April 10, 2014 American Sycamore by Karen Fielding Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell It is lovely to be able to heartily recommend a début novel published by a smaller independent publisher – American Sycamore is…
April 10, 2014 Money by Émile Zola Translated by Valerie Minogue Reviewed by Harriet Devine ‘It’s very difficult to write a novel about money. It’s cold, icy, lacking in interest’. So…
April 10, 2014 Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell When I read that Val McDermid, writer of many a gory crime novel, was penning the second book in ‘The…
April 10, 2014 Picture Me Gone by Meg Rosoff Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell I have always fiercely maintained that good writing transcends genre; it also transcends age. Meg Rosoff’s latest novel for young…
April 10, 2014 Combining Fact and Fiction in the Writing of ‘The Dance of Love’ by Angela Young The Dance of Love is my second novel, so I’m a novice. I’ve written since I was a child but it’s one thing to write…
April 10, 2014 Autobiography of a Corpse by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky Translated by Joanne Turnbull Reviewed by Karen Langley Soviet Russia’s Best-Kept Literary Secret Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky could accurately be described as the lost writer of…
April 10, 2014 Bedsit Disco Queen by Tracey Thorn Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell I wish Tracey Thorn was my cousin, sister even. I can say that – for we share not only a…
April 10, 2014 The Road to Reckoning by Robert Lautner Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell Having grown up loving all those cowboy TV series from the 1960s and ‘70s like The Virginian and Alias Smith and Jones, maybe…
April 10, 2014 Into the Trees by Robert Williams Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell Imagine a house in the middle of the forest, somewhere you feel safe, at home; somewhere to hide away perhaps? …
April 10, 2014 Q&A with Helen Oyeyemi, author of Boy, Snow, Bird Questions by Simon 1) Firstly, congrats on Boy, Snow, Bird, it’s fantastic! Could you say a bit about the genesis of the novel and…
April 10, 2014 Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi Reviewed by Simon Thomas At some point, Helen Oyeyemi will stop being notable for her youth – but, at 29 and with five novels…
April 10, 2014 Still Life with Breadcrumbs by Anna Quindlen Reviewed by Adèle Geras Every so often, you come across a novel whose qualities appeal to you in a way that you can’t quite explain. Still…
April 10, 2014 The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri Reviewed by Rachel Fenn The Lowland is the story of two brothers, Udayan and Subhash, and the woman they both marry, Gauri. The novel opens…
April 10, 2014 The Dig by Cynan Jones Reviewed by Victoria Hoyle Cynan Jones’ third novel The Dig was high on my list of anticipated releases in early 2014, bought as soon as it came…
April 10, 2014 Falling into the Fire by Christine Montross Written by Victoria Best I begin to wonder whether there is an entry in the DSM (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) for…
April 10, 2014 The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton Reviewed by Victoria Best You have to imagine a big chest in the corner of the attic, containing the inscription: Plot Fireworks: Handle With…
April 10, 2014 Some Questions for Alice Hoffman Shiny Editor, Annabel asks Alice Hoffman some questions about the themes in her writing career and her latest novel The Museum of Extraordinary Things, which…
April 9, 2014 Born in Siberia by Tamara Astafieva Translated by Luba Loffe Reviewed by Karen Langley Speak, memory, that I may not forget the taste of roses, nor the sound of ashes…
April 8, 2014 The Love-Charm of Bombs by Lara Feigel Reviewed by Harriet Devine For the past couple of years, I have been fascinated by the events of WW2, and have found myself drawn…
April 8, 2014 A Tangled Web by L.M. Montgomery Reviewed by Mahathi G A Tangled Web is one of L M Montgomery’s ‘adult’ novels. As such, it is rather different from Montgomery’s usual. There…
April 8, 2014 The Genesis of ‘After Me Comes The Flood’, by Sarah Perry Sarah Perry has lived in Cambridge, Manila and London. A winner of the Shiva Naipaul Memorial prize and a Royal Holloway doctoral studentship, she…
April 8, 2014 Stuff Matters by Mark Miodownik Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell Good popular science books don’t come along that often, and when they do, they’re inevitably about four topics it seems:…
April 8, 2014 Sebastian Barry on The Temporary Gentleman Sebastian Barry fills in some of the background to his latest novel, which Harriet reviewed here. Questions by Shiny Editor, Harriet. 1. The Temporary Gentleman takes place…
April 8, 2014 The Temporary Gentleman by Sebastian Barry Reviewed by Harriet Devine A lark, a single bird with her dowdy plumage, burst up from her cup of sand just in front of…
April 8, 2014 Appointment with Yesterday and With No Crying by Celia Fremlin Reviewed by Harriet Devine. Why on earth have we not heard of Celia Fremlin? Well, I certainly hadn’t until recently, and having discovered her…
