A bubo-busting muckfest: Hurdy Gurdy, by Christopher Wilson, reviewed
In an essay for Prospect a few years back the writer Leo Benedictus noticed how many contemporary novels used what…
Tame family dramas: Christmas in Austin, by Benjamin Markovits, reviewed
My partner’s brother once found himself accidentally locked into his flat on Christmas Day, which meant having to spend it…
Highly charged territory
I first heard of this tragicomic spy romp around Israel and Palestine when Julian Barnes sang its praises in the…
From Jekyll back to Hyde: the changing face of Begbie
Irvine Welsh’s 1993 debut novel Train-spotting flicked a hearty V-sign in the face of alarm-clock Britain. ‘Ah choose no tae…
Inside the mind of a molester
This isn’t a book to read before lights out. It’s about a mentally ill man whose mother exiles him from…
Tessa Hadley's masterful new novel of missed opportunities
In The Past (set chiefly in the present) four middle-aged siblings spend an eventful summer holiday in the Devon country…
Ebola personified: a cackling villain with a master plan of destruction
Remember Ebola? It killed more than 8,000 people last year — before we were all Charlie — with a quarter…
A jaunty romp of rape and pillage through the 16th century
The Brethren, by Robert Merle, who died at the age of 95 ten years ago, was originally published in 1977,…
A family novel that pulls up the carpet before you're even in the door
I first mistook David Gilbert’s second novel for the sort of corduroy-sleeved family saga at which American writers excel. The…
This year, discover Michel Déon
In Roberto Bolaño’s novel 2666, the efforts of an academic claque propel the mysterious German author Benno von Archimboldi onto…
Red or Dead by David Peace - review
The last time David Peace wrote a novel about football he got his publishers sued for libel, which may help…
