A Scream in Soho by John G. Brandon
Reviewed by Harriet Devine “A lace handkerchief without even a monogram on it and a bloodstained knife without fingerprints or marks of any kind”, McCarthy said. “There’s nothing whatever in…
Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
(aka Big Little Lies) Reviewed by Victoria Best There’s a ruckus going down at Pirriwee Public Kindergarten where there ought to be an ordinary fund-raising trivia night. Elderly Mrs Ponder…
The Hermit in the Garden: From Imperial Rome to Ornamental Gnome by Gordon Campbell
Reviewed by Barb Scharf If you were a member of the English aristocracy residing in Shropshire in the Georgian era, late 1700s to early 1800s, you might well have received…
The Sunrise by Victoria Hislop
Reviewed by Margaret Freeman Forty years ago Famagusta, on the east coast of Cyprus, was one of the island’s most visited and most glamorous tourist resorts with its beautiful coastline…
The Portrait by Willem Jan Otten
Reviewed by Helen Parry Not having looked, not really, not with eyes that can see. That was what his fate came down to. Having accepted the job, solemnly – Yes,…
The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante
Translated by Ann Goldstein Review by Lizzie Siddal Every recent piece about Elena Ferrante seems to begin with the question, who is she? I’m not about to do that. The…
The other stories in Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina: A translator’s perspective
By Rosamund Bartlett We are so used to seeing Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina in terms of the tragic fate of his heroine that it is sometimes easy to forget how much else goes…
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
Reviewed by Sakura Gooneratne I get up and go out through the back door. The cold air shocks my skin as I go, ‘Shoo, shoo!’ to the cat. The feline…
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
A New Translation by Rosamund Bartlett Written by Helen Rappaport Taking on one of the great novels of the nineteenth century is a huge challenge for any Russian translator. Even…
The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton
Reviewed by Kathleen Holly Marsh The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender is an incredibly written book by American author Leslye Walton. The novel follows the story of Ava’s life…
A Moment for the Short Story
By David Hebblethwaite Short stories are in our bones. They are often the first fiction we read or hear: fairy tales, bedtime stories – and at school (for example), they…
The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness
Reviewed by Harriet Devine The Book of Life is indeed a mighty tome, as Dan Brown would say. I read it with great delight, but was seriously wondering all the time…
The Martian by Andy Weir
Paperback Review by Dan L. The Martian by Andy Weir took the Sci-Fi reading populace by storm with the release of the hardback. So much so, that Ridley Scott decided he…
Spotlight on Publishers: Unbound
Is crowd-funding the future of publishing? Annabel talks to Unbound… Before we get into our chat fully, could you explain briefly for those readers who don’t know you, how Unbound…
Five Fascinating Facts about… Frances Hodgson Burnett
Compiled by Harriet Devine 1. Frances was born near Manchester, in England. Her father was a successful ironmonger, but her family fell on hard times after his death when she…
Shiny New Author: Questions for Angus Watson
In the first of a new series in which we interview debut authors, Victoria talked to Angus Watson, author of Age of Iron. V: When did you first realise you wanted…
Age of Iron by Angus Watson
Reviewed by Kathleen Holly Marsh Age of Iron by Angus Watson is the first book in a trilogy giving an entertaining but gripping account of what happened when Julius Caesar tried…
Stay Up With Me by Tom Barbash
Reviewed by Alice Farrant Stay Up With Me by Tom Barbash is a collection of short stories set in New York City. Each explores a disconnection between parents and children, lovers or…
The Children Act by Ian McEwan
Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell Back in March, I went to hear McEwan talk at the Oxford Literary Festival. He read a couple of passages from the final draft of his…
Mãn by Kim Thuy
Translated by Sheila Frischman Reviewed by Susan Osborne This slim, very beautiful novel is a love story, a work of aching nostalgia and a glorious celebration of language. Its gorgeous,…
Jen Campbell talks about Bookshops…
“I like bookshops,” a little girl once said to me in the middle of our own bookshop – an organised chaos of antiquarian children’s books in north London. “I like…
A Lady of Quality by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long Over the last ten years or so I have tracked down and read all of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s adult writing. I had been totally unaware that…
An Event in Autumn by Henning Mankel
Translated by Laurie Thompson Reviewed by Harriet Devine This book is a bit of a curiosity. When it arrived and I realised what it was, I wondered if it was…
Man at the Helm by Nina Stibbe
Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell A few years ago there was a reality show series on children’s telly in the UK called Project Parent, in which kids from single parent families…