September 16, 2021 The Country of Others by Leïla Slimani Translated by Sam Taylor Reviewed by Harriet Back in 2018 I read and reviewed Leïla Slimani’s best-selling, Goncourt-Prize-winning novel Lullaby [here]. Soon afterwards I…
September 16, 2021 All the Names Given by Raymond Antrobus Review by Anna Hollingsworth ”your 2am text / lit / like a dog panting / on her screen / hot rattling engine / pile…
September 14, 2021 Bewilderment by Richard Powers Reviewed by Gill Davies Although he has published twelve novels since 1985, I only discovered Richard Powers through his stunning 2018 novel The Overstory…
September 14, 2021 The Red Planet: A Natural History of Mars, by Simon Morden Review by Annabel Who hasn’t been enthralled by the idea of there being ‘Life on Mars’ even if said life ends up as the…
September 9, 2021 Paradise by Kae Tempest Review by Anna Hollingsworth Remember, this man is not our friend, he is our weapon. OK? So, we treat him like we treat any…
September 9, 2021 The Goddess Chronicle by Natsuo Kirino Translated by Rebecca Copeland Review by Annabel Japanese author Natsuo Kirino is primarily known for her crime novels, of which Out is the most…
September 7, 2021 Your Voice Speaks Volumes: It’s Not What You Say but How You Say It, by Jane Setter Review by Liz Dexter I would like the message of this chapter to be that we should all be more tolerant of people’s voice…
September 7, 2021 Young Stalin, by Simon Sebag Montefiore Review by Basil Ransome-Davies No one expects an approving biography of Joseph Stalin any more than they do the Spanish Inquisition. He is a…
September 2, 2021 Frontline by Dr Hilary Jones Review by Julie Barham Medical knowledge and techniques were vastly increased during and immediately after the First World War, as the loss of so…
September 2, 2021 Dead Famous by Greg Jenner Review by Basil Ransome-Davies Andy Warhol (if it was he, who disowned the soft impeachment) was kidding when he said that in the future…
August 31, 2021 A Room of Her Own: Inside the Homes and Lives of Creative Women by Robyn Lea Review by Liz Dexter Robyn Lea has a theory that there is a new Renaissance happening among creative women, who are expressing themselves and…
August 31, 2021 Traitor King: The scandalous exile of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, by Andrew Lownie Review by Elaine Simpson-Long When I was about eleven years old I remember reading an article about the Abdication in the Sunday Express, which…
August 26, 2021 Three Summers by Margarita Liberaki Translated by Karen Van Dyck Review by Karen Langley Coming of age stories are a perennial favourite in both classic and modern literature; and…
August 26, 2021 No Touching by Ketty Rouf Translated by Tina Kover Review by Annabel Italian-born novelist Ketty Rouf won France’s Prix du Premier Roman 2020 (First Novel award) for her debut…
August 24, 2021 The Promise by Damon Galgut Review by Anna Hollingsworth Damon Galgut has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize twice. The Good Doctor delved into a young doctor’s angry melancholy…
August 24, 2021 Five Modern Noh Plays by Yukio Mishima Translated by Donald Keene Review by Terence Jagger This is a slightly misleading title for a new book, as the “modern” Noh plays were…
August 19, 2021 The Oxford Illustrated History of Witchcraft and Magic, edited by Owen Davies Reviewed by Harriet If there’s one thing that this impressively learned and wide-ranging volume amply demonstrates, it’s that an interest in magic and witchcraft…
August 19, 2021 Faber & Faber: The Untold Story by Toby Faber Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long In 2019 I attended a lecture given by Toby Faber and found him to be as stylish and witty as…
August 17, 2021 Clothes… and other things that matter by Alexandra Shulman Reviewed by Anna Hollingsworth The last item of clothing that I bought was a pair of pink dungarees from M&S children’s department nearly two…
August 17, 2021 Sicilia by Ben Tish Reviewed by Hayley Anderton This book turned up out of the blue when it was still cold and miserable back in the spring (thank…
August 12, 2021 An Evening with Claire by Gaito Gazdanov Translated by Bryan Karetnyk Review by Karen Langley Recent years have seen an upturn of interest in Russian émigré authors from the 20th century;…
August 12, 2021 The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak Reviewed by Anna Hollingsworth In The Bastard of Istanbul, a mysterious curse kills one family’s men before their time; 10 Minutes, 38 Seconds in…
August 10, 2021 A Tomb With a View by Peter Ross Reviewed by Gill Davies Just a few days ago my partner and fellow Shiny reviewer Basil Ransome Davies found a new walk to do…
August 10, 2021 Daughters of the Labyrinth by Ruth Padel Reviewed by Lory Widmer-Hess When we went to Crete last October (during a brief window when travel was possible), I knew little of the…
August 5, 2021 Line by Niall Bourke Reviewed by Annabel If I searched, I could probably fill a small shelf full of novels that have a sub-niche of their own that…
