The Cat by Georges Simenon
Translated by Ros Schwartz Review by Annabel Back in 2014, Penguin embarked on republishing all seventy of the Maigret novels in new translations over a period of a few years,…
The Apple and the Pearl, by Rym Kechacha
Reviewed by Helen Parry Of all the arts, ballet casts perhaps the most magical spell. The classics of the repertoire are set in otherworldly realms, with entrancing music and fabulous…
Flesh by David Szalay
Reviewed by Rebecca Foster David Szalay is preoccupied with masculinity and migration, which were his main themes in All That Man Is and Turbulence, respectively. Flesh combines the two topics…
Mrs Jekyll by Emma Glass
Review by Annabel Welsh author Emma Glass’s fourth novel, Mrs Jekyll, gained her a second longlisting for the Dylan Thomas Award in 2025. Her debut, Peach, was also longlisted, and…
Pagans by James Alistair Henry
Review by Annabel I do like an alternative history novel with a contemporary timeline. James Alistair Henry has created a great one in Pagans. It may be a debut novel,…
The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji
Review by Liz Dexter That’s just how I am. Hollow and spoiled and unlikeable. That’s how my whole family is. My aunt always says, ‘We didn’t come here for a…
The Boy from the Sea by Garrett Carr
Review by Liz Dexter Christine reckoned she had a solid twenty-five years of matriarch left in her and she’d always use it to direct Declan towards sources of self-esteem. If…
Everything the Light Touches by Janice Pariat – Reviewer’s choice
Review by Peter Reason Four people, their lives widely separated by time and geography, set out on journeys away from home, journeys that might well be seen as secular pilgrimages….
The Sister Bells Trilogy by Lars Mytting
Translated by Deborah Dawkin Reviewed by Harriet They were joined from the hip down. But that was all. They breathed, cried, and were lively…. They grew, laughed a lot, and…
The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce
Review by Rebecca Foster If, like me, you’ve been following Rachel Joyce’s career ever since her 2012 debut, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, I have good news to impart:…
Love at Second Sight by Ada Leverson
Review by Rob Spence Ada Leverson should really be better known than she is. Born in 1862, she is probably best remembered now as a devoted friend of Oscar Wilde….
Playground by Richard Powers
Review by Peter Reason I am a fan of Richard Powers. I read The Overstory four times, appreciating how the writing draws together an animist worldview with ecological activism while…
Telenovela by Gonzalo C. Garcia
Review by Victoria Best The telenovela is a uniquely Latin American creation. It began as the radionovela, a drama told in episodes of 15 minutes that was broadcast during the…
Introducing Mrs Collins by Rachel Parris
Reviewed by Harriet Anyone who’s ever read (or watched) Pride and Prejudice will know that Mrs Collins is Elizabeth’s ‘intimate’ friend Charlotte Lucas, ‘a sensible, intelligent young woman, about twenty-seven’….
Letters from an Imaginary Country by Theodora Goss
Reviewed by Lory Widmer Hess When I close a book I’ve been living in, I often feel bereft. It’s as if I’ve been watching a master juggler, who abruptly vanishes….
Moscow Underground by Catherine Merridale
Review by Annabel A crime novel set in Moscow, 1934 – a year in which the Moscow subway is being built under the city – sounded irresistible. Merridale is the…
Brick Dust by Craig Jordan-Baker
Review by Rob Spence When I started reading this quirkily entertaining novel, I was reminded of a remarkable Turkish film I saw some years ago. The film, 10 to 11,…
The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Review by David Harris When I was a young woman, there were still witches . . . In The Bewitching, Silvia Moreno-Garcia deftly blends three timelines to produce a clever and suspenseful…
Giaime Alonge, The Feeling of Iron
Translated by Clarissa Botsford Review by Rob Spence The publisher’s blurb for Giaime Alonge’s first novel describes it as “a masterful blend of fact and fiction”, and that’s certainly accurate…
Everything Will Swallow You by Tom Cox
Review by Annabel If you follow the news from the publishing world, even a little, over the past three months, you’ll probably have encountered Tom Cox and his woes as…
The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith
Reviewed by Harriet If you should care to do so, you could do a search on Shiny for reviews of novels by Robert Galbraith (aka J K Rowling). You’ll find four,…
Muckle Flugga by Michael Pedersen
Review by Annabel I’ll admit it – I picked up the book because of the cover’s gorgeousness and the pink sprayed edges, then I discovered it was signed by the…
Lowest Common Denominator by Pirkko Saisio
Translated by Mia Spangenberg Review by Karen Langley Until recently, if asked to name a Scandinavian woman author, most readers might have plumped for Finland’s Tove Jansson. However, a spate…
Long Island by Colm Tóibín
Reviewed by Harriet Many people will be familiar with Colm Tóibín’s 2009 novel Brooklyn, or at least with the awarding-winning 2015 film adaptation. Set in 1950s Enniscorthy, County Wexford, it…