“They all want the Germans gone, just like you do. But don’t be thinking that makes you welcome”. Set in the Ukraine in 1941, one of the darkest periods of that country’s history, Seiffert’s story is told in language which seems, in a remarkable way, to echo the rhythms of the native language of her Read More
Coming a little later than halfway through Spark’s career, Territorial Rights is a romp. Set in Venice, the novel pulls together and twists half a dozen contrivances, and comes out with an almighty tangle. The plot begins with Robert Leaver, an English Art History student arriving in the Italian city, in pursuit of Lina Pancev, Read More
I use “mad” of course in the colloquial sense. In the way that we’re all mad, you know. A little crazy, you know. Amongst ourselves, I mean – the intelligentsia are all a little mad and, my dear Caroline, that’s what makes us so nice. The sane are not worth noticing. It may not be Read More
If one reads Linda Grant’s The Dark Circle, one may be left feeling unfulfilled; being presented with a remote plot about a remote disease that fails to tug on the heart strings or incite anger, as one would probably expect. So, this is the reason that I request you don’t merely read this novel: engage Read More
Australian Shirley Barrett is predominantly known for her screenwriting and directing, with her first film Love Serenade winning Best First Feature at Cannes Film Festival in 1996 and her script for South Solitary winning the Queensland Premier’s Prize in 2010. Rush OH! is Barrett’s first novel, chronicling the whaling industry in a small community in Read More
Marilynne Robinson’s latest novel Lila re-visits the characters and setting of her previous novels, Pulitzer prize winning Gilead, and Orange prize winning Home. The narrative follows the meandering and often dark thoughts of the main protagonist, Lila, the much younger wife of John Ames, the Congregationalist minister in the small town of Gilead in Iowa. Read More