‘Dear Diary, go fuck yourself’ opens I Am Not Okay With This, author and artist Charles Forsman’s latest graphic novel, a line that made me laugh with its direct belligerence. An opening like this, coupled with the comic’s cartoon art style – reminiscent to me of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s work – lured me into expecting Read More
In her latest novel, Kirsty Gunn takes a brave and original approach. Conscious of the language she uses, capable of creating memorable metaphors and telling parts of the story through characters’ distinctive dialogues, the author makes a bet. She believes that she can almost entirely remove plot from the book and make it worthwhile for Read More
As Where to Find Me opens, sweethearts bicycle along the Seine, write poetry on bus tickets, gaze on Jean Paul-Sartre at the café, dance to live Jazz. Alba Arikha’s Paris is redolent of golden sunshine, rich scents, and richer sounds. Soon, like an old photograph beset with creeping mould, the picture darkens. Their religions part Read More
Gabriel Josipovici’s The Cemetery in Barnes (2018) is a very short novel, with the story spread across a mere one hundred pages. However, this is a novel of burning intensity that leaves the reader in a constant state of uncertainty with plotline that jumps between different phases in the protagonist’s, an unnamed translator, life. These Read More
Guy Gunaratne is recognised for his work as a video artist, filmmaker, video journalist and some writing. In Our Mad and Furious City, however, is his debut novel which has garnered a lot of buzz, having already been long-listed for the Booker and short-listed for the Goldsmith and Gordon Burn prizes. Set in London, Gunaratne’s Read More
Crudo, Olivia Laing’s first novel, is performance. Laing dons the mask of radical, experimentalist Kathy Acker, in a performance of experimental writing, and in text, her main character Kathy tries to resolve her commitment issues through the performance of marriage. Laing, a non-fiction writer, steps into the guise of Acker to bring a manic and Read More
Faye, a middle-aged novelist, travels to a literary festival in an unnamed southern European city. On the plane she sits next to a man who recounts a story about his family and the trauma of burying the pet dog. Faye observes that he spoke: as if he had discovered the power and pleasure of reliving Read More
Following the success of his 2016 crowdfunded anthology The Good Immigrant, Nikesh Shukla returns with his latest novel. The One Who Wrote Destiny features some of the issues surrounding race in the UK that were the basis of The Good Immigrant but offers a whole lot more. It is a story about family, loss, and Read More
Simple stories are sometimes the most appealing ones. Love, trying to fit in or to find oneself are examples of themes present not only in Akhil Sharma’s short story collection, but also in the everyday lives of most people. However, these topics are also painfully commonplace in art and culture, and thus often feel cliched Read More