For Two Thousand Years by Mihail Sebastian
Translated by Philip Ó Ceallaigh Reviewed by Sakura Gooneratne I’ve been beaten and the world doesn’t stand still for such things. Published in 1934 when he was only 27, Mihail…
Translated by Philip Ó Ceallaigh Reviewed by Sakura Gooneratne I’ve been beaten and the world doesn’t stand still for such things. Published in 1934 when he was only 27, Mihail…
Reviewed by Gill Davies This is Nicholas Searle’s first novel. He apparently began it while a student of the on-line Curtis Brown Creative Writing School, and they rushed to buy…
Reviewed by Eleanor Franzén Are there ghosts at either end of life? It’s not uncommon, from time to time, to feel as though everything about your life is being orchestrated…
Reviewed by Annabel There are only 105 pages to this short novel, making it a novella really, but it sure does pack a punch. It has a cast of characters…
Reviewed by Karen Langley Victorian author Wilkie Collins is probably best known nowadays for The Woman in White, The Moonstone, and being best buddies with Dickens. However, a quick glance at his Wikipedia…
Reviewed by Susan Osborne Curiously, Us, Conductors is not the only novel published in January to feature the theremin, the musical instrument whose strange haunting sound once heard is hard to forget….
Reviewed by Linda Boa Following The Few, the first in this series, The American sees our lone wolf detective, Leone Scamarcio, take on a case which leads him deeper into the political arena, where conspiracies…
Reviewed by Simon When I told people that I was writing about bestiality during my DPhil, they were a little surprised that it got a look-in amongst the charming middlebrow…
Reviewed by Simon I’ve got all the John Bude reprints that have appeared in the British Library Crime Classics series, and have given several to other people, but Death on the…
Reviewed by Annabel The anticipation of re-reading a book first read and enjoyed as a child always gives me a feeling of mild discomfort. Can it work on an adult…
Reviewed by Annabel Do you remember how the wonderful TV series Six Feet Under began? In the opening scene, one of the key characters, Nathaniel Fisher Sr., is run over by a…
Translated by Paul Vincent Reviewed by Karen Langley Silvio Alberto ‘Tip’ Marugg is an author new to me, and one who has quite a small body of work. Of Dutch-Antillean…
Paperback review by Judith Wilson This book arrived with impeccable timing: I was tired of unseasonably warm UK temperatures and longing for a December frost. From its snowy jacket design…
Reviewed by Karen Heenan-Davies When Edna O’Brien released her memoir Country Girl in 2012, there was intense speculation that this would be her swansong. She is after all in her eighties. But those pundits…
Translated by Isabelle Kaufeler Reviewed by Marina Sofia The Baztan valley in the Pyrenees in the north-east of Spain is misty, rainy and remote. Immersed in Basque traditions and superstitions,…
Translated by Rawley Grau Reviewed by Chelsea McGill Ana, a 62-year-old graphic designer from Slovenia, has run away to a completely foreign place – Burkina Faso. There she meets Ismael,…
Reviewed by Linda Boa This slim collection of a dozen stories by American novelist and short story writer Helen Ellis is something of a wee gem. With stories ranging from…
Reviewed by Harriet I suspect that neither of these two great classics has ever been out of print since their respective first appearances in 1719 and 1897, and a quick…
Paperback review by Gill Davies This is Sarah Ward’s first novel. She is a very experienced reader of the genre – she blogs at Crimepieces and reviews and judges Scandinavian crime writing. It…
Reviewed by Eleanor Franzén Forgiveness is a word like tiger–there’s footage of it and verifiably it exists but few of us have seen it close and wild or known it…
Reviewed by Hayley Anderton I do love the British Library Crime Classics series. It feels like it goes from strength to strength, or maybe it’s that this past year’s offerings…
Reviewed by Laura Marriott On a small crossroads near the bottom of Manor Street, one of the main through ways in Dublin 7, there is a rundown, abandoned pub called…
Reviewed by Linda Boa If you had killed someone you would remember. Wouldn’t you? In his latest novel, which it goes without saying will be absolutely huge, his legion of fans…
Translated by Richard Dixon Reviewed by Paul Fishman For a short novel, Numero Zero is amazingly leisurely and discursive. It’s like an Arabian Nights for conspiracy theorists, historians of the late 20th century and…