Day by Michael Cunningham
Review by Simon A new novel by Michael Cunningham is cause for celebration. I’ve read and loved all his novels – give or take a not-to-my-taste venture into science fiction…
The Bone Flower by Charles Lambert
Review by Rob Spence We are in London at its Victorian zenith, a city of imperial majesty, and also a city where the most abject poverty exists side-by-side with the…
Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward
Reviewed by Harriet The first weapon I ever held was my mother’s hand. I was a small child then, soft at the belly. On that night my mother took me…
Fifteen Wild Decembers by Karen Powell
Reviewed by Harriet ‘I’m sick of those two.’ The words arrived in my mouth like hard, round pebbles, threatened to take up all the space. I stopped for a moment,…
Encounters With Everyday Madness by Charlie Hill
The growth of social media seems to have generated a huge increase in madness. Not real madness, of course. Rather, it’s the condition affected by so many TikTokers and Instagrammers,…
Stories for Winter: and Nights by the Fire
Introduction by Simon Thomas Reviewed by Harriet Devine When I saw the title and the snowflakey cover of this winter offering from the British Library Women Writers series, I thought…
Penelope Unbound, by Mary Morrissy
Reviewed by Rob Spence I was once assured by a James Joyce scholar that there was more critical material on Joyce than there was on Shakespeare – pretty good going,…
Re-reading The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
Review by Annabel Ever since I read and reviewed this novel, back in the spring of 2015 when it was first published – my review for Shiny is here –…
The Running Grave by J.K. Rowling writing as Robert Galbraith
Reviewed by Harriet Like me, many people will have been waiting impatiently for the next installment of the ongoing saga of private detectives Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott. Some (not…
Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones
Reviewed by Lory Widmer Hess Neil Gaiman and I have at least one thing in common: we both started reading Diana Wynne Jones when we picked up one of her…
The Temple of Fortuna, by Elodie Harper
Review by Lory Widmer Hess The Temple of Fortuna is the third book in a trilogy that began with The Wolf Den and continued with The House with the Golden…
West Heart Kill by Dann McDorman
Review by Annabel Imagine, it’s the mid-late 1970s, the Independence Day long weekend, and the founder members of an exclusive country/hunting club, West Heart, are gathered in the Club’s extensive…
The Fraud by Zadie Smith
Reviewed by Harriet He saw of course that she was an old woman, but she didn’t move or speak like one. A high bosom, handsome, her face had few wrinkles…
Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig
Translated by Anthea Bell Review by Terence Jagger Stefan Zweig was born in Vienna, but lived in England, the USA and Brazil, where he apparently died in a double suicide…
Emmeline: The Orphan of the Castle, by Charlotte Smith
Review by Helen Parry Despite her virtuous nature, Emmeline Mowbray is destined to cause trouble because she is a beautiful, illegitimate orphan growing up in an isolated and decaying Pembrokshire…
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
Translated by Hilda Rosner Reviewed by Harriet Siddhartha had one single goal – to become empty, to become empty of thirst, desire, dreams, pleasure and sorrow – to let the…
The Siren’s Lament: Essential Stories by Jun’ichiro Tanizaki
Translated by Bryan Karetnyk Review by Karen Langley Jun’ichiro Tanizaki (1886-1965) was a Japanese author known for his erotically charged stories, and is considered one of his country’s best-known modern…
Absolutely and Forever by Rose Tremain
Reviewed by Harriet Rose Tremain’s novels – of which we’ve reviewed many on Shiny (see here) – have taken readers to the distant and not so distant past, and to…
The Evenings by Gerard Reve
Translated by Sam Garrett Review by Rob Spence In Amsterdam, just after the Second World War, Frits, a young office worker, lives a dreary and unfulfilling existence. He lives in…
Once a Monster by Robert Dinsdale
Review by David Harris Once a Monster is firmly historical fiction – it takes us back to 1861, where the narrative is very much set in the realities of the…
Introduction to Sally by Elizabeth von Arnim
Reviewed by Harriet ‘You’re really imprisoned, then’, said Carruthers, staring at her. ‘Imprisoned in your beauty’. Salvatia Pinner, always known as Sally despite her parents’ objections, is sixteen years old….
The Ghost Theatre by Mat Osman
Review by Annabel Mat Osman is best known as the bass guitarist of Suede, but he has also become a fine novelist. His first novel, The Ruins, which I reviewed…
The Circumference of the World by Lavie Tidhar
Review by David Harris Lavie Tidhar seems to be amazingly productive just now, publishing The Circumfernce of the World, an SF novel that really gets to grips with the fact that…
The Winding Stair by Jesse Norman
Review by Terence Jagger Jesse Norman has, for his first novel, cleverly selected two hugely important and influential characters to write about, whose importance is immediately obvious, but about whom many…