Already an award-winning writer for her short fiction, Sara Baume’s debut novel is in contention for the 2015 Costa First Novel Award. Spill Simmer Falter Wither is set in a nameless coastal town over the course of a year, the book being split up into four “seasons”: the titular spill, simmer, falter and wither (or Read More
At Hawthorn Time is a narrative of belonging and identity, wrapped up in an elegiac homage to the natural world. It is the second novel of Melissa Harrison, a freelance writer and occasional photographer who lives in South London. She won the John Muir Trust’s ‘Wild Writing’ Award in 2010 and was a Writer In Residence at Gladstone’s Library, Hawarden, in January Read More
Tasha Kavanagh has previously published a number of children’s books, and judging by the tone and point of view of her first novel, Things We Have In Common, she is still drawn to that genre. Indeed, the subject matter here places this debut adult work into that crossover space shared by adult and ‘young adult’ Read More
This is the first novel by Welsh author, Kate Hamer, who previously won the Rhys Davies short story award in 2011. The first thing that strikes is the novel’s title. Any reference to a girl in a red coat evokes the apparition of the child in Nicolas Roeg’s acclaimed film of 1973, ‘Don’t Look Now’, Read More
“When a thing has always been forbidden and must live in darkness and silence, it’s hard to know what it might be, if allowed to thrive.” Patrick Gale’s talent for creating sympathetic characters who survive in dire circumstances is at its best in A Place Called Winter, his most recent novel, set in Edwardian England Read More
“A ‘companion’ piece rather than a sequel’, Kate Atkinson’s A God in Ruins moves from the perspective of Ursula Todd in the critically acclaimed and highly popular Life After Life to that of Ursula’s beloved younger brother Teddy. Having expected not to have survived his stint as a bomber pilot in the Second World War, Read More
A debut draped in drama and dark family secrets, Sarah Armstrong’s The Insect Rosary is far more exciting than the simple cover would suggest. The novel is set in Northern Ireland, in 1982, at the time of The Troubles. Although the historical significance contributes to the unsettling tone of the novel, this is a mere Read More
Twenty years after his last novel A Nice and Steady Job, Gregory Dowling returns to fiction writing with Ascension: a love letter to the City of Venice. Ascension follows Alvise Marangon, a young tour guide, as he offers to escort two English tourists in Eighteenth Century Venice and is then quickly embroiled in murder, conspiracies, Read More
“When I was crazy and the winds of the world blew in my head, I lived in the basement of our old house, Drum Tower.” For me, the first line of a book has always held a certain fascination. It is here that the writer offers the reader the first indication of the journey upon Read More
The Ten Days Executive by Rhoda Bharath is a collection of short stories the quality of which came as a pleasant surprise to me. Prior to reading this collection, I had never encountered Bharath’s work and came to this review with no preconceptions. As I delved further into her writing I was struck by its Read More