To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers
Review by Annabel Those who’ve visited Shiny New Books before may know of my passion for the novels of Becky Chambers, one of the most distinctive new voices in Science…
Beastings by Benjamin Myers
Reviewed by Kim Forrester Stories told in strong, distinctive voices using sparse, pared-back prose don’t come much better than Benjamin Myers’ Beastings, which has just been reissued by Bloomsbury. Originally published in…
Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield
Review by Jane Carter I fell in love with Diane Setterfield’s first book, I was disappointed by her second; but when I saw the title of this third novel I…
Shiny Flash Fiction by Simon
We have a little treat for you today. Our Shiny Editor at Large, Simon, occasionally writes pieces of flash fiction, which he has published on his own blog. He kindly…
Belfast Stories, edited by Paul McVeigh & Laura Frank
Review by Laura Marriott In Donegall Square, in the centre of Belfast, Lisa is working in the Welcome Centre. Tourists flock in searching for Game of Thrones sites and she…
Flames by Robbie Arnott
Review by Susan Osborne Tasmanian writer Robbie Arnott’s Flames is not an easy book to write about. It’s quite some way out of my usual literary territory, steeped as it…
The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun by Sébastien Japrisot
Translated by Helen Weaver Review by Annabel I had never heard of Sébastien Japrisot before reading this book, and afterwards, I wasn’t surprised to discover that he has been nicknamed…
Anna of Kleve – Queen of Secrets by Alison Weir
Review by Julie Barham It is well known that Henry VIII had six wives – and none more mysterious than the one that he married virtually unseen, and parted from…
Scrublands by Chris Hammer
Reviewed by Kim Forrester Fans of Jane Harper’s The Dry will love this debut crime novel by Chris Hammer. As well as a similar setting — a drought-stricken country town in Australia —Scrublands is…
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
Reviewed by Harriet Having been blown away by Colson Whitehead’s 2016 prizewinning novel The Underground Railroad, I was delighted to see that this new work was due out this summer….
One Part Woman by Perumal Murugan
Translated from the Tamil by Aniruddhan Vasudevan Review by Anna Hollingsworth An author hardly tops any lists of most hazardous jobs, but looking at the whirlwind that Perumal Murugan has…
The Chain by Adrian McKinty
Reviewed by Basil Ransome-Davies I’m no great fan of fiction written exclusively in the present tense, for all its reputed ‘immediacy’; I generally fancy novels with a past. But that’s…
Irreplaceable: The Fight to Save Our Wild Places by Julian Hoffman
Reviewed by Rebecca Foster More so than ever, I’m convinced that the purpose of literature is to educate us about the most pressing issues that we face as a species….
The Perfect Wife by J P Delaney
Review by Annabel I recently read J P Delaney’s first psychological thriller, The Girl Before, (which Harriet reviewed here) in advance of a crime panel event he was speaking at. The event…
The Seafarers: A Journey Among Birds by Stephen Rutt
Review by Liz Dexter This charming and perceptive book opens with a gut-wrenching account of taking off in a Very Small Plane from Kirkwall in Orkney, travelling to North Ronaldsay….
Putney by Sofka Zinovieff
Review by Susan Osborne Sofka Zinovieff’s Putney is a subtle novel which explores the fallout of sexual abuse all wrapped up in an engrossing piece of storytelling, accessible enough to…
Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson
Review by Anna Hollingsworth If Dr Frankenstein’s creation took the form of a book, Frankissstein is what I imagine it would look like. There’s a transgender doctor harvesting body parts for a…
Necropolis by Vladislav Khodasevich
Translated by Sarah Vitali Review by Karen Langley, The Russian Library series from Columbia University Press has thrown up some marvellous treasures of literature from Russia, several of which I’ve…
This Really Isn’t About You by Jean Hannah Edelstein
Review by Max Dunbar There’s a common British anecdote that goes: ‘We had some American friends here on holiday, and on the third day they drove to Stonehenge!’ The idea…
A Girl Returned by Donatella Di Pietrantonio
Translated by Ann Goldstein Review by Gill Davies It is 1975, somewhere in the south of Italy. A thirteen year old girl drags a suitcase and a bag of shoes…
Big Sky by Kate Atkinson
Reviewed by Harriet He wished that he could just once hear his sister play a solo again. Or help his sister pin up the hem on a dress she’d made….
The Dinosaurs Rediscovered: How a Scientific Revolution is Rewriting History by Michael J Benton
Reviewed by Liz Dexter Michael J. Benton is Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology and head of the Palaeontology Research Group at the University of Bristol, so you can be sure he…
The Frayed Atlantic Edge by David Gange
Reviewed by Peter Reason David Gange is historian at the University of Birmingham and a passion for mountains and wild water. Well before The Frayed Atlantic Edge was published, I…
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
Reviewed by Rebecca Foster It’s been six years since Elizabeth Gilbert’s last work of fiction, The Signature of All Things, (reviewed here), a warm, playful doorstopper telling the eventful life…