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 time so rampant and so splendid…
Reviewed by Harriet Nevertheless a certain class of dishonesty, dishonesty magnificent in its proportions, and climbing into high places, has become at the same time so rampant and so splendid…
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 time reading other people’s private letters…
Translated by Ros Schwartz & Lulu Norman Reviewed by Alice Farrant About My Mother is the story of a Lalla Fatma, written down by her son Tahar as she lays…
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 successfully writing crime fiction since 1977,…
Reviewed by David Harris Alastair Reynolds has a reputation as a prolific writer of SF and made waves a few years ago when he signed a ten book deal with…
Reviewed by Harriet The rain wept on him from the eyes of the trees. The winter afternoon waned to its close. He withdrew into himself, stifling thought, powerless to guide…
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 more than a little idealised but…
Translated by Jane Aitken and Emily Boyce Reviewed by Annabel I experienced the sheer joy of reading French author Antoine Laurain earlier this summer when I finally read his first…
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 of the city and to appreciate…
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 and Jeffrey Deaver and has been…
Reviewed by Harriet I saw the ships in the water and the lights of the stars in the water and the reflections under the bridges. The pubs were about to…
Paperback review by Annabel If you’ve not yet encountered Mick Herron, you are in for a treat with Slow Horses. Recently reprinted, it’s the first in a series of British…
Translated by David Carter Reviewed by Simon If the name Antoine de Saint-Exupéry means anything to you, it probably only means one thing: The Little Prince. It was this contrast…
Review by Annabel In three novels now, Gavin Extence has proven that he can maintain a light-hearted narrative that can ultimately uplift, no matter how bad life gets. That’s not…
Reviewed by Victoria Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher is far better known in the States than in the UK, and better known as a food writer than a novelist. She is…
Reviewed by Karen Heenan-Davies June 1989. After months of student-led demonstrations in Beijing the Government sends in the troops. Tanks roll down the streets of the capital. Several hundred demonstrators…
Review by Peter Hobson This book recounts the puzzling behaviour and absurdities of the human world as narrated by the famous, and sadly now missing, Library Cat of Edinburgh University….
Reviewed by Victoria You might think that writing a chronicle of a modern family might be a step down in terms of drama for Ann Patchett from opera singers held…
Translated by Allison Markin Powell Review by Annabel There are some books you can judge by their covers. Portobello books have triumphed in this respect with the evocative ‘levitation’ portraits…
Reviewed by Susan Osborne Fans of Jay McInerney’s series of novels which began with Brightness Falls way back in 1992, won’t need to be told who the Calloways are nor will they…
Reviewed by David Hebblethwaite Paul Kingsnorth made waves with his first novel, The Wake (2014), which was set around the Norman Conquest and written in a modified version of Old English. It…
Reviewed by Victoria Confidence has to be one of the funniest novels that I’ve read this year. It’s a welcome return to the campus novel but so fresh and contemporary…
Reviewed by Harriet There surely won’t be many people reading this who haven’t seen the film or the TV series, even if they haven’t read the original book, which has…
Reviewed by Helen Skinner There was always a good chance that I was going to love The Revelations of Carey Ravine. A book which has been compared with Sarah Waters, Amitav…