The Perfect Wife by J P Delaney
Review by Annabel I recently read J P Delaney’s first psychological thriller, The Girl Before, (which Harriet reviewed here) in advance of a crime panel event he was speaking at. The event…
Putney by Sofka Zinovieff
Review by Susan Osborne Sofka Zinovieff’s Putney is a subtle novel which explores the fallout of sexual abuse all wrapped up in an engrossing piece of storytelling, accessible enough to…
Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson
Review by Anna Hollingsworth If Dr Frankenstein’s creation took the form of a book, Frankissstein is what I imagine it would look like. There’s a transgender doctor harvesting body parts for a…
A Girl Returned by Donatella Di Pietrantonio
Translated by Ann Goldstein Review by Gill Davies It is 1975, somewhere in the south of Italy. A thirteen year old girl drags a suitcase and a bag of shoes…
Big Sky by Kate Atkinson
Reviewed by Harriet He wished that he could just once hear his sister play a solo again. Or help his sister pin up the hem on a dress she’d made….
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
Reviewed by Rebecca Foster It’s been six years since Elizabeth Gilbert’s last work of fiction, The Signature of All Things, (reviewed here), a warm, playful doorstopper telling the eventful life…
Tragedy, Farce and the Future: the Red Circle Minis
Review by Karen Langley As I’ve explained in my Bookbuzz feature, the Red Circle Minis are three slim volumes of original writing published by Red Circle Authors. Each book is…
Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain
Translated by Jane Aitken and Emily Boyce Reviewed by Annabel Since I discovered the feelgood novels by French author Antoine Laurain, brought to us in translation by Gallic Books, I’ve…
The Quarter by Najib Mahfouz
Translated by Roger Allen Review by Anna Hollingsworth On the rare occasions that someone uncovers unpublished work by a deceased writer, publishing takes an archeological turn. An unpublished manuscript, like…
Cari Mora by Thomas Harris
Review by Basil Ransome-Davies The day my review copy of Cari Mora arrived I spent the afternoon strolling on Morecambe’s splendid promenade. The view across the Bay from the Naples…
The Cracks in our Armour by Anna Gavalda
Translated by Alison Anderson Reviewed by Harriet Way back in the early days of Shiny (issue 5 to be exact) I reviewed Anna Gavalda’s slender novel Billie. As I said…
Barcelona Tales, ed Helen Constantine
Translated by Peter Bush Review by Karen Langley If you’re an armchair traveller like I am, the “City Tales” collection of books from Oxford University Press will be a real…
Lisbon Tales, ed. Helen Constantine
Translated by Amanda Hopkinson Review by Karen Langley If you’re an armchair traveller like I am, the “City Tales” collection of books from Oxford University Press will be a real…
Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan
Reviewed by Anna Hollingsworth My first reaction was a desperately deep sigh when I heard that Ian McEwan would be taking on human-like artificial intelligence as the topic for his…
Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller
Reviewed by Annabel I’ve followed Fuller’s writing career since her marvellous debut, Our Endless Numbered Days, through her second totally different novel Swimming Lessons (reviewed here and here). Her third novel is different again. On first…
Stanley and Elsie by Nicola Upson
Reviewed by Harriet Nicola Upson is best known to me, and probably to you, as the author of a series of excellent historical crime novels featuring the well-known novelist and…
Being Various: New Irish Short Stories, ed. Lucy Caldwell
Review by Laura Marriott Ireland is going through a golden age of writing: that has never been more apparent. I wanted to capture something of the energy of this explosion,…
We, The Survivors by Tash Aw
Review by Rob Spence Malaysian novelist Tash Aw’s fourth novel marks a departure in style for him. Rather than the broad canvas he presented in earlier works such as The…
Cold For the Bastards of Pizzofalcone by Maurizio de Giovanni
Translated by Antony Shugaar Reviewed by Gill Davies This is the third book in a series of police procedural novels by the successful Italian crime writer Maurizio de Giovanni (also…
Lux by Elizabeth Cook
Reviewed by Julie Barham This is an immensely profound book. It encompasses huge themes – birth and death, self imposed exile and imprisonment, the deep thought of the well known…
Doggerland by Ben Smith
Reviewed by Rebecca Foster There’s no sign of a decline in the popularity of dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction. If anything, it’s becoming even more prevalent – a symptom of our…
The Parisian by Isabella Hammad
Review by Anna Hollingsworth In the run-up to its publication, Isabella Hammad’s The Parisian was trumpeted as one of the most significant debuts of the year. There were promises of…
The Other Americans by Laila Lalami
Review by Gill Davies The cover illustration for the book is an aerial view of a suburban street. A pattern of identical houses with green lawns and tidy spaces symbolises…
Crossing by Pajtim Statovci
Translated by David Hackston Reviewed by Anna Hollingsworth Crossing is perhaps one of the vaguest book titles I have come across recently, especially given the trend towards sentence-length titles (think Eleanor Oliphant…