The struggles of growing up, between mothers and teenage daughters, is excellently portrayed in Marian Dillon’s second adult novel The Lies Between Us. As with Looking for Alex, it takes the format of two parallel stories using flashbacks to let the past (from 1963, with mother Kathleen) catch up with […]
What is man? It’s a question that has haunted many philosophers as well as writers. For lack of a better answer, I’d like to think it is the very act of asking this question that defines us. Until only very recently, humanity’s tale has been concerned with the fates of men […]
Camping is not my thing. Although, I would like to visit the Somerset Glamping where Katie grew up in Sophie Kinsella’s latest novel My (Not So) Perfect Life! Not that she wants to be there. Her dream is to have a glamorous career in the fast-paced world of marketing in London. […]
I’ve always considered myself a post-modern guy – well, ever since I knew what it meant, anyway. And to its credit, this novel has forced me to reconsider my philosophical affiliation, and giving some serious thought to dropping the label altogether. Maybe I’m an old-fashioned romantic at heart after all. Vic […]
As a reader, it’s a peculiar sensation to wonder whether an author might be confiding in you. Like breaking the fourth wall, there is no escaping the notion that the soul behind the page is choosing to bear its skin, rewarding your special attention to what’s written between the lines. Of course, […]
There are writers who have an unrelenting and at times elemental relationship to storytelling; writers whose entire worlds are contained within a single sentence. Camilla Grudova’s debut collection of stories, The Doll’s Alphabet, captures this definitive way of storytelling in conjuring up an immediate, uncanny world. One that is gothic, […]
How far would you go for those you love? Arriving at an airport halfway across the globe – a last way station in a remote part of the world – Yasmin finds she would give, do or say anything to convince the authorities to go out looking for her husband Matt. He has gone missing after […]
In an age where we use fast modes of transport like cars and trains, it’s hard to imagine that the United States were experiencing a very different kind of “wheel fever” in the 1880s. The invention of the bicycle and its rise in popularity (after the somewhat failed ‘velocipede’) changed […]
Do you ever get the feeling that there should be more to life? That what’s expected of you is in no way connected with who you are? That our connectivity – as we increasingly relate to each other’s lives through television, social media and video chat – tends to leave […]
Ever heard that story about that one family who saw themselves rudely robbed of their joy and hopes for the continuation of their noble line after a single accident that made global headlines? The kind of story that would be related to you through the eyes of the family and […]
