City of Light by Rupert Christiansen
Reviewed by Karen Langley The city of Paris exerts an eternal fascination; chic and glamorous, the haunt of revolutionaries and intellectuals, and stuffed with romance, it can be many things…
The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas
Reviewed by Annabel The first thing you need to do with this sparkling debut novel is to suspend your disbelief. Just accept that time travel was invented by a quartet…
King of the North Wind: The Life of Henry II in Five Acts by Claudia Gold
Review by Liz Dexter Henry II, father of Richard Lionheart and King John, husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine and murderer by instruction of Thomas Becket is, as Gold points out…
The Idiot by Elif Batuman
Reviewed by Anna Hollingsworth In his The Idiot – the original – Dostoyevsky set out on a mission to depict “the positively good and beautiful man.” The namesake, Prince Myshkin,…
To Throw Away Unopened by Viv Albertine
Reviewed by Annabel When punk happened, although I was the right age – in my later teens, but I’d already diverted off into prog rock, (I know!). So, I never…
The Bright Side of Life by Emile Zola
Translated by Andrew Rothwell Reviewed by Harriet Fans of Monty Python may have a bit of trouble with this title – I’ve had their iconic song stuck in my head…
How to Change your Mind: The new science of psychedelics by Michael Pollan
Review by Peter Reason ‘The soul should always stand ajar.’ It is fitting that Michael Pollan introduces his latest book on the resurgence in interest in LSD, psilocybin and other…
Girl with Dove by Sally Bayley
Reviewed by Harriet If you’ve read Annabel’s account of the Golden Booker presentation, you’ll have noticed that one of the judges, Lemn Sissay, urged the audience to read this book….
The Life to Come by Michelle de Kretser
Reviewed by Kim Forrester There’s something about Michelle de Kretser’s silky prose combined with her superbly drawn characters and her forensic eye for detail that makes The Life to Come —the Australian…
Sentimental Tales by Mikhail Zoshchenko
Translated by Boris Dralyuk Review by Karen Langley Russian satirical writing has a rich heritage, stretching all the way back to the time of Catherine the Great and continuing into…
Release by Patrick Ness
Review by Annabel Only the fact that I’d never read Mrs Dalloway blinded me to the power of the first sentence of Ness’s latest novel: Adam would have to get the flowers…
Room to Dream by Kristine McKenna and David Lynch
Reviewed by Harriet David Lynch’s films are certainly not for everybody. Almost all of them are strange, dark, and increasingly hard to pin down to a plot summary, let alone…
Vernon Subutex 2 by Virginie Despentes
Translated by Frank Wynne Review by Basil Ransome-Davies Almost two decades ago I saw a French movie called Baise-moi. It contained, besides much simulated violence, what Wikipedia fastidiously calls ‘several…
The Aviator by Eugene Vodolazkin
Translated by Lisa Hayden Reviewed by Karen Langley You awake in a hospital bed. You have no memory of who you are or how you came to be there, apart…
Adjustment Day by Chuck Palahnuik
Review by Rob Spence I began reading this book just as the outcry over the Trump regime’s treatment of migrants was gathering pace. It seemed an appropriate time to enter…
Disoriental by Négar Djavadi
Translated by Tina A Kover Review by Marina Sofia With a blurb promising a story of growing up in exile and even the title cleverly playing on words ‘disoriented’ and…
Sacred Britannia: The Gods and Rituals of Roman Britain by Miranda Aldhouse-Green
Review by Liz Dexter Miranda Aldhouse-Green is a specialist in Romano-British studies and Iron Age archaeology and has written other books on myth and religion in this period, so you…
Retribution Road by Antonin Varenne
Translated by Sam Taylor Review by Gill Davies Having become rather jaded with the predictability of the crime fiction genre and wearied by the sheer number published, I’ve been interested…
The Golden Booker Celebration
Who will win in 2018? Do share your longlist predictions… Report by Annabel When I booked my ticket for this event a couple of months ago, I was lucky enough…
The Man Booker Prize at 50: ‘The ones that got away’
It’s not always the case (or often?) that judges and readers are all in agreement on longlists, let alone the shortlists or eventual winners of literary prizes. Here we look…
The Man Booker Prize at 50: 2009-2017
And finally, this fifth decade brings us up to date with previous winners of the Man Booker Prize. In 2010, the organisation decided to create “The Lost Booker” to celebrate…
The Man Booker Prize at 50: 1999-2008
The prize’s fourth decade marked the first time, in 2001, that the longlist was revealed to the world at large. It decade also marked two second wins for previous winners,…
The Man Booker Prize at 50: 1989-1998
During the prize’s third decade, for the second time in its history, two books tied for top spot in 1992. Then, in 1993, the prize turned twenty-five. To celebrate, three…
The Man Booker Prize at 50: 1979-1988
The second decade of the prize, apart from producing the “Booker of Bookers” in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, was enlivened by some tight judging decisions. In 1980, it was William Golding…