Review: Satisfaction by Nina Bouraoui
‘Memory is cruel, we call on it to rekindle burnt out fires, but with the years, it fades, leading us down phantom paths, like beggars searching for traces of our past, towards houses that never existed. Memory is their punishment, mine lay in my beginning. Violence endures, its medusa-like tentacles live on. I have become…
Review: When Things Are Alive They Hum by Hannah Bent
‘When things are alive, they hum. You can hear it if you put your ear to the chest of an animal or if you lean close close close to a plant. My own hum goes dum dum da da dum da dum. This is the sound of my heart talking to me …’ Sisters Marlowe…
Review: What Concerns Us by Laura Vogt
‘She was missing something, she realised with painful awareness. But what? At some point Boris would leave, she thought. It would be easy for him, without the burden of motherhood …’ Through the lens of three interwoven lives, What Concerns Us (Was uns betrifft) explores themes of abandonment, dissociation and desperation. Vogt examines the complexities…
Review: Pages & Co – Tilly and the Bookwanderers by Anna James
A slight departure from my last few reads but a welcome change! Following the bibliophilic adventures of Tilly Pages and her friend Oskar, this is the first book in what is now a series of five, with the fifth part, The Treehouse Library, publishing today in the UK! Anna James opens the door to Pages…
Review: Peaces by Helen Oyeyemi
‘We both know nothing’s all right, but when I tell you it will be, you take it. If you don’t, it’s because you’re holding out for another outcome altogether.’ Peaces is the latest addition to Helen Oyeyemi’s repertoire of electric, genre-subverting fiction. Stepping from a sleepy village station platform onto an eccentric train for their…
Review: Never Did the Fire by Diamela Eltit
‘We cannot, you said to me, lapse into the sentimentality that the most predictable side of our age has in store for us …’ This was a worthwhile, but incredibly challenging read. Centred around two unnamed characters, both plagued by frailty, guilt and grief, the novel examines disillusionment in the aftermath of political fervour. The…
Review: Wilder Winds by Bel Olid
“Time passes like a veil that polishes your memories and makes them malleable” My favourite read of the year so far! This magnificent collection, eloquently translated by Laura McLoughlin, presents captivating fragments of its characters’ lives, delving into the innermost vulnerabilities of the individual, while also baring intimate truths of humanity as a whole. With…
Review: Latchkey Ladies by Marjorie Grant
https://tinyletter.com/theindieinsider/letters/issue-18-all-about-love ‘Latchkey ladies, letting themselves in and out of dismal rooms, being independent and hating it. All very well for people with gifts and professions, artists or writers. But for us, the ordinary ones, a latchkey is a terrible symbol …’ First published in 1921, this edition of Marjorie Grant’s Latchkey Ladies is the next…
Review: Lazy Baking by Jessica Elliot Dennison
“I’m a home cook. So when it comes to baking, my approach means minimal fuss, yet comforting and delicious …” Jess’s ‘no frills’ attitude is refreshing, with a focus on flavour, not aesthetics; it doesn’t matter if your end result looks like a Picasso, as long as it tastes great (though her bakes all look…
Review: Winter Flowers by Angélique Villeneuve
It is seldom that I’ve read such a short, simple book that has stayed with me so persistently after the final page. Winter Flowers (Les Fleurs d’hiver), translated from the French by Adriana Hunter, is a subtly nuanced family drama, set against the backdrop of war-stricken Paris. For two years, Jeanne Caillet and her young…
Review: The Firework-Maker’s Daughter by Philip Pullman
‘When she was old enough to learn, her father began to teach her the art of making fireworks. She began with little Crackle-Dragons, six on a string. Then she learned how to make Leaping Monkeys, Golden Sneezes and Java Lights. Soon she was making all the simple fireworks, and thinking about more complicated ones.’* Lila…
2020 BBC Short Story Award
Pray – Caleb Azumah Nelson This hit me harder than expected! Initially I wasn’t sure it was for me but after a few minutes I was hooked and by the end I was near to tears. The relationship between the narrator and his older brother Christopher is beautiful. Following the death of both parents, they…
2019 BBC Short Story Award
I’ve recently been listening to the previous shortlists for the BBC National Short Story Award – available here or on the BBC Sounds app – and I wanted to write some mini-reviews. More of task than I had previously considered as, with less content to comment on, it’s very hard not to give too much…
Review: Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas
Somewhere in the ether is a photo of me with one of those silly daffodil hats that may surface some day for ‘meet the bookstagrammer’ but for now we’ll have to make do with Dylan Thomas. Under Milk Wood is my first impression of Thomas’s work, despite living in Wales for several years 😅 Set…
Review: Alone in Berlin – Hans Fallada
Original Title: Jeder stirbt für sich allein (Every Man Dies Alone) ‘In other words, the Quangels were like most people: they believed what they hoped’. A longer than average review, but then I’ve had two years to formulate opinions about this book! Well, it has certainly been an odyssey of a read! After a friend’s…
Review: When You Disappeared – John Marrs
‘We each had one eye on the clock. Hers was to remind herself of how much longer she had left as the centre of my universe. Mine was to decide on the right time to leave her’. Not a typical read for me – I don’t gravitate towards mysteries or thrillers, but this was a…
Review: Once – Morris Gleitzman
‘I got you the boots because everybody deserves to have something good in their life at least once’ ‘Once’ by Morris Gleitzman Currently reading this book with my class as part of our World War 2 topic. It reminds me a lot of John Boyne’s ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ but in this case…
Mini-Review: Very British Problems – Rob Temple
I’ve just finished Very British Problems by Rob Temple. I was looking for a lighthearted, humorous read and this was just the ticket! Obviously it’s quite a specific book – the title itself sets out the target audience – so it may not be for everyone, but it was exactly my cup of tea ……
Review: Normal People – Sally Rooney
‘Connell wished he knew how other people conducted their private lives, so that he could copy from example …’ (p.49) I have very mixed feelings about this book. Everyone raved about it when it was first published but it’s been sat on my shelf for a while, gathering dust. I finally picked it up because…
Review(ish): Twas The Nightshift Before Christmas – Adam Kay
“Full marks to the anaesthetist wearing a badge that says: ‘He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake’.” Essentially, see my previous review of ‘This Is Going To Hurt’ (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) but just add in some mistletoe and bauble-based injuries! I know it’s a cop out, not writing another separate review, but I…
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Bookishly Abroad 