Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
Reviewed by Claire Boyle Geek Love by Katherine Dunn is like nothing you have ever read before. Literally. Hyperbole or not, it is one of those cult classics that those who…
Look Back in Anger by John Osborne
Reviewed by Annabel Faber & Faber is one of my favourite publishers; in recent years with Faber Finds they’ve started to make the most of their impressive backlist – we’ve…
Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro
Reviewed by Victoria In 2013, Alice Munro was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, to put on the mantlepiece alongside her 2009 Man Booker International award, the National Book Critics…
The Whirlpool by George Gissing
Reviewed by Hayley Anderton No matter how many classics I read it never fails to surprise me how little people, or even society, seem to change. The realism of The Whirlpool reminded…
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
Reviewed by Stefanie Hollmichel I first read Orlando by Virginia Woolf many years ago. Fresh in love with Woolf’s writing and having just learned about her romance with Vita Sackville-West, I read…
The River by Rumer Godden
Reviewed by Kate Gardner This novel (novella really – even bulked out with short stories, an introduction and a preface it’s still barely 200 pages) explores childhood, and specifically that…
Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane
Translated by Mike Mitchell Reviewed by Harriet The great German novelist Thomas Mann (1875-1955) apparently said that if you had to reduce your library to six novels, Effi Briest should…
Basil Street Blues by Michael Holroyd
Reviewed by Simon It takes a certain sort of bravado to assume that your family will be interesting to people who don’t know you. Not just your family in connection…
The Hog’s Back Mystery by Freeman Wills Crofts
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…
The Youngest Lady in Waiting by Mara Kay
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…
Capital Crimes: London Mysteries, edited by Martin Edwards
Reviewed by Harriet The relation between Douglas Stone and the notorious Lady Sannox was very well known both among the fashionable circles of which she was a brilliant member, and…
Little Tales of Misogyny by Patricia Highsmith
Reviewed by Gill Davies This collection of stories, in the Virago Modern Classics series, was first published in German in 1975 (in English in 1977). The stories thus emanate from…
Ross Poldark by Winston Graham
Reviewed by Annabel In recent weeks, it seems that the entire female population of the UK (well, at least all those of a certain age!), have been glued to our…
The Happy Tree by Rosalind Murray
Reviewed by Simon Thomas Devotees of Persephone Books will know that the best thing about this reprint house is bringing to light authors whose work has long lain unjustly neglected….
Those Who Walk Away by Patricia Highsmith
Reviewed by Harriet. ‘The No.1 greatest crime writer’, proclaims The Times on the covers of Virago’s new reprints of some of Patricia Highsmith’s lesser known novels. That’s obviously a claim…
The Waves by Virginia Woolf
Reviewed by Stefanie Hollmichel Oxford World Classics has produced a terrific reissue of Virginia Woolf’s novel The Waves. There are helpful endnotes, biographical information, a selected bibliography and an introduction. But…
Privileged Children and The Bohemian Girl by Frances Vernon
Reviewed by Harriet Well, Faber Finds has done it again. In Issue 1 of SNB I reviewed some of their reprints of the brilliant psychological thrillers by Celia Fremlin, and they…
Tepper Isn’t Going Out by Calvin Trillin
Reviewed by Simon It is very apt that the publishing house that has just reprinted Tepper Isn’t Going Out, the quirky comic masterpiece by Calvin Trillin which was originally published in…
Pure Juliet by Stella Gibbons
Reviewed by Hayley Anderton I was aware that Vintage were publishing some newly discovered Stella Gibbons novels, but until Simon asked me to read Pure Juliet for Shiny New Books I hadn’t…
The Small Widow by Janet McNeill
Reviewed by Simon Janet McNeill is a name probably known only to aficionados of Virago Modern Classics, where Tea at Four O’Clock once made an appearance. I have to confess to not having…
Duveen by S.N. Behrman
Reviewed by Simon A good book review – according to the unwritten rules agreed by the Shiny New Books editors – should be about the book, not simply an essay…
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…
Doctor Thorne & Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope
Reviewed by Harriet Anthony Trollope was born in April 1815, which makes this year his bicentenary. I assume that this is why Oxford World’s Classics is reissuing his novels in…