Fiction
‘People confuse sadness with darkness’: the complicated world of Mary Gaitskill
An interview with the American novelist Mary Gaitskill
All change: The Arrest, by Jonathan Lethem, reviewed
This is an Exquisite Corpse of a novel — or if you prefer another name for that particular game, Heads,…
The plight of the migrant: Crossed Lines, by Marie Darrieussecq, reviewed
‘We should be living in a brave country and on a brave planet that bravely distributes its occupants,’ thinks Rose…
An unquiet life: There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job, by Kikuko Tsumura, reviewed
Kikuko Tsumura is a multi-prizewinning Japanese author whose mischievously deceptive new novel takes us into what purports to be the…
A brutal education: At Night All Blood is Black, by David Diop, reviewed
Alfa Ndiaye, a Senegalese soldier fighting for France in the trenches of the Great War, is consumed by bloodlust, which…
Masculinity in crisis: Men and Apparitions, by Lynne Tillman, reviewed
Masculinity, we are often told, is in crisis. The narrator of Men and Apparitions, Professor Ezekiel (Zeke) Stark, both studies…
Short and sweet: Xstabeth, by David Keenan, reviewed
Aneliya, the Russian narrator of David Keenan’s enjoyably weird new novel, is worried about her dad. Tomasz’s modest music career…
Wistful thinking: Mr Wilder & Me, by Jonathan Coe, reviewed
Mr Wilder & Me is not in any way a state- of-the-nation novel — and thank goodness. Brilliant as Jonathan…
Kicking up a stink: Dead Fingers Talk, by William S. Burroughs, reviewed
William Burroughs was introduced to a British readership in November 1963, and the welcome he received was ‘UGH…’ The headline…
Cyber apocalypse: The Silence, by Don DeLillo, reviewed
Elaborated over a writing career that spans half a century — a career crowned with every honour save the Nobel…
Looking for love: Ghosts, by Dolly Alderton
Of all the successful modern female writers documenting their search for love, none has been as endearing as Dolly Alderton.…
A Jack Reacher travesty: The Sentinel, by Lee Child and Andrew Child, reviewed
So upsetting it would have been, for those of us who rate Lee Child’s Jack Reacher thrillers so highly, if…
Euthanasia sitcom: What Are You Going Through, by Sigrid Nunez, reviewed
What Are You Going Through is both brilliant and mercifully brief. Weighing in at 200-odd pages, it can be read…
Dublin double act: Love, by Roddy Doyle, reviewed
Far be it from me to utter a word against the patron saint of Dublin pubs, Roddy Doyle. Granted he’s…
Appearances are deceptive: Trio, by William Boyd, reviewed
Talbot Kydd, film producer; Anny Viklund, American actress; Elfrida Wing, novelist; these make the trio of the title. Private lives…
Breakdown in Berlin: Red Pill, by Hari Kunzru, reviewed
‘I was what they call an “independent scholar”’, confides the narrator of Hari Kunzru’s Red Pill, a middle-aged writer from…
Hitler’s devastating secret weapon: V2, by Robert Harris, reviewed
After Stalingrad, Hitler desperately needed an encouraging novelty. Wernher von Braun, Germany’s leading rocketeer in the second world war, expertly…
Opposites attract: Just Like You, by Nick Hornby, reviewed
Babysitters are having a literary moment. Following Kiley Reid’s debut Such a Fun Age, Nick Hornby is the latest author…
A melting pot of mercenaries: Afterlives, by Abdulrazak Gurnah, reviewed
‘That was how that part of the world was at the time. Every bit of it belonged to Europeans, at…
Full of desperate longing: Unquiet, by Linn Ullmann, reviewed
The scrawny little girl with ‘pipe-cleaner legs’ wants to feel at home with her parents. But father and mother live…
Tenderness and sorrow: Inside Story, by Martin Amis, reviewed
Inside Story is called, on the front cover, which boasts a very charming photograph of the author and Christopher Hitchens,…
A dazzling fable about loneliness: Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke, reviewed
Susanna Clarke is a member of the elite group of authors who don’t write enough. In 2004, the bestselling debut…
Family secrets: Love Orange, by Natasha Randall, reviewed
The line between obsession and addiction is as thin as rolling paper. Neither are simple and both stem from absence,…