Tiphanie Yanique’s debut novel, Land of Love and Drowning, chronicles the lives and loves of three generations of the Bradshaw family, spanning a period from 1916 to the 1970s. Yanique has drawn upon her own Virgin Islands ancestry to weave this atmospheric tale, set against the political emergence of the island of St. Thomas as Read More
Oh. Good. Lord. The twin towers are aflame, the Ten Commandments have been redacted, Richard Nixon is pretending to be Barrack Obama, and that is just the cover. In the more mainstream press, Joe Sacco is renowned for his war journalism comics, which is quite simply a form of graphic novel that deals with real Read More
There are certain names which are automatically associated with quality, artisanship, and excellence: BMW, Ferrari, Jaguar, Harrods, and Harris Tweed for example. In the world of graphic novels, Bryan Talbot is quite simply the benchmark, the high watermark, the name amongst names for sheer unparalleled artistic and storytelling brilliance. All of which makes it difficult Read More
Following some of the trends that are now quite common in romantic comedies for younger audiences, The Sculptor is a beautiful and emotional graphic novel with heart and depth. Cartoonist Scott McCloud tells the story of David Smith, a struggling young artist who acquires the ability to sculpt anything he wants using his hands to Read More
Leaving the Sea is a collection of self-contained short stories which focus on the theme of alienation. Aspects of this theme range from the practical struggles of parenthood to fantastical descriptions of the world at large. Each story features characters who feel isolated because they are unable to communicate their needs to others or, at Read More
‘The seasons seem for a long time to ask nothing of you, but eventually you must brave their familiarity.’ Set between Saltcoats, Blackpool and Afghanistan, Andrew O’Hagan’s fifth novel, The Illuminations, tells the story of Anne Quirk and her nephew Luke as they delve into Anne’s past and confront the disintegration of identity, both personal Read More
“This is maybe the best first novel I’ve read since Fight Club… Raw, spare and goddamned poetic” This comparison by author Frank Bill, the topmost of four glowing reviews on the back cover, is what first attracted me to this title. Chuck Palahniuk’s seminal work is successful for three main reasons: its clever satirising of Read More
In her third novel, Bodies of Light, Sarah Moss explores the ideas of family, maternity and inheritance across three generations and beyond. In 19th Century Manchester, Elizabeth Moberley is a crusader for the poor, down trodden and exploited women of Victorian England. Her husband Alfred (a pre-Raphaelite painter and decorator of drawing rooms) has long Read More
Award-winning writer, poet, journalist and Arts correspondent Philip Miller turns his attention to fiction in his debut novel, the dark and multi-layered The Blue Horse, which is rich in mystery, intrigue and gripping characterisation. The narrative tools with which Miller is equipped allow him to construct an essentially straightforward plot, though one which is in Read More
As a genre, ‘weird fiction’ is defined by its peripheral position on the boundaries of mainstream literature. Hoag’s multi-authored short story collection, all penned by female writers, encompasses this position by utilising a concoction of genres such as horror, science fiction, fairy tale and even Greek mythology, all with a shared thematic concern, namely( as Read More