Madeleine Feeny

Doctor in despair

18 February 2023 9:00 am

A surgeon from Kashmir is tormented by the penal operations he once performed under Sharia law, such as amputations for robbery

An authentic portrait of gay love in small-town Britain: The Whale Tattoo reviewed

16 July 2022 9:00 am

In Jon Ransom’s debut novel, water seeps into the crevices between waking and dreaming, flooding the narrator Joe’s consciousness. Set…

A tale of forbidden love: Trespasses, by Louise Kennedy, reviewed

23 April 2022 9:00 am

Kenneth Branagh’s Oscar-winning recent film Belfast chronicles the travails of a Protestant family amid sectarian conflict in 1969. Louise Kennedy’s…

Dystopian horror: They, by Kay Dick, reviewed

29 January 2022 9:00 am

Her name has faded, but the British author and editor Kay Dick once cut a striking figure. She lived in…

The view from the Paris bus — an appreciation of everyday life

11 September 2021 9:00 am

Many would say the commute was one thing they didn’t miss in lockdown. But when Lauren Elkin was ‘yanked out…

The young bride’s tale: China Room, by Sunjeev Sahota, reviewed

24 July 2021 9:00 am

Sunjeev Sahota’s novels present an unvarnished image of British Asian lives. Ours Are the Streets chronicles a suicide bomber’s radicalisation,…

And then there were five: The High House, by Jessie Greengrass, reviewed

5 June 2021 9:00 am

In 2009 Margaret Atwood published The Year of the Flood, set in the aftermath of a waterless flood, a flu-like…

Problem parents: My Phantoms, by Gwendoline Riley, reviewed

10 April 2021 9:00 am

Gwendoline Riley’s unsentimental fiction hovers on the edge of comedy and bleakness, and has drawn comparisons from Jean Rhys to…

Scenes from an open marriage: Luster, by Raven Leilani, reviewed

16 January 2021 9:00 am

One of Barack Obama’s favourite books of 2020, Raven Leilani’s debut comes acclaimed by a literary Who’s Who that includes…

Opposites attract: Just Like You, by Nick Hornby, reviewed

3 October 2020 9:00 am

Babysitters are having a literary moment. Following Kiley Reid’s debut Such a Fun Age, Nick Hornby is the latest author…