Viking books

Cover image for Blessings by Chukwuebuka Ibeh

Blessings by Chukwuebuka Ibeh: ‘I’ve been imprisoned all my life, daddy.’

It was that cover that snagged my attention when I was pitched Chukwuebuka Ibeh’s Blessings. With its image of a strikingly handsome but melancholy young man, it fits the novel well. Spanning a decade in Nigeria beginning in 2006, Ibeh’s debut is a poignant coming-of-age story in which a boy struggles to keep his sexuality […]

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Cover image for Bourneville by Jonathan Coe

Bournville by Jonathan Coe: ‘Everything changes, and everything remains the same’

I’ve not had much success with Jonathan Coe’s recent novels. Despite winning the Costa Novel Award, Middle England hit a low point for me but I liked the sound of Bournville which tells the story of Britain from V. E. Day in 1945 to its seventy-fifth anniversary in 2020 through one extended family who begin

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