The Death of Murat Idrissi by Tommy Weiringa
Translated by Sam Garrett Review by Alice Farrant Two venturesome women on a journey through the land of their fathers and mothers. A wrong turn. A bad decision.[1] The Death…
Melmoth by Sarah Perry
Review by Alice Farrant Helen Franklin is self-repressed, restricting herself from all that is pleasurable or happy. She merely exists alongside Prague, parallel to its beauty. When suddenly, she is…
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
Reviewed by Alice Farrant The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker is the retelling of The Iliad from the perspective of Briseis (Brih-SAY-iss), once Queen of Lyrnessus and then…
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
Reviewed by Alice Farrant There are books you enjoy and then there are the books that consume you. Authors whose work brands you, generating literary musing that lasts well beyond…
Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks
Reviewed by Alice Farrant “We can get the Times to write something. Or that nut from the Observer.”“Wait, what… what nut from the Observer?”“Frank something? The one who’s so in…
New People by Danzy Senna
Reviewed by Alice Farrant Maria and Khalil are the perfect couple, “King and Queen of the Racially Nebulous Prom”. Maria is a successful scholar, writing her dissertation on the Jonestown…
How to Be Human by Paula Cocozza
Reviewed by Alice Farrant At 35, Mary is single and living in the house she once shared with her partner. She goes to work only to be berated by her…
My Name is Leon by Kit de Waal
Paperback review by Alice Farrant My Name is Leon by Kit de Waal is a powerful story that discusses race, mental illness, and family, through the abandonment of a child. It’s…
The Witchfinder’s Sister by Beth Underdown
Review by Alice Farrant The number of women my brother Matthew killed as far as I can reckon it, is one hundred and six. When her husband dies Alice is…
Stay with Me by Adébáyọ̀ Ayọ̀bámi
Reviewed by Alice Farrant Akin’s father has died and Yejide is coming home. Set against a backdrop of political turmoil, Stay With Me is a powerful commentary on motherhood, love,…
The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss
Reviewed by Alice Farrant A relationship with death, or the prospect of it, is like being a member of a horrible club because to know death is to know something…
The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende
Translated by Nick Caistor and Amanda Hopkinson Reviewed by Alice Farrant The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende is a tender love story, traversing from the 1930s through to the present day,…
Tender by Belinda McKeon
Reviewed by Alice Farrant Tender by Belinda McKeon is a literary tour-de-force. A frighteningly addictive tumble down the rabbit hole of obsessive love and friendship in late-90s Ireland. Catherine is 18,…
Orient by Christopher Bollen
Reviewed by Alice Farrant Orient, murder mystery come introspective character novel, is Christopher Bollen’s second literary offering. Set on the North Fork of Long Island in the town of Orient,…
Mercy Seat by Wayne Price
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…
Harraga by Boualem Sansal
Translated by Frank Wynne Reviewed by Alice Farrant Harraga by Boualem Sansal is a dazzling mix of poetry and prose set in the old quarters of Algiers, capital of Algeria. Here…
Stay Up With Me by Tom Barbash
Reviewed by Alice Farrant Stay Up With Me by Tom Barbash is a collection of short stories set in New York City. Each explores a disconnection between parents and children, lovers or…