June 30, 2016 Thus Bad Begins by Javier Marías Translated by Margaret Jull Costa Reviewed by Harriet As a couple, they had spotted me like one of those distant shapes on the ocean…
June 30, 2016 Paris Vagabond by Jean-Paul Clébert Translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith Reviewed by Karen Langley There’s a current literary trend of reissuing lost classics, and one of the most reliable imprints…
June 30, 2016 Ladivine by Marie Ndiaye Translated from French by Jordan Stump Reviewed by Kate Gardner Marie Ndiaye’s latest book could be described as a surrealist family saga, perhaps even…
June 29, 2016 Sergio Y. by Alexandre Vidal Porto Translated by Alex Ladd Reviewed by Victoria I really love shrink lit. There’s something about the lucid and detailed focus on the interaction between…
June 28, 2016 The Abundance by Annie Dillard Reviewed by Rebecca Foster Annie Dillard is one of those uncategorisable writers who poke fingers into all sorts of genres. Like Adam Gopnik, Rebecca…
June 28, 2016 Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty Reviewed by Simon Delta Wedding might win the award for the most beautiful book I’ve read for this issue of Shiny New Books – as…
June 28, 2016 Journeyman by Marc Bojanowski Reviewed by Susan Osborne There’s something very attractive about a state of the nation novel. It offers the chance to examine a snapshot of…
June 27, 2016 The Course of Love by Alain de Botton Reviewed by Annabel This is only Alain de Botton’s second novel in a writing career of well over over twenty years. He began with…
June 24, 2016 The Vanishing Futurist by Charlotte Hobson Reviewed by Kate Gardner In many ways this is a conventional take on historical fiction: old lady recounts her youth for her daughter to…
June 24, 2016 The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood Reviewed by Kim Forrester Australian writer Charlotte Wood has five novels to her name, but she’s never been published in the UK — until…
June 23, 2016 The Sun King Conspiracy by Yves Jégo & Denis Lépée Translated by Sue Dyson Reviewed by Helen Skinner This fascinating and complex historical thriller is set in 1661 at the court of France’s Sun…
June 23, 2016 Hystopia by David Means Reviewed by Anna Hollingsworth In an interview with The Guardian, short story writer turned novelist David Means said: ‘History is delusional. Not just an illusion,…
June 22, 2016 My Name is Leon by Kit de Waal Reviewed by Alice Farrant My Name is Leon by Kit de Waal is a powerful story that discusses race, mental illness, and family through the…
June 21, 2016 Pride And Pudding by Regula Ysewijn Reviewed by Hayley Anderton Sometimes I wonder if my cookbook habit is getting out of control, and in my darkest moments I’ll even question…
June 21, 2016 More Was Lost by Eleanor Perényi Reviewed by Simon If you’re anything like me, you might be unfamiliar with the political dynamics of Hungary and Czechoslovakia in the years leading…
June 21, 2016 Questions for Peggy Frew about Hope Farm Interview by Annabel Annabel: Firstly, congratulations on Hope Farm being shortlisted for the 2016 Stella Prize. This young literary prize is starting to get…
June 21, 2016 Hope Farm by Peggy Frew Reviewed by Annabel Peggy Frew is an up and coming Australian author, and Hope Farm is her second novel. Alongside her writing, Peggy plays bass and…
June 21, 2016 A Way Through the Wood by Nigel Balchin Reviewed by Victoria Clive James called Nigel Balchin ‘the missing writer of the Forties’, a remark that notes the period in which he was…
June 20, 2016 The Ashes of London by Andrew Taylor Reviewed by Harriet The noise was the worst. Not the crackling of the flames, not the explosions and the clatter of falling buildings, not…
June 20, 2016 Sudden Death by Álvaro Enrigue Translated by Natasha Wimmer Reviewed by David Hebblethwaite There’s some remarkable literature from Mexico being published in English translation at the moment. Writers such as…
June 17, 2016 The Sellout by Paul Beatty Reviewed by Rebecca Foster The Sellout, Paul Beatty’s fourth novel, is such an outrageous racial satire that I kept asking myself how he got…
June 16, 2016 Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert Translated by Helen Constantine, Editor Patrick Coleman Reviewed by Victoria If you’ve read a book by the 19th century French novelist, Gustave Flaubert, the…
June 16, 2016 The Lost Europeans by Emanuel Litvinoff Reviewed by Simon Have you ever had the experience of starting a novel and, before you’ve got to the end of the second page,…
June 16, 2016 Himmler’s Cook by Franz-Olivier Giesbert Translated by Anthea Bell Reviewed by Susan Osborne Perhaps it’s because many of us in the privileged developed world are living longer these days…
June 14, 2016 Tremarnock: The Love, Lives and Secrets of a Cornish Village by Emma Burstall Reviewed by Laura Marriott Tremarnock is a picture perfect Cornish fishing village, largely untouched by gentrification, poverty or seasonal tourism. It is here that…
