The Death of Francis Bacon by Max Porter
Reviewed by Annabel Max Porter emerged on the British literary scene in the mid-2010s as an author to be watched. His debut 2015 novella Grief is the Thing With Feathers…
Right After the Weather by Carol Anshaw
Paperback review by Susan Osborne Set in Carol Anshaw’s home town of Chicago in the months before and after the 2016 election, Right After the Weather explores both the state…
Rhododendron Pie by Margery Sharp
Reviewed by Harriet Ever since I started reading book review blogs, some years ago now, I have often encountered Margery Sharp’s name, generally accompanied by a heartfelt regret that many…
The Searcher by Tana French
Reviewed by Annabel A new novel from Tana French, Irish author of the acclaimed Dublin Murders series is always worth waiting for. Her latest, The Searcher, a standalone, is that…
Mr Wilder & Me by Jonathan Coe
Reviewed by Annabel Jonathan Coe’s latest novel couldn’t be further from his Costa-winning Middle England (which I reviewed for Shiny here), which examined 21st century Englishness as we went about…
The Story of Keth by Blanche Girouard
Reviewed by Rob Spence Blanche Girouard, born in 1898, was a prominent figure in the Anglo-Irish aristocracy of the early twentieth century. Her father was the Marquess of Waterford, and…
Artifact by Arlene Heyman
Reviewed by Rebecca Foster Lottie (or Dr Charlotte Kristin Hart Levinson, to give her full name), the protagonist of 77-year-old New York City psychiatrist Arlene Heyman’s debut novel, is determined…
Miss Mole by E H Young
Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long I seem to have spent most of my life rummaging around in second hand bookshops and in so doing have come across treasures and titles about…
Revolutionary Women from Gallic Books
Reviewed by Karen Langley French literature doesn’t lack a wide range of great women writers; the names which spring most readily to mind are those like George Sand, Colette, and…
Death Goes on Skis – Nancy Spain
Reviewed by Hayley Anderton Nancy Spain’s name rang a bell when I saw Virago were going to republish some of her books, but I couldn’t quite place it. I think…
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Paperback review by Anna Hollingsworth One way for a book to land a blow is to describe dark, brutal matters but to dress them in a language that is the…
That Old Country Music by Kevin Barry
Reviewed by David Hebblethwaite Kevin Barry is known for his short stories, and with good reason. It has been eight years since his last collection, Dark Lies the Island, so…
The Lost and the Damned by Olivier Norek
Translated by Nick Caistor Reviewed by Gill Davies This is the first novel by Olivier Norek to be translated into English. It was first published in France in 2013 and…
What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez
Review by Annabel My first exposure to Nunez was through her breakthrough novel The Friend, finally gaining her prizewinner status (the US National Book Award) and now reprints of earlier…
Islands of Mercy by Rose Tremain
Reviewed by Harriet Islands of Mercy is set in 1865, and, in a split narrative, covers events in England and Sarawak, in Borneo. Throughout most of the novel, the two…
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
Reviewed by Anna Hollingsworth Imagine a mining town and everything covered in shades of coal, from the people to the buildings to the sky and every single surface. That’s the…
Mr Fox by Barbara Comyns
Reviewed by Harriet It’s exactly ten years since I discovered Barbara Comyns for the first time. Born in 1909, she had an unusual upbringing and a somewhat chequered career, both…
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
Translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori Reviewed by Anna Hollingsworth How do you feel about the prospect of someone having sex with their grandfather? And them justifying it by the fact…
Women’s Weird 2: More Strange Stories by Women, 1891-1937, edited by Melissa Edmundson
Reviewed by Hayley Anderton Women’s Weird: Strange Stories by Women 1890 -1940 was a standout book from last year – it’s still genuinely one of the most unsettling anthologies I’ve…
British Weird, Selected Shorter Fiction 1893-1937 edited by James Machin
Reviewed by Hayley Anderton I spent some time looking up the definition of Weird as opposed to Horror in preparation for writing this, and now have the perfect opportunity to…
The Harpy by Megan Hunter
Reviewed by Annabel Megan Hunter’s beautiful and poetic debut novella, The End We Started From (reviewed here for Shiny by Lucy Unwin), the story of a woman about to give…
The Unbearable Bassington by Saki
Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long Francesca Bassington sat in the drawing room of her house in Blue Street regaling herself and her estimable brother Henry with China tea and small cress…
The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante
Translated by Anne Goldstein Reviewed by Anna Hollingsworth Adolescence can be brutal, and in The Lying Life of Adults Elena Ferrante brings it out in all its ugly passions, grievances…
One Billion Years to the End of the World by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Translated by Antonina W. Bouis Reviewed by Karen Langley Science fiction writing often gets a bad press; dismissed as lightweight genre writing, mocked for some of the horrendous cover art…