White Hunger by Aki Ollikainen
Translated from Finnish by Emily Jeremiah and Fleur Jeremiah Reviewed by Kate Gardner I’ll warn you from the start: this is not the book to read if you’re feeling a…
Translated from Finnish by Emily Jeremiah and Fleur Jeremiah Reviewed by Kate Gardner I’ll warn you from the start: this is not the book to read if you’re feeling a…
Interview by Victoria V: There’s been a spate of social media bullying cases in the news these past few years; was there any one particular event that sparked the idea…
Reviewed by Victoria Some of the most powerful stories about children and adolescents are the ones, like Lord of the Flies, that send chills down your spine. Make the children high…
Reviewed by Harriet Stanley Wells has been described as ‘our greatest authority on Shakespeare’s life and work’. He’s Honorary President of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Emeritus Professor of Shakespeare Studies…
Reviewed by Simon It has been thirty years since Oliver Sacks’ most famous book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat, was published and, while it does not need…
Review by Eleanor Franzén Imagine: you’re a woman in England in 1255. With a little bit of flexibility, depending on your father’s annual income, you have two life choices. One is…
Reviewed by Victoria I am a huge fan of shrink lit, the small genre of books that feature psychotherapy, because they almost invariably explore and unpack some of the most…
By Diana Cheng The Grand Budapest Hotel won four Oscars at the 87th Academy Awards this February. At the end of the film, leading the credits, is the acknowledgement of Stefan Zweig…
Translated by Euan Cameron Reviewed by Karen Langley The modern world is very much based on speed, with gadgets and technology conspiring to deliver all kinds of information and media…
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…
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…
By Laura Kalpakian I often think of the novel, any novel, really, as a small boat, initially moored to a certain well known shore, an incident, say, the writer’s own…
Reviewed by Victoria. Quentin Castle, lanky, short-sighted and newly-married, has recently been promoted to junior partner at his father’s literary agency. Everyone knows this is nepotism, especially his father’s other…
Reviewed by Hayley Anderton Chicken recipes for every day and every mood. Chicken is hard to avoid these days. When I was a child it was a once a week…
Interviewed by Harriet H: Cecilia, we learn from your website that you spent twenty years in marketing after leaving university. Did you always harbour the ambition to be a writer,…
Reviewed by Harriet Cecilia Ekbäck’s impressive debut novel has been described as Nordic noir, but I think that’s a bit too neat a pigeonhole. Nordic it certainly is, being set…
Translated by Malcolm De Bevoise Review by Annabel It is a well-known fact that Stephen Hawking was persuaded to remove all the equations bar the single famous one, E =…
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…
Reviewed by Alice Farrant Mercy Seat is a beautifully stirring novel, set in a remote seaside town in west Wales. Luke, our protagonist and narrator, is an aimless young man on…
Reviewed by Annabel. The publisher Europa Editions is primarily known in the UK for bringing translated fiction, mainly from Europe, to English-speaking readers. However, eight months ago they signed their…
Reviewed by Denise Kong Don’t Let Him Know is a multi-stranded tale, whose protagonists struggle to find their social, sexual and familial identities against the cultural backdrops of India and USA….
Selected by Danielle Simpson The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim Any list of spring reading surely must begin with Elizabeth von Arnim’s The Enchanted April. It begins one dreary April day in…
Translated by Anthony Bale Reviewed by Harriet Margery Kempe (c.1373-after 1439) was an extraordinary woman, and this is an extraordinary book. It’s often referred to as the first autobiography to…
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…