Angelica’s Smile by Andrea Camilleri
Translated by Stephen Sartarelli Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long I discovered the Inspector Montalbano books by Camilleri some six or seven years ago and at first wasn’t sure I liked them…
Translated by Stephen Sartarelli Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long I discovered the Inspector Montalbano books by Camilleri some six or seven years ago and at first wasn’t sure I liked them…
Reviewed by Victoria Best One of the best experiences in reviewing books is when a book for which you have no particular expectations turns out to be both engrossing and…
Written by Nicola Griffith For me a good novel is one that draws me in and puts me right there, right then, with the characters: I walk where they walk,…
By Nick Rennison What is it about us and the Victorians? Here we are in 2014, in a world of smart phones, Twitter and Facebook, and yet, everywhere you look…
Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell At the time of writing, I have the pleasure of telling you that Tigerman, with its stunning cover artwork, is the best novel I’ve read this year. My…
Reviewed by Victoria Best Cultural theorist Giorgio Agamben has some very interesting things to say on the topic of old age – the subject of Daniel Klein’s gentle, ruminative trundle…
Translated by Antony Shugaar Reviewed by Falaise On a miserable morning in 1930, a small, undernourished child is found dead at the foot of the Tondo di Capodimonte steps in Naples,…
Reviewed by Simon Thomas When you’ve established yourself as a (Booker longlisted) quirky historical novelist – if such a title can be given to an author whose first two novels…
Reviewed by Kim Forrester If you’ve ever spoken your mind, or stood up for something you believe in when it might have been easier — and safer — to keep…
Tim Winton is arguably Australia’s greatest living writer. Born in Perth in 1960, he has written novels, short story collections, non-fiction, books for children, plays and television scripts. He has…
Questions by Simon Thomas Simon: How did you get the idea for Glow? Ned: There were two subjects I had been wanting to write about for a long time. One was…
Reviewed by Harriet Devine How can I best describe to you this wonderful, powerful book? If I tell you that it’s about a man who falls desperately in love with…
Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell “You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave.” Never has a quotation been as appropriate to a book as that above…
Reviewed by Victoria Best When my son was still a child, he used to be transfixed by The House of Tiny Tearaways, a BBC programme in which families experiencing some nightmare…
Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long Round about this time of year publishers, publicists and bookshops turn their attention to Holiday Reading or Beach Reads. Both these terms are somewhat pejorative and…
Reviewed by Helen Parry We Swineys were the hairiest girls in Harristown, Kildare, and the hairiest you’d find anywhere in Ireland from Priesthaggard to Sluggery. That is, our limbs were…
Winkled out by Annabel Gaskell 1. Although we’ve come to know Aickman as an author, he was a prominent conservationist. In 1946, he was a co-founder of the Inland Waterways Association….
Reviewed by Hayley Anderton When Shiny New Books asked me if I’d like to review The New Sylva I thought it sounded interesting. When it arrived I thought it looked interesting and…
Reviewed by Victoria Best Readers of this delightful series are probably aware that the ITV adaptation will soon be on our screens, with James Norton playing the priest-turned-detective, Sidney Chambers…
Reviewed by Harriet Devine Strike hated paddling on the periphery of a case, forced to watch as others dived for clues, leads and information. He sat up late with the…
Imagine a country with the lowest salaries in Western Europe, where about 40 percent of young people are unemployed, and where 50,000 shops went out of business in 2011 and…
Reviewed by Claire If I were knowingly heading into an active theatre of war, I like to think I would go armed with the necessary information, wardrobe, and exit plan…
Reviewed by T.V. LoCicero The Mysterious Worlds of Henrique Monroe This is the ninth novel by Richard Zimler, an American-born writer who spent his first thirty-four years in the U.S.,…
Reviewed by Max Dunbar This study of how James Joyce’s Ulysses came to be published and set in type is almost as essential as the book itself. The odds were against it,…