October 15, 2020 Snow by John Banville Reviewed by Harriet I’m rather ashamed to say that the only one of ‘multi-award-winning’ John Banville’s books I’ve read before is The Black-Eyed Blonde,…
October 13, 2020 Reviewer’s Choice: A Day to Remember to Forget by Rosalind Brackenbury While Shiny New Books concentrates on the new, we enjoyed giving some of our reviewers room to share previously published – ie: ‘not Shiny…
October 8, 2020 The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida by Clarissa Goenawan Reviewed by Anna Hollingsworth In one of the marketing quotes on its cover, The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida is described as “an elegantly…
October 8, 2020 Final Cut by S. J.Watson ‘They tried to hide the truth. But the camera never lies…’ Review by Basil Ransome-Davies So runs the publisher’s tagline on the front cover…
October 6, 2020 Daughters by Lucy Fricke Translated from the German by Sinéad Crowe Reviewed by Eleanor Updegraff In the Translator’s Note at the end of Daughters, Sinéad Crowe writes of…
October 1, 2020 Piranesi by Susanna Clarke Review by Annabel Of all the books that were published a couple of weeks ago in this September’s post-lockdown publishing splurge, Susanna Clarke’s second…
September 29, 2020 Jack by Marilynne Robinson Reviewed by Harriet He was walking behind her, two steps behind. She did not look back. She said, “I’m not talking to you”. “I…
September 29, 2020 The Madness by Narcís Oller Translated from the Catalan by Douglas Suttle Reviewed by Eleanor Updegraff Joining the ranks of small presses dedicated to one particular region or language,…
September 22, 2020 Breasts and Eggs by Meiko Kawakami Translated by Sam Bett & David Boyd Reviewed by Anna Hollingsworth When Breasts and Eggs appeared in bookshops alongside all the Murakamis, Convenience Store…
September 22, 2020 Playing Nice by JP Delaney Reviewed by Harriet Back in 2017 I reviewed JP Delaney’s brilliant psychological thriller The Girl Before on Shiny (here). All I know about the…
September 17, 2020 People From My Neighbourhood by Hiromi Kawakami Translated by Ted Goossen Review by Anna Hollingsworth With Hiromi Kawakami, you don’t know what to expect other than that her writing will be…
September 15, 2020 The Lies you Told by Harriet Tyce Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long Last year I read Blood Orange, which was Harriet Tyce’s debut novel. One of the reasons I read it was…
September 10, 2020 Red Pill by Hari Kunzru Reviewed by Annabel I’ve been a fan of Kunzru’s writing since his first novel was published. He is one of those authors that always…
September 10, 2020 Non-Combatants and Others by Rose Macaulay Reviewed by Karen Langley Rose Macaulay is mainly known for her 1956 novel The Towers of Trebizond; yet she was an astonishingly prolific writer,…
September 1, 2020 Potterism by Rose Macaulay Reviewed by Hayley Anderton Handheld Press are fast becoming my favourite independent press. Their book choices are consistently interesting, their editions well produced with particularly…
September 1, 2020 Dangerous Ages by Rose Macaulay Reviewed by Harriet Another very welcome addition to the new British Library Women Writers series, Dangerous Ages was published in 1921. It’s a fascinating…
August 27, 2020 Antlers of Water: Writing on the Nature and Environment of Scotland, edited by Kathleen Jamie Reviewed by Hayley Anderton Ever since I read Findings sometime around a decade ago I’ve viewed anything with Kathleen Jamie’s name attached to it…
August 25, 2020 A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville Reviewed by Gill Davies Kate Grenville’s latest novel is a wonderful continuation of her investigation of Australian history and the people who made it….
August 25, 2020 My Summer Reading: Broken Harbour by Tana French Reviewed by Harriet I was very late in the day in discovering the novels of Tana French. I’d tried her first novel, In the Woods,…
August 20, 2020 My Summer Reading: The Manual of Darkness by Enrique de Hériz Translated by Frank Wynne Reviewed by Annabel Members of the Shiny reviewing team share previously published books from their shelves that they’re reading this…
August 18, 2020 Laura Laura by Richard Francis Reviewed by Harriet This funny, moving, absorbing, thought-provoking novel is about marriage, lust, friendship, ageing, memory, philosophy, and quantum mechanics. The film had been…
August 13, 2020 Tell Me How it Ends by V.B. Grey Reviewed by Gill Davies London in 1963, despite some remaining scars of wartime, is busy re-inventing itself with skyscrapers rising over bomb sites, American…
August 13, 2020 The Day My Grandfather Was a Hero by Paulus Hochgatterer Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch Reviewed by Eleanor Updegraff By day, Paulus Hochgatterer is a child psychiatrist – something that absolutely shows…
August 11, 2020 The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa Translated by Stephen Snyder Paperback review by Annabel Yoko Ogawa’s latest novel has been shortlisted for the International Booker Prize: the winner to be…
August 6, 2020 The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again by M. John Harrison Review by Karen Langley M. John Harrison has been described as one of the UK’s best-kept secrets, a hidden jewel in the literary crown…
