Anthony Cummins

A bubo-busting muckfest: Hurdy Gurdy, by Christopher Wilson, reviewed

6 February 2021 9:00 am

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

14 December 2019 9:00 am

My partner’s brother once found himself accidentally locked into his flat on Christmas Day, which meant having to spend it…

Author Nathan Englander (Photo: Getty)

Highly charged territory

14 October 2017 9:00 am

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

23 April 2016 9:00 am

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

13 February 2016 9:00 am

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

26 September 2015 8:00 am

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

11 April 2015 9:00 am

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

11 October 2014 9:00 am

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

22 February 2014 9:00 am

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

11 January 2014 9:00 am

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

24 August 2013 9:00 am

The last time David Peace wrote a novel about football he got his publishers sued for libel, which may help…