonymous North Korean author of The Accusation risked his life to get it published, and continues to do so. Bandi, which translates as firefly, still lives and works in North Korea. Should he be unmasked he
The Accusation by Bandi (transl. Deborah Smith): Please read this book Read More »
Alex Christofi’s Let Us Be True is one of those books I’m delighted was sent my way. I’m not sure I would have happened upon it otherwise but it turned out to be absorbing, insightful and beautifully written. Largely set in Paris during the middle of the twentieth century, it’s the story of Ralf who
Let Us Be True by Alex Christofi: A story about love Read More »