vengeance

Two young men in flight: Partita and A Winter in Zürau, by Gabriel Josipovici reviewed

24 August 2024 9:00 am

Kafka, spitting blood, escapes Prague to join his sister in Bohemia, and a fictional lover flees the wrath of an outraged husband in Josipovici’s delightful two-in-one trick

A death foretold: The Voyage Home, by Pat Barker, reviewed

17 August 2024 9:00 am

Cassandra prophesies Agamemnon’s death as punishment for his crimes in Troy. But she knows that she too must share his fate -- since ‘you can’t cherry-pick prophecy’

My ex-lover’s T-shirt can join the other tragic tat in the Museum of Broken Relationships

13 January 2018 9:00 am

I loved a man. But our affair was nasty, brutish and short. Copious weeping was my un-tart retort. All that’s…

A clash of creeds

12 August 2017 9:00 am

This is a very modern novel. Terrorist atrocity sits side by side with the familiar and the mundane. Where better…

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…