The Life of Elves by Muriel Barbery
Translated by Alison Anderson Reviewed by Annabel If like me, you read and loved Muriel Barbery’s bestselling novel The Elegance of the Hedgehog, which blended romance, philosophy and a teenaged genius…
The White Cottage Mystery by Margery Allingham
Reviewed by Simon Bloomsbury Reader has done an excellent job in bringing back many neglected authors (including some of my favourites, such as E.M. Delafield and Ivy Compton-Burnett), but these…
Born on a Tuesday by Elnathan John
Reviewed by Terence Jagger This is a tough book, about Nigerian politics, Islam, and a young boy growing up without guidance – and his journey from nothing to nothing by…
Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun by Sarah Ladipo Manyika
Reviewed by Chelsea McGill Dr. Morayo Da Silva is a retired English professor living in San Francisco. As she goes about her daily life, she comes into contact with other…
Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
Reviewed by Victoria To add to a long list of lines I wish I’d written, I read somewhere that Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann was ‘Harlequin romance meets…
The Narrow Bed by Sophie Hannah
Reviewed by Harriet Nobody who’s a fan of Sophie Hannah’s crime fiction will be surprised to learn that The Narrow Bed features an inexplicable set of crimes, enough twists to make you…
The High Mountains of Portugal by Jann Martel
Reviewed by Anna Hollingsworth There was going to be a novel about Portugal much earlier. In Life of Pi, the author within the story tells the reader how he had gone…
The Prose Factory by D.J. Taylor
Reviewed by Liz Dexter This ambitious book aims to provide a history of what it calls ‘literary life’ in the 20th century, encompassing an examination of writers, reviewers, the editors and…
Treats by Lara Williams
Reviewed by Karen Langley Despite there being fewer outlets for the format nowadays, the short story just keeps on going as a valid art form; and luckily we’re blessed with…
The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes
Reviewed by Marina Sofia Julian Barnes is an avowed Francophile, as we have learnt from previous works such as Flaubert’s Parrot, Cross Channel and his book of essays Something to Declare. In fact, his…
Questions for Sharon Guskin
1. The Forgetting Time is your first novel, and we understand that previously your career has been in the film world. Have you always wanted to write? Pretty much. I first started…
The Ex by Alafair Burke
Reviewed by Ann How well does one human being ever really know another? This is the question that criminal defence lawyer Olivia Randall is forced to ask as she attempts…
The Light of Day by Eric Ambler
Reviewed by Annabel Ambler was one of the great British thriller writers and his works are ripe for reappraisal. They had gradually become out of print until Penguin brought out…
Reading for Student Experiences
Written by Anna Hollingsworth Finite, enclosed spaces, power relationships, the discovery of independence, and the pursuit of knowledge: university as a backdrop offers perhaps more grand themes for novels than…
The Story of Alice by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
Reviewed by Simon There are few children’s literary characters who are as well known as Alice et al. From Alice bands to Mad Hatters, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Cheshire Cat,…
When We Were Alive by C.J. Fisher
Reviewed by Simon Anybody who keeps an eye on book news, or the stands in WH Smith at Christmastime, will probably have observed the sensation of the YouTube Book. The…
The Forgetting Time by Sharon Guskin
Reviewed by Harriet If I tell you that this book takes the concept of reincarnation as its central premise, will you stop reading straight away? You’d be missing out if…
The Ballroom by Anna Hope
Reviewed by Judith Wilson There’s an intriguing tension between the title of Anna Jones’s second novel, The Ballroom, and its setting: a bleak mental asylum on the edge of the Yorkshire…
At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier
Reviewed by Harriet This is the fifth of Tracy Chevalier’s eight absorbing historical novels I’ve read, and in my view it’s the best so far. I was completely sucked in…
Mend the Living by Maylis de Kerangal
Translated by Jessica Moore Reviewed by Annabel It is easy to see why this novel (in this translation; Sam Taylor has translated it in the USA as The Heart) has been…
Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs by Lisa Randall
Reviewed by Peter Hobson This new book by world famous theoretical physicist Lisa Randall, subtitled “The astounding interconnectedness of the Universe”, gives the reader an excellent insight into how physicists…
Make it Southeast Asian
By Sharlene Tan The part of the world that is known as Southeast Asia may include the fourth most populous nation in the world but ask the average person to…
Shylock is My Name by Howard Jacobson
Reviewed by Rob Spence 2016 is clearly going to be the year of Shakespeare, though it seems rather gruesome to ‘celebrate’ the anniversary of his death. In 1964, when the…
Behind Closed Doors by Elizabeth Haynes
Reviewed by Gill Davies Behind Closed Doors is the second novel in Elizabeth Haynes’s new series featuring the Major Crime team in Briarstone. The first was Under A Silent Moon, published in…