The first title read from my 10 Books of Summer list, Heather Rose’s extraordinary novel is set against the backdrop of one of the greatest art events in modern history.
Literary Fiction
1965 CLUB: The Millstone by Margaret Drabble
Collaborative book blogging: my contribution to the 1965 Club.
THOUGHTS ON: The Bookshop
In a small English town of Hardborough Florence Green decides, against polite but determined opposition, to open a bookshop.
READING: Bodily Harm by Margaret Atwood
We look back at the 1981 political thriller ‘Bodily Harm’ for Margaret Atwood Reading Month.
THE CLASSICS CLUB: Alias Grace
Based on the true story of one of the most enigmatic and notorious women of the 1840s, Margaret Atwood has created an extraordinarily potent tale of sexuality, cruelty and mystery.
THOUGHTS ON: Autumn (Seasonal #1)
Daniel is a century old. Elisabeth, born in 1984, has her eye on the future. The United Kingdom is in pieces, divided by a historic once-in-a-generation summer.
BOOK REVIEW: Home is Nearby
Magdalena McGuire’s debut novel is a vivid and intimate exploration of a young woman’s struggle to find her place in the world.
BOOK REVIEW: Invitation to a Bonfire
A seductive, sensual and sinister love triangle set in 1930s America and inspired by the infamous Nabokov marriage.
BOOK REVIEW: The Silence of the Girls
From the Booker Prize-winning author of Regeneration and one of our greatest contemporary writers on war comes a reimagining of the most famous conflict in literature – the legendary Trojan War.
BOOK REVIEW: Disbanded Kingdom
A 21st-century coming-of-age story, set against the emotive backdrop of the United Kingdom’s breakaway from the European Union and its threatened rupture with Scotland.
BOOK REVIEW: Bottled Goods
Set in 1970s communist Romania, this novella-in-flash draws upon magic realism to weave a tale of everyday troubles in an authoritarian state.
BOOK REVIEW: The Great Believers
A powerful novel of friendship and redemption in the face of tragedy and loss set in 1980s Chicago and contemporary Paris.
BOOK REVIEW: Ghost Wall
Young Silvie, along with her mother and abusive father, are in a remote Northumberland camp as an exercise in experiential archaeology. Sarah Moss’s forthcoming novel has much to say about female affinity and friendship.
BOOK REVIEW: Orchid & the Wasp
A dark but highly amusing coming-of-age story, which encompasses sexuality, mental health, class, religion and contemporary politics. Caoilinn Hughes has written a stunningly ambitious debut novel.
Book Review: Swan Song
A deft, dazzling, diligently researched debut about a literary icon and his beautiful, wealthy, spoiled Swans.
BOOK REVIEW: Freedom: Vintage Minis
Can we ever be wholly free? In this book Margaret Atwood holds a mirror up to our own world. The reflection we are faced with, of men and women in prisons literal and metaphorical, is frightening but not without hope.
Book Review: Meet Me at the Museum
Meet Me at the Museum is an epistolary story of love and selflessness. It put a smile on this reader’s face.
Book Review: The End of Loneliness
Told through the ruptured lives of three siblings, The End of Loneliness is a heartfelt, enriching novel about loss and loneliness, family and love.
Book Review: The Only Story
A moving story of first love told in old age, looking back at a hidden world of suburban secrets and sham respectability.
THOUGHTS ON: Burmese Days
George Orwell’s 1934 novel is a tale from the waning days of British colonialism, when Burma was ruled from Delhi as a part of British India.
