Reviewed by Victoria. Quentin Castle, lanky, short-sighted and newly-married, has recently been promoted to junior partner at his father’s literary agency. Everyone knows this is nepotism, especially his father’s other…
Reviewed by Harriet Cecilia Ekbäck’s impressive debut novel has been described as Nordic noir, but I think that’s a bit too neat a pigeonhole. Nordic it certainly is, being set…
Reviewed by Simon It is probably no longer news to you that the British Library are reprinting a series of Crime Classics; some of their choices have hit the bestseller…
Reviewed by Alice Farrant Mercy Seat is a beautifully stirring novel, set in a remote seaside town in west Wales. Luke, our protagonist and narrator, is an aimless young man on…
Reviewed by Annabel. The publisher Europa Editions is primarily known in the UK for bringing translated fiction, mainly from Europe, to English-speaking readers. However, eight months ago they signed their…
Reviewed by Denise Kong Don’t Let Him Know is a multi-stranded tale, whose protagonists struggle to find their social, sexual and familial identities against the cultural backdrops of India and USA….
Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long In Mara Kay’s first book, Masha, we followed the adventures of Masha Fredericks as she travelled to St Petersburg from her home in the country to attend…
Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long This is the third in a series of books featuring Clara Vine, a film actress in pre-war Berlin. If you have not read the earlier titles Black…
Reviewed by Eleanor Franzén Speculative fiction often works best when it takes one element of our everyday lives and tweaks it, showing us how much we rely on a certain…
Review by Susan Osborne I hope you’ll excuse me if this review reads more like a pean of praise – or even a gush – than a hard-nosed critque: Nickolas…
Review by Susan Osborne It’s nearly thirty years since the publication of Patrick Gale’s first novel, The Aerodynamics of Pork, and for much of that time he was relatively unknown. Richard…
Reviewed by Annabel Unless you live in a hole in the ground (more of that later), it can’t have escaped your attention that Kazuo Ishiguro has…
Translated by Jennifer Rappaport Reviewed by Harriet Anna Gavalda is a greatly admired novelist in her native France. All her books have been bestsellers and one, Ensemble, c’est tout (rather curiously retitled Hunting…
Reviewed by Harriet I must admit that I’d never heard of Lionel Davidson before this novel came my way. I now know him to have been a celebrated writer of…
Paperback review by Susan Osborne Please don’t be put off by the Barbie-pink jacket adorning the paperback edition of Nicole Mary Kelby’s novel. It isn’t a sickly sweet, girly read…
Reviewed by Victoria If, like me, you can dimly remember the furore that arose when Mikhail Baryshnikov defected to the United States, and if, like me, you thought he was…
Reviewed by Bookgazing. David is a social outcast; dubbed ‘Freakshow’ by the bullies at his posh school, Eden Park, and hopelessly in love with the most popular boy in school….
Review by Bookgazing. ‘This is a story about love,’ Jandy Nelson says in her preface to I’ll Give You the Sun ‘crazy complicated love of all kinds: between guys and girls, guys…
Reviewed by Annabel Mills is one of my favourite authors; a new novel from him is a must-read for me. He has found a unique furrow in the world of…
Reviewed by David Harris ‘The Vagrant is his name’ runs the strapline for this book. ‘He has no other.’ In fact, the titular character is never called ‘The Vagrant’ by…
Reviewed by Meghan Alice and the Fly opens with Greg, a very shy, awkward teen boy who is deathly afraid of Them – spiders. This fear permeates many of his thoughts, and amongst…
Reviewed by Paul Fishman Why Glass? And, for that matter, why glass? Well, first there’s the protagonist, or hero of sorts, Günther Glass. (Yes, it’s a play on words and a…
Reviewed by Victoria This is a debut novel from a short story writer, and there’s a way in which you can sense the palimpsest of shorter fiction underneath the sweep…
Reviewed by Harriet I hope some children today still read E. Nesbit as avidly as I did, and my own children did. I loved everything of hers, but a particular…
