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Month: October 2016

October 27, 2016

The Gradual by Christopher Priest

Reviewed by David Harris This was the first of Christopher Priest’s books that I’d read. While I gather from other reviews that it’s particularly…

October 27, 2016

The Captain with the Whiskers by Benedict Kiely

Reviewed by Julie Barham When the old captain died the family went strange and it wasn’t with grief, and if you want to know…

October 27, 2016

Loose Canon: the extraordinary songs of Clive James and Pete Atkin by Ian Shircore

Review by Rob Spence It’s now over forty years since I discovered the songs of Pete Atkin and Clive James. In a wonderful series…

October 25, 2016

The Girl in Green by Derek D. Miller

Reviewed by Gill Davies In the past, I have hesitated to read a novel that uses dreadful contemporary events as its plot and thematic…

October 25, 2016

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Reviewed by Simon It might seem strange to include a novel in the reprints section that is only 13 years old – but Chimamanda…

October 20, 2016

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

Paperback review by Naomi Eileen might ‘look like a girl you’d expect to see on a city bus, reading some clothbound book from the…

October 20, 2016

The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope

Reviewed by Harriet Nevertheless a certain class of dishonesty, dishonesty magnificent in its proportions, and climbing into high places, has become at the same…

The-Age-of-Bowie-Paul-Morley
October 20, 2016

The Age of Bowie by Paul Morley

Reviewed by Annabel When the world woke up on January 10th to hear that David Bowie had died just two days after Blackstar was…

October 20, 2016

Spotlight on Publishers: NYRB

Q & A with Edwin Frank, Editorial Director at NYRB The Eds at Shiny are all great fans of NYRB books. Can you tell…

October 20, 2016

Grand Hotel by Vicki Baum

Translated by Basil Creighton / revised by Margot Bettauer Dembo Reviewed by Karen Langley Being known as the author of one successful book can…

October 20, 2016

Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Venice, Tokyo and London, by Lauren Elkin

Reviewed by Helen Parry ‘I think people are made of the places not only where they’ve been raised, but that they’ve loved; I think…

October 19, 2016

Secret Lives: Real Women in Fiction

Written by Ann Kennedy Smith A Quiet Life by Natasha Walter (Borough Press, 2016), Mrs Engels by Gavin McCrea  (Scribe, 2016) I spend a lot of my…

October 19, 2016

About My Mother by Tahar Ben Jelloun

Translated by Ros Schwartz & Lulu Norman Reviewed by Alice Farrant About My Mother is the story of a Lalla Fatma, written down by…

October 18, 2016

Where Roses Never Die by Gunnar Staalesen

Translated by Don Bartlett Reviewed by Gill Davies Where Roses Never Die is my first Gunnar Staalesen novel. Staalesen is Norwegian and he has been…

October 18, 2016

Revenger by Alastair Reynolds

Reviewed by David Harris Alastair Reynolds has a reputation as a prolific writer of SF and made waves a few years ago when he…

October 18, 2016

The Men’s Club by Leonard Michaels

Reviewed by Simon There have been quite a few reprints, in recent years, from the interwar period and thereabouts. We are familiar with Golden…

October 18, 2016

The Methods of Sergeant Cluff by Gil North

Reviewed by Harriet The rain wept on him from the eyes of the trees. The winter afternoon waned to its close. He withdrew into…

October 18, 2016

Paulina & Fran by Rachel B. Glaser

Reviewed by Susan Osborne Female friendship is a frequent theme in fiction, or at least what’s often dubbed as ‘women’s fiction’. It can be…

October 18, 2016

Diary of the Dark Years 1940 – 1944 by Jean Guéhenno

Translated and annotated by David Ball Review by Terence Jagger This is a sombre book, the diary of a thoughtful but determined man – …

October 16, 2016

How Sarah Waters Won Over the Reading World

By Victoria Best The press release for Sarah Waters’ new novel, The Paying Guests, describes it as ‘the most anticipated book of 2014’ and for…

October 16, 2016

Q&A with Samantha Norman

Samantha was interviewed by Harriet H: Hi Samantha – thanks for agreeing to answer some questions. I very much enjoyed Winter Siege, and wondered if…

Caught in the Revolution by Helen Rappaport
October 13, 2016

Caught in the Revolution by Helen Rappaport

Reviewed by Rob Spence We seem to have a glut of popular historians at the moment. Simon Schama, Tom Holland, Peter Frankopan, Lara Feigel,…

October 13, 2016

French Rhapsody by Antoine Laurain

Translated by Jane Aitken and Emily Boyce Reviewed by Annabel I experienced the sheer joy of reading French author Antoine Laurain earlier this summer…

October 13, 2016

Paris Street Tales edited by Helen Constantine

Reviewed by Harriet I live in rural France, and visit Paris from time to time, generally rather briefly. I’m beginning to get the hang…

October 13, 2016

Nothing Short of Dying by Erik Storey

Reviewed by Basil Ransome-Davies Erik Storey’s début novel, which bids to inaugurate a series, comes garlanded with approving quotes from established authors Lee Child…

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