Book news, reviews and recommendations
Chloe Michelle Howarth’s Heap Earth Upon It is very different from Sunburn, her debut, a story of sexual awakening set across glorious hot summer days. This new one is a dark, brooding novel which follows the O’Learys who have left their home village hoping to put a distance between themselves and the most recent of […]
Heap Earth Upon It by Chloe Michelle Haworth: Truth will out Read More »
James Roseman’s Placeholders is the fourth novel I’ve read published by Verve Books, a comparatively new imprint, all of them good if not excellent. If you’re interested the others are Sunburn, How Can I Help You and Blue Hour, my favourite and an unfulfilled wish on my Booker Prize list. Roseman’s novel follows Aaron and
Placeholders by James Roseman: Crossing the cultural divide Read More »
It’s become something of a tradition for Barack Obama to issue his summer reading list. It seems to have been extended to an end of year favourites now, too. I bet publishers’ hearts sing with joy if one of their titles appears on either, the next best thing to an Oprah recommendation. I won’t lie,
When I spotted Laura Sims’ How Can I Help You on NetGalley it reminded me of Alice Slater’s dark, funny Death of a Bookseller which I inhaled last year. Set in a library, Sims’ novel follows Margo, who’s not at all who her colleagues think she is, and Patricia, a frustrated writer, new to the
How Can I Help You by Laura Sims: A literary page-turner Read More »
Having had such a brilliant year reading Irish women writers in 2022, I’ve had my eye out for more this year which is what drew me to Chloe Michelle Howarth’s debut, Sunburn. Set in rural Ireland in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s, it’s a queer coming-of-age story which follows Lucy, long since assumed to be on