Conversations with Rilke by Maurice Betz
Translated by Will Stone Review by Karen Langley Aside from his verses, Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke is probably best known to the English-speaking world for his prose work, The…
Bird School: A beginner in the wood by Adam Nicolson
Review by Peter Reason ‘The first time I met a bird close-up, it was dead. A raven.’ From this grab-your-attention first line and the evocative description of this encounter, I…
The Alienation Effect: How Central European Émigrés Transformed the British Twentieth Century by Owen Hatherley
Review by Karen Langley The interwar period of the early 20th century saw a massive amount of emigration from Central Europe, as those vulnerable to the extremist governments of a…
The Strange Case of Jane O by Karen Thompson Walker
Reviewed by Harriet If like many people you saw this title and thought of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde you’d probably be thinking this will be a psychological thriller, and…
Murder at Gull’s Nest: Nora Breen Investigates by Jess Kidd
Review by Annabel Although Irish author Jess Kidd has written four previous well-received novels, and I even own copies of two of them, I’ve not managed to read her until…
Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz
Reviewed by Harriet Back in 2016 I reviewed Anthony Horowitz’s hugely entertaining Magpie Murders [here], in which book-editor Susan Ryeland takes up detection when she discovers that Alan Conway, the…
Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane
Review by Peter Reason It is very unlikely that many readers of Shiny New Books have missed Robert Macfarlane’s new book. It has been reviewed in most of the major…
The Future of Gardens by Mark Lane
Review by Annabel Melville House’s ‘Futures’ series are short pocket-sized paperbacks that explore their subjects in essay format. I’ve previously reviewed two others for Shiny – The Future of Trust…
Love and Marriage in the Age of Jane Austen by Rory Muir
Reviewed by Harriet A few months after Pride and Prejudice was published, Jane Austen visited her brother Henry in London. The opening words of Rory Muir’s book might lead the…
Fair Play by Louise Hegarty
Review by Max Dunbar Mystery Night I never worked out the appeal of murder mystery nights. Sure, you get to raid the dressing-up box but the practicalities must be a…
Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gaugin by Sue Prideaux
Reviewed by Harriet Before I started this very interesting and comprehensive book, I probably knew as much about Gauguin as most people. I’d seen countless reproductions of his powerful, imaginative…
Becoming a Good Relative: Calling White Settlers Toward Truth, Healing, and Repair, by Hilary Giovale
Review by Liz Dexter I was immersed in a white settler myth that had always allowed me to perceive them [her ancestors] as innocent bystanders rather than oppressors. I’ve been…
Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito
Review by Annabel Virginia Feito’s debut novel, Mrs March, was an absolute blast. An exercise in paranoia on the part of an Upper East Side housewife, who thinks people are…
Emile Zola: Writing Modern Life by Rachel Bowlby
Reviewed by Karen Langley The My Reading series from Oxford University Press takes as its premise that the best book recommendations come from someone who cares for the work in…
The Brittle Age, by Donatella Di Pietrantonio
Translated by Ann Goldstein Review by Rob Spence In the mountainous rural region of Abruzzo, a local community is blighted by an event of brutal savagery. Thirty years later, its…
When William Came, by Saki
Review by Helen Parry Suppose Germany and Britain went to war and Britain lost and was absorbed into the German empire? What would British people do? What would you do?…
This Is The Border by Eoin McNamee
Review by Max Dunbar There’s lots of historical fiction around but generally it doesn’t work for me. I feel like the author is bludgeoning you with their research, having worked…
The Golden Road by William Dalrymple
Reviewed by Harriet India has always had a great attraction for me. I didn’t manage to go there until I was in my thirties, but I’ve visited countless times since…
City of Fiction by Yu Hua
Translated from the Chinese by Todd Foley Review by Frances Spurrier Lin Xiangfu was on edge that evening. Moonlight streamed down through the hole in the roof like a sparkling column…
Nothing Grows by Moonlight by Torborg Nedreaas
Translated by Bibbi Lee Review by Karen Langley Recent years have seen a spate of newly translated fictions being made available by Penguin Classics in their ‘Demy’ series; these works…
EL CID: The Life and Afterlife of a Medieval Mercenary, by Nora Berend
Review by Michael Eaude Exposing Fake History – FRANCO’S MURDEROUS FANTASIES El Cid is a legendary hero, a fearsome warrior who decisively defeated the Moors in the fight for a…
The Dancer from the Dance by Janet Burroway
Reviewed by Harriet I had never heard of Janet Burroway until Mike Walmer recently republished her 1965 novel, The Dancer from the Dance. It was the second of her eight…
Tracker by Alexis Wright
Review by Liz Dexter, 25 March 2025 In his life, he had made space for himself in the world of those who enjoyed the highest influence in Australia, as he…
Goodnight Tokyo by Atsuhiro Yoshida
Translated by Hayden Trowell Review by Rob Spence Quirky Japanese literature seems to be all the rage these days. Every British bookshop seems well-stocked with Tokyo-based stories about cats or…