Diana Evans’ third novel, Ordinary People, dives deep into the domestic. It revolves around the struggling marital lives of two thirty-something couples living in London with their children. Melissa and Michael were once electric together, full of adventure. Stephanie and Damien were perfect opposites. However, as time passes the couples find themselves ‘living in the Read More
This is the debut novel from Lillian Li, a graduate of the University of Michigan, whose previous work has been published in prestigious titles such as the New York Times and Granta. It is an intergenerational family saga set in a US Chinese restaurant. The restaurant’s speciality is Beijing Duck, the waiters even wearing “duck-patterned Read More
The moors of Northumberland remain wild. Despite the encroachment of pylons and roads, the bogs still hold secrets of the past and dangers in the present. Sarah Moss evokes the stark beauty of the moors in her sixth novel, Ghost Wall. In fewer than 150 pages, she weaves a tale of prejudices, cruelty, rage, mob Read More
In her second novel, Sally Rooney delivers a compelling love story set in the West of Ireland and grounded in the political realities of recent times. Normal People was hotly anticipated, well received, and continues to see Rooney lauded as a generational writer. Nevertheless, the passivity with which the millennial label is applied within critical Read More
Modern feminist revisions of Greek mythology are in vogue. Following Madeleine Miller’s feminist reworking of Homer’s Iliad (The Song of Achilles, 2012) and The Odyssey (Circe, 2018), Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls also retells the story of The Iliad from a female perspective. Where Patroclus, Achilles’ steadfast companion, narrates Miller’s Trojan tale of Read More
‘Tell all the truth but tell it slant’ If Emily Dickinson’s much-quoted line is a poets’ mantra, not for the first time reviewing, I have to ask – surely its application is wider? When Picasso unleashed Guernica‘s terrible pain and fury, how could he tell that trauma, other than slant? A creative act, burning the Read More
Melissa Broder is an accomplished poet, essayist and columnist. The Pisces is her first novel and it ventures between the realms of history, myth and the personal traumas that her protagonist faces: men, relationships and sexual encounters. The protagonist, Lucy, is a PhD student in Arizona studying the work of the Ancient Greek poet, Sappho. Read More
With its stylish cover and alluring title, Oyinkan Braithwaite’s debut novel is as striking as it looks. My Sister, the Serial Killer tells you everything you need to know before the opening pages. But that’s not to say it’s predictable and doesn’t surprise at times. The novel centres around two sisters, Korede, a nurse, and Read More
Originally published in the US in 2015, Above the Waterfall is the sixth of seven novels by award-winning American novelist, poet and short-story writer, Ron Rash. Born in South Carolina, where he now lives, Rash grew up in North Carolina. He teaches fiction writing at Western Carolina University where he holds the John Parris Chair Read More
David Llewellyn’s A Simple Scale sets out to provide the reader with a profoundly humbling experience: the attainment of the understanding that all our lives are ultimately at the mercy of the tides of history and that we and our fellow men are undeniably responsible for how that history plays out. Llewellyn explores this idea Read More