Desperate Games by Pierre Boulle
Translated by David Carter Review by Annabel Gaskell While Desperate Games is not a great work of literature, it is a book that is BIG on ideas. This philosophical satire on science,…
Translated by David Carter Review by Annabel Gaskell While Desperate Games is not a great work of literature, it is a book that is BIG on ideas. This philosophical satire on science,…
Reviewed by Ali Hope. Alison Moore’s debut novel The Lighthouse was a wonderful success for independent publishers Salt, being short-listed for the Man Booker prize; it was a deserved big hit with…
Reviewed by Eric Karl Anderson Towards the end of Linda Grant’s new novel, the narrator Adele asks her friend “How do we get people so wrong… when we are so…
Reviewed by Annabel Neil Bartlett came to my attention a few years ago when I read his decidedly tense 2008 novel Skin Lane set in London’s fur trade during the…
Translated by Steven Rendall and Lisa Neal Reviewed by Terence Jagger This is a complex murder mystery set in Perpignan, but its essential Frenchness is augmented and challenged by the…
Reviewed by Ann NYPD detective, Ellie Hatcher and her partner, JJ Rogan, are not best pleased when Ellie’s boyfriend, Assistant District Attorney Max Donovan, arranges that they should be ‘lent…
Reviewed by Jane Carter Kate Rhodes’ first novel, Crossbones Yard, showed her to be a crime writer to watch; and this, her second novel, certainly lives up to the high expectations…
Reviewed by Jane Carter When I first read about this book, Rebecca Mascull’s debut novel, I was intrigued. It seemed that the story would bring together so many elements I love…
Reviewed by Harriet Devine “A lace handkerchief without even a monogram on it and a bloodstained knife without fingerprints or marks of any kind”, McCarthy said. “There’s nothing whatever in…
(aka Big Little Lies) Reviewed by Victoria Best There’s a ruckus going down at Pirriwee Public Kindergarten where there ought to be an ordinary fund-raising trivia night. Elderly Mrs Ponder…
Reviewed by Margaret Freeman Forty years ago Famagusta, on the east coast of Cyprus, was one of the island’s most visited and most glamorous tourist resorts with its beautiful coastline…
Reviewed by Helen Parry Not having looked, not really, not with eyes that can see. That was what his fate came down to. Having accepted the job, solemnly – Yes,…
Translated by Ann Goldstein Review by Lizzie Siddal Every recent piece about Elena Ferrante seems to begin with the question, who is she? I’m not about to do that. The…
Reviewed by Sakura Gooneratne I get up and go out through the back door. The cold air shocks my skin as I go, ‘Shoo, shoo!’ to the cat. The feline…
A New Translation by Rosamund Bartlett Written by Helen Rappaport Taking on one of the great novels of the nineteenth century is a huge challenge for any Russian translator. Even…
Reviewed by Kathleen Holly Marsh The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender is an incredibly written book by American author Leslye Walton. The novel follows the story of Ava’s life…
By David Hebblethwaite Short stories are in our bones. They are often the first fiction we read or hear: fairy tales, bedtime stories – and at school (for example), they…
Reviewed by Harriet Devine The Book of Life is indeed a mighty tome, as Dan Brown would say. I read it with great delight, but was seriously wondering all the time…
Paperback Review by Dan L. The Martian by Andy Weir took the Sci-Fi reading populace by storm with the release of the hardback. So much so, that Ridley Scott decided he…
Reviewed by Kathleen Holly Marsh Age of Iron by Angus Watson is the first book in a trilogy giving an entertaining but gripping account of what happened when Julius Caesar tried…
Reviewed by Alice Farrant Stay Up With Me by Tom Barbash is a collection of short stories set in New York City. Each explores a disconnection between parents and children, lovers or…
Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell Back in March, I went to hear McEwan talk at the Oxford Literary Festival. He read a couple of passages from the final draft of his…
Translated by Sheila Frischman Reviewed by Susan Osborne This slim, very beautiful novel is a love story, a work of aching nostalgia and a glorious celebration of language. Its gorgeous,…
Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long Over the last ten years or so I have tracked down and read all of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s adult writing. I had been totally unaware that…