Getting Colder by Amanda Coe
Review by Judith Wilson I had read and been intrigued by Amanda Coe’s strong debut novel, What They Do in the Dark (Virago, 2011), so I couldn’t wait to lay my hands…
The Fires of Autumn by Irène Némirovsky
Translated by Sandra Smith Reviewed by Harriet The Fires of Autumn, first published in France in 1957, is the most recent of Irène Némirovsky’s novels to be translated into English….
Fog Island Mountains by Michelle Bailat-Jones
Reviewed by Rebecca Hussey Full disclosure: I’ve been reading Michelle Bailat-Jones’s blog for many years now, we have been “internet friends” for most of that time, and I wrote book…
The Two Hotel Francforts by David Leavitt
Written by Victoria It’s the summer of 1940 and Lisbon in Portugal is bursting at the seams with people desperate to leave mainland Europe and the march of the Nazis….
Jigsaw Man by Elena Forbes
Reviewed by Kathleen Holly Marsh Jigsaw Man is a typical crime novel following two murder investigations set in and around London in the present day. Detective Inspector Mark Tartaglia is the…
A Price to Pay by Alex Capus
Translated by John Brownjohn Reviewed by Annabel Alex Capus is a French-Swiss novelist who writes in German. He was born in France and now lives in Switzerland. He has written…
Some Luck by Jane Smiley
Reviewed by Rebecca Foster Jane Smiley’s thirteenth novel returns to the winning formula of her 1991 Pulitzer Prize winner, A Thousand Acres, which transplanted King Lear to an Iowan farm. Some Luck is the first…
Lamentation by C.J. Sansom
Reviewed by Adèle Geras Lamentation is the sixth novel in a series which began in 2003 with Dissolution and which has continued through Dark Fire, Sovereign, Revelation, and Heartstone. As a series, it…
Amnesia by Peter Carey
Review by Victoria I first read Peter Carey in 1988, when Oscar and Lucinda won the Booker Prize. I wasn’t sure I could say I liked him exactly, but I knew I…
Chinaski by Frances Vick
Reviewed by Annabel. A novel about a British Rock Band in the 1990s with a grainy image of a Marshall amplifier on its front cover is bound to grab the…
I Was Here by Gayle Forman (YA)
Reviewed by Annabel When I read Gayle Forman’s debut novel If I Stay back in 2009, the juggernaut that is today’s YA book industry was in its relative infancy. Being in my…
Good Girls Don’t Die by Isabelle Grey
Reviewed by Beth Townsend Good Girls Don’t Die is the first in a new crime series written by Isabelle Grey, known for her previous psychological thrillers Out of Sight and Bad Mother. Good Girls Don’t…
Notes on a Cuff by Mikhail Bulgakov
Translated by Roger Cockrell Reviewed by Karen Langley When Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov’s magnum opus The Master and Margarita was finally published, decades after his death, it took the literary world by…
Dear Reader by Paul Fournel
Translated by David Bellos Reviewed by Karen Langley One of the continual debates nowadays amongst readers is the notion of paper versus e-reader. So it’s a delight to come across…
Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat
Review by Claire Hayes There’s an enchanted sense of shared humanity about Edwidge Danticat’s third adult novel Claire of the Sea Light. As a freak wave off the coast of the Haitian…
The Restoration of Otto Laird by Nigel Packer
Written by Victoria After a long and busy life at the forefront of modern architecture, Otto Laird at 78 is more than happy to live peacefully in Switzerland with his…
Tell No Tales by Eva Dolan
Written by Victoria One of the things fiction does best is bring to life otherwise abstract debates on political or philosophical matters. There’s nothing like a story for showing us…
Bodies of Light by Sarah Moss
Paperback review by Susan Osborne Eagle-eyed readers already familiar with Sarah Moss’s work may recognise one of the characters in her new novel. May first made her appearance, albeit in…
The Hollow Land by Jane Gardam
Reviewed by Lory Widmer Hess A witch becomes a friend. A pool of blood turns out to be blackberry juice. A theft turns into a gift, and a surly city…
The Same Old Story by Ivan Goncharov
Translated by Stephen Pearl Reviewed by Karen Langley Russian author Ivan Goncharov is known to most Anglophone readers for his novel Oblomov; indeed, with that book he created a stereotype who’s…
Funny Girl by Nick Hornby
Reviewed by Annabel A new publication from Nick Hornby is always something I look forward to, be it a new volume of his positive book reviews from The Believer magazine or,…
Runaway by Peter May
Reviewed by Harriet I left a note for my folks on my pillow. I can’t remember now exactly what it was I wrote. Something stupid, about going in search of…
Harraga by Boualem Sansal
Translated by Frank Wynne Reviewed by Alice Farrant Harraga by Boualem Sansal is a dazzling mix of poetry and prose set in the old quarters of Algiers, capital of Algeria. Here…
The Woman Who Stole My Life by Marian Keyes
Reviewed by Laura Marriott Meet Stella Sweeney, a Dublin wife, mother and beautician in her early forties. Stella’s chaotic but seemingly content life is abruptly interrupted before spiralling in directions…