“This book is not a war novel” – this is the opening statement of the author’s notes in the paperback edition of Alphabet House. The story is one of two childhood friends who get stranded in enemy territory during WW2, and, in their attempts to escape, find themselves in a […]

The opening of Permafrost is one that seems to promise a simple storyline of mystery, intrigue and character evaluation, with one friend setting out to search for another, and this is what the novel that follows eventually delivers. However, there is a great deal else with which the reader must […]

The Casual Vacancy begins with the death of Barry Fairbrother, a stalwart citizen of the town of Pagford, and it tells the story of the aftermath of his death and the competition to fill the “casual vacancy” left in the form of his vacated seat on the parish council. The […]

After the dizzying complexities of a literary behemoth like Infinite Jest, no one would expect a conventional, page-turning experience from David Foster Wallace’s final, posthumously published work, The Pale King. And indeed, this is not what anyone should expect. It is a work that manages in places to give a […]