Tag Archives: Book Review
February 21, 2016 · 7:02 pm
With the Man Booker International Prize longlist announcement fast approaching on Thursday 10th March, here are some short works of translated fiction I’ve enjoyed recently:
Translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa, Out in the Open by Jesús Carrasco has been widely compared to ‘The Road’ by Cormac McCarthy. Its unnamed central character is battling to survive in a desolate drought-ridden landscape. Having run away from home for reasons which are revealed towards the end, he strikes up an unlikely friendship with a goatherd. The absence of names for places and characters gives the book a timeless quality and although post-apocalyptic fiction has never been my favourite genre, Margaret Jull Costa’s excellent translation adds colour and depth to a very bleak story. Continue reading →
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Tagged as A Yi, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Fiction, Jesus Carrasco, Jonas Karlsson, Man Booker International Prize, Maylis de Kerangal, Novella, Pia Juul, Reading, Translated Fiction, Translation
February 13, 2016 · 6:19 pm
‘In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences’ by Truman Capote outlines the investigation into the murders of farmer Herb Clutter, his wife Bonnie and two of their teenage children at their home in Kansas in November 1959. After reading a short news article in the New York Times about the killings, Capote travelled to the small town of Holcomb with his friend, Harper Lee, where he undertook extensive research and interviewed hundreds of people who lived in the area or were involved in the case including the chief investigator, Alvin Dewey, and eventually the murderers themselves. Continue reading →
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Tagged as 1960s, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Crime, In Cold Blood, Kansas, Non fiction, Reading, Reviews, True Crime, Truman Capote
February 6, 2016 · 6:34 pm
The subtitle of Gavin Francis’ travel memoir would be a reasonably concise answer to the question: “What comes to mind when you think of Antarctica?”. While ice and emperor penguins are the more obvious responses to be expected from those who have never been there, it is the silence of such a remote landscape which Francis dwells on in his account of the fourteen months he spent as the base-camp doctor at the British Antarctic Survey’s Halley research station on the Caird Coast. What becomes clear from reading ‘Empire Antarctica’ is that claustrophobia and isolation are also major factors, although that would have made a much less satisfying book title. Continue reading →
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Tagged as Antarctica, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Empire Antarctica, Gavin Francis, Halley, Non fiction, Penguins, Reading, Reviews, Science, Travel
January 31, 2016 · 4:39 pm
‘The Noise of Time’ by Julian Barnes is a fictional account of the life of Dmitri Shostakovich, one of the most famous Russian composers of the twentieth century. The novel focuses on three key points in his life at twelve-year intervals. In the first part, Shostakovich is waiting by a lift shaft expecting the secret police to take him away and interrogate him at The Big House during the height of the purges in 1936. In the second part, he travels to the United States to deliver a speech on behalf of the Soviet Union in 1948. In the final part set in 1960, he is asked to become a party member under Khrushchev. Continue reading →
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Tagged as Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Dmitri Shostakovich, Fiction, Julian Barnes, Literature, Music, Novels, Reading, Reviews, Russia, Soviet Union, The Noise of Time
January 24, 2016 · 6:21 pm
Shortlisted for both the Man Booker Prize and the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction last year, ‘A Spool of Blue Thread’ by Anne Tyler tells the story of three generations of the Whitshank family during the twentieth century. The novel focuses on Red and Abby Whitshank and their four grown up children: the black sheep of the family Denny, daughters Jeannie and Amanda and adopted son Stem. Meanwhile, the story of how Red’s parents Junior and Linnie Mae met and married in the 1930s forms another significant thread of the family saga. Continue reading →
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Tagged as A Spool of Blue Thread, Anne Tyler, Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, Baltimore, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Fiction, Man Booker Prize, Man Booker Prize 2015, Novels, Reading, Reviews
January 17, 2016 · 6:51 pm
Shortly after ‘Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage‘ was published in 2014, it was announced that Haruki Murakami’s first two novellas ‘Hear the Wind Sing’ and ‘Pinball, 1973’ would be retranslated and reissued in English. Originally published in Japan in 1979 and 1980 respectively, the English translations by Alfred Birnbaum have long been out of print. Despite Murakami’s cult status followed by increasing commercial success across the world and with rare copies of the original translations selling for hundreds of pounds on eBay, it’s surprising that the novellas haven’t been reissued sooner. Last year, new translations by Ted Goossen were finally made available in one volume under the shortened title ‘Wind/Pinball’. Continue reading →
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Tagged as Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Fiction, Haruki Murakami, Hear the Wind Sing, Japan, Japanese Literature, Literature, Pinball 1973, Reading, Reviews, Translated Fiction, Wind / Pinball
January 10, 2016 · 5:34 pm
‘Beside Myself’ is Ann Morgan’s debut novel which tells the story of identical twin sisters Helen and Ellie. One day, at the age of six, they decide to play a game where they swap places for a day to fool their mother. However, troublesome Ellie enjoys taking on the role of bright and popular Helen so much that she refuses to swap back despite the real Helen’s protestations. While their true identities remain hidden, several family secrets begin to be uncovered. Continue reading →
January 1, 2016 · 5:32 pm
‘The Story of the Lost Child’ is the fourth and final novel by Elena Ferrante in her series of Neapolitan novels translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein. While the third volume Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay ended with Elena and Nino seemingly walking off into the sunset, it will come as no surprise to readers that it isn’t long before all is not well in their relationship. Having returned to Naples to be with Nino, Elena is reunited with Lila and becomes embroiled in the politics and violence of their neighbourhood once again. Continue reading →
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Tagged as Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Elena Ferrante, Fiction, Italian Literature, Italy, Literature, Naples, Novels, Reading, The Story of the Lost Child, Translated Fiction, Translation
December 28, 2015 · 6:22 pm
After reading The Shore by Sara Taylor and The Spring of Kasper Meier by Ben Fergusson earlier this month, I’ve been reading the other two books shortlisted for this year’s Sunday Times / PFD Young Writer of the Year Award. They are ‘The Year of the Runaways’ by Sunjeev Sahota and this year’s winner ‘Loop of Jade’ by Sarah Howe.
Continue reading →
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Tagged as Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, China, Fiction, Immigration, India, Poetry, Reading, Reviews, Sarah Howe, Sunjeev Sahota, Young Writer Award, Young Writer of the Year 2015
December 22, 2015 · 2:20 pm
A couple of years ago, I really enjoyed reading Tracey Thorn’s memoir Bedsit Disco Queen: How I Grew Up and Became a Popstar about her career as a solo singer and one half of Everything But The Girl. Earlier this year, I went to see her in conversation with Xan Brooks about her latest book ‘Naked At the Albert Hall: The Inside Story of Singing’ at the Hay Festival. Rather than a second instalment of her memoir, it is a collection of Thorn’s more general thoughts and observations about singing which didn’t fit into the narrative of ‘Bedsit Disco Queen’.
Continue reading →
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Tagged as Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Everything But The Girl, Live Music, Music, Naked at the Albert Hall, Non fiction, Performing, Pop Music, Reading, Singing, Tracey Thorn
December 19, 2015 · 5:58 pm
I don’t have time to write full-length reviews of everything I read but here are some thoughts on other books I’ve read and (mostly) enjoyed over the last few months of 2015.
Whatever You Love by Louise Doughty
While I enjoyed reading Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty last year, I’m less sure of how I feel about ‘Whatever You Love’. Shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award in 2010, it tells the story of Laura whose nine-year-old daughter Willow is killed in a hit-and-run accident on her way to an after-school club. The majority of the novel is a relatively straightforward account of the acrimonious breakdown of Laura’s marriage to her husband David and the aftermath of Willow’s death but it has the kind of shocking and rather implausible ending which changed my whole perception of the book. The last book I read which made me feel like this was Disclaimer by Renee Knight but probably more so with this one. While ‘Apple Tree Yard’ has a similarly unsettling conclusion, I felt it was executed much more successfully compared to ‘Whatever You Love’. Doughty’s latest novel ‘Black Water’ is out next year.
Continue reading →
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Tagged as 2015, Barbara Vine, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Fiction, Gillian Flynn, Joanna Walsh, Louise Doughty, Non fiction, Novels, Reading, Reviews, Sarah Moss
December 13, 2015 · 7:14 pm
It was announced on Thursday that Sarah Howe has won this year’s Sunday Times / PFD Young Writer of the Year Award for her first collection of poetry ‘Loop of Jade’ which explores her dual British-Chinese heritage.
The prize recognises the best literary work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry by a British or Irish writer aged 35 and under, with £5,000 awarded to the winner for outstanding literary merit and I was lucky enough to attend the award ceremony at the London Library on Thursday. It was a great opportunity to visit one of the capital’s most iconic libraries, especially given that life membership costs in the region of £20,000 if you’re under 30 which is, unfortunately, slightly out of my price range.
Continue reading →
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Tagged as Ben Fergusson, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Fiction, London, Poetry, Reading, Sara Taylor, Sarah Howe, Sunjeev Sahota, Young Writer Award, Young Writer of the Year 2015
December 5, 2015 · 2:00 pm
‘Dead Babies and Seaside Towns’ is Alice Jolly’s memoir about her attempts to have a second child. When her first son Thomas is two years old, Jolly falls pregnant again but a scan reveals that the placenta has become partly detached. Her daughter, Laura, was stillborn in 2005, twenty-four weeks into the pregnancy. After several miscarriages, rounds of IVF treatment and failed attempts to adopt, Jolly had a daughter named Hope born in 2011 to a surrogate mother in Minnesota using a donor egg. Continue reading →
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Tagged as Alice Jolly, Autobiography, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Children, Dead Babies and Seaside Towns, Memoir, Memoirs, Non fiction, Pregnancy, Reading, Reviews, Surrogacy
November 29, 2015 · 7:35 pm
Translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein, ‘Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay’ is the third volume of Elena Ferrante’s series of Neapolitan Novels following My Brilliant Friend and The Story of a New Name. The book opens with Elena and Lila aged in their sixties coming across the body of their childhood friend Gigliola in a church flower bed. Lila doesn’t want Elena to write an autobiographical novel about their friendship causing Elena to reflect on their early adulthood towards the end of the 1960s. Elena is engaged to be married to Pietro, a professor she met at university, and has recently published her first novel which has caused something of a stir amongst critics. Meanwhile, having left Nino, Lila is living with Enzo and working in Bruno Soccava’s sausage factory whilst bringing up her son Gennaro. Nevertheless, they remain bound to each other through their friendship and rivalry. Continue reading →
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Tagged as Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Elena Ferrante, Fiction, Italian Literature, Italy, Literature, Naples, Novels, Reading, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, Translated Fiction, Translation
November 22, 2015 · 6:25 pm
Longlisted for this year’s Man Booker Prize, ‘Did You Ever Have a Family’ by Bill Clegg opens with an explosion caused by a gas leak at June Reid’s house on the morning of her daughter’s wedding. The resulting fire destroys the whole house and kills June’s boyfriend Luke, ex-husband Adam, daughter Lolly, and Lolly’s fiancé William. June is the sole survivor and in the wake of the tragedy, she drives across the country to Washington. During her journey, details about the lives of the characters involved and the cause of the fire begin to emerge. Continue reading →
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Tagged as Bill Clegg, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Booker Prize, Connecticut, Did You Ever Have a Family, Fiction, Literature, Man Booker Prize, Man Booker Prize 2015, Novels, Reading, Reviews
November 8, 2015 · 5:56 pm
Translated from the French by Frank Wynne, ‘The Great Swindle’ is something of a departure for Pierre Lemaitre from his crime fiction series of novels featuring detective Camille Verhoeven. Originally titled ‘Au-revoir là-haut’, it won the Prix Goncourt in 2013 which is one of the most prestigious literary prizes in France. In the final days of the First World War, Lieutenant Henri d’Aulnay-Pradelle secretly shoots two of his own men in the back to make other troops believe they were killed by the enemy and provoke a final attack on the Germans, thus establishing his reputation as a war hero. However, Albert Maillard and Édouard Péricourt have witnessed his crime and are gravely injured when Aulnay-Pradelle attempts to kill them too. After the armistice, Édouard assumes the identity of another dead soldier and embarks on an elaborate money-making scheme with Albert. Continue reading →
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Tagged as Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Fiction, First World War, France, French Literature, Paris, Pierre Lemaitre, Reading, The Great Swindle, Translated Fiction, Translation, World War One
November 3, 2015 · 4:54 pm
‘In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom’ is Yeonmi Park’s account of how she escaped from North Korea when she was thirteen years old. Born in 1993, Park left Hyesan with her mother in an attempt to track down her older sister Eunmi who had already defected. However, they were sold to traffickers in China where they both experienced horrific abuse. Two years later, they fled across the Gobi desert to Mongolia before arriving in South Korea where Park has since become a leading human rights activist. Continue reading →
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Tagged as Autobiography, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, In Order to Live, Memoir, Memoirs, Memory, Non fiction, North Korea, Reading, Reviews, Yeonmi Park
October 29, 2015 · 4:09 pm
I originally intended to write a blog post about ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’ by Ken Kesey during Banned Books Week (27th September – 3rd October). However, I fell a bit behind with my reviewing around that time and while it’s important to have these events to spread awareness, reading banned books needn’t be restricted to just one week of the year. First published in 1962 followed by an equally famous film adaptation in 1975 starring Jack Nicholson, the story is set in a psychiatric hospital in Oregon and follows the lives of the patients who live under the controlled regime of Nurse Ratched. However, the arrival of a new patient, Randle McMurphy, who faked insanity to serve his prison sentence in what he believed would be more comfortable surroundings, soon changes everything.
Continue reading →
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Tagged as Banned Books, Banned Books Week, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Classic Literature, Fiction, Ken Kesey, Literature, Mental Health, Novels, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Reading, Reviews
October 14, 2015 · 11:52 am
While the Man Booker Prize is one of the most high-profile literary awards in the world (and congratulations to Marlon James for last night’s win by the way), the alternative Not the Booker prize run by the Guardian’s books website has also been growing in popularity over the past few years. ‘Things We Have in Common’ by Tasha Kavanagh was featured on this year’s Not the Booker shortlist and was narrowly pipped to the post by Kirstin Innes’ novel ‘Fishnet’ which won the overall prize on Monday. ‘Things We Have in Common’ is narrated by Yasmin Laksaris, an overweight half-Turkish teenager who becomes obsessed with Alice Taylor, one of the most popular girls at school. Yasmin spots a man watching Alice outside school and when she goes missing, Yasmin is convinced she already knows who has taken her. Continue reading →
October 11, 2015 · 5:50 pm
I’ve been reading more non-fiction and more translated fiction this year but not very much translated non-fiction. After reading Flemish author Erwin’ Mortier’s ‘While the Gods Were Sleeping‘ earlier this year which was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, I got hold of a copy of ‘Stammered Songbook: A Mother’s Book of Hours’ which is Mortier’s personal memoir documenting his mother’s diagnosis, decline and death from Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 65. Originally published in 2011, it has recently been translated from Dutch into English for the first time by Paul Vincent and has been longlisted for the Green Carnation Prize this week which celebrates LGBT writing.
Continue reading →
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Tagged as Autobiography, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Dementia, Erwin Mortier, Memoir, Memoirs, Non fiction, Reading, Reviews, Stammered Songbook, Translation
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