Fiction
Messy family matters: Bad Relations, by Cressida Connolly, reviewed
Cressida Connolly’s new novel begins with a couple of endings. It’s spring 1855, and on the battlefields of the Crimea…
Patterns in the grass: The Perfect Golden Circle, by Benjamin Myers, reviewed
The Perfect Golden Circle is ostensibly about male friendship. Two men, flotsam of the 1980s – Calvert, a Falklands veteran,…
A visit from Neanderthals: The Red Children, by Maggie Gee, reviewed
This is the kind of novel that will be discussed jubilantly in the book clubs of places like Lib Dem…
Murder, suicide and apocalypse: Here Goes Nothing, by Steve Toltz, reviewed
Angus Mooney is dead. Freshly murdered, he’s appalled to find himself in an Afterworld, having always rejected the possibility of…
Momentous decisions: Ruth & Pen, by Emilie Pine, reviewed
Emilie Pine writes about the big things and the little things: friendship, love, fertility, grief; waking, showering, catching the bus.…
Boy wonder: The Young Pretender, by Michael Arditti, reviewed
During his brief stage career Master Betty, or the Young Roscius, was no stranger to superlatives: genius, unparalleled, superior, Albion’s…
Memory test: The Candy House, by Jennifer Egan, reviewed
On page 231 of The Candy House, a sequel – no, a ‘sibling’ says Jennifer Egan – to the Pulitzer…
A tale of forbidden love: Trespasses, by Louise Kennedy, reviewed
Kenneth Branagh’s Oscar-winning recent film Belfast chronicles the travails of a Protestant family amid sectarian conflict in 1969. Louise Kennedy’s…
Seeing and being seen: Wet Paint, by Chloë Ashby, reviewed
In this arresting debut novel we follow 26-year-old Eve as she tries to come to terms with the loss of…
An inspirational teacher: Elizabeth Finch, by Julian Barnes, reviewed
‘Whenever you see a character in a novel, let alone a biography or history book, reduced and neatened into three…
Zimbabwe’s politics satirised: Glory, by NoViolet Bulawayo, reviewed
NoViolet Bulawayo’s first novel We Need New Names,shortlisted for the Booker in 2013, was a charming, tender gem, suffused with…
The parent snatchers: The School for Good Mothers, by Jessamine Chan, reviewed
Frida Liu, the 39-year-old mother of a toddler named Harriet, has a very bad day which will haunt her for…
The Belfast Blitz: These Days, by Lucy Caldwell, reviewed
Caught outside at the start of a raid in the Belfast Blitz as the incendiary bombs rain down, Audrey looks…
Portrait of a domestic tyrant: The Exhibitionist, by Charlotte Mendelson, reviewed
If vivid, drily hilarious tales about messy families stuffed with passive aggression and seething resentment are your thing, you will…
Knotty problems: French Braid, by Anne Tyler, reviewed
Anne Tyler’s 24th novel French Braid opens in 2010 in Philadelphia train station. We find the teenage Serena, who has…
Lasting infamy: Booth, by Karen Joy Fowler, reviewed
Were it not for an event on the night of 14 April 1865, John Wilkes Booth would be remembered, if…
A magical epic: Moon Witch, Spider King, by Marlon James, reviewed
When the first volume of Marlon James’s Dark Star trilogy appeared in 2019, it was quickly recognised as a masterly…
The making of a poet: Mother’s Boy, by Patrick Gale, reviewed
Charles Causley was a poet’s poet. Both Ted Hughes and Philip Larkin considered him the finest candidate for the laureateship,…
Troubles of the past: The Slowworm’s Song, by Andrew Miller, reviewed
Andrew Miller specialises in characters who are lost, often struggling to deal with the burden of failure. They don’t come…
That sinking feeling: The Swimmers, by Julie Otsuka, reviewed
Julie Otsuka has good rhythm, sentences that move to a satisfying beat. Even as her tone shifts — from tender…
Inside New India: Run and Hide, by Pankaj Mishra, reviewed
The first novel in more than 20 years from the essayist and cultural analyst Pankaj Mishra is as sharp, provocative…
Lonely voices: Dance Move, by Wendy Erskine, reviewed
‘The drawer beside Roberta’s bed contained remnants of other people’s fun’: so begins ‘Mathematics’, one of 11 stories in this…
Both epic and intimate: The Love Songs of W.E. Du Bois, by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, reviewed
To write a first novel of 800 pages is either supremely confident or crazy. Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, a professor of…
A modern Medea: Iron Curtain, by Vesna Goldsworthy, reviewed
Vesna Goldsworthy’s finely wrought third novel explodes into life early on with a shocking scene in which Misha — the…
At last, a literary sexy novel: Love Marriage, by Monica Ali, reviewed
At last, and finally: literary sex is back. The Bad Sex Prize has a lot to answer for in British…
