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[[Category:New Reviews|Literary Fiction]]==Literary fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alice HoffmanMatthew Tree|title=The DovekeepersWe'll Never Know|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary=Set in the last desperate days before the Roman siege on Masada (70CE)Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, the lives of four women collide a drunk and merge. They are Yael, the daughter chronic underachiever whose dreams of a Sicarii assassin; Revka, the wife being exceptional at any of a gentle baker his artistic passions all failed miserably and who witnessed her daughters' rape and murder; Aziza, raised as a boy with the skills had endless crises of a great warrior and Shirah, born in Alexandria to a mother well versed in ancient magicself confidence. All four have crossed the heartless desert on separate journeys So Tim applied himself to arrive at the last outpost against the Roman Legionhis studies, where 900 Jews held out for many, many months. Here they have little power cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and less hope, set himself high but each refuses to be a victim. All are harbouring deep secrets about their pasts, as they become the Masada's dovekeepers. With supplies dwindling and certain death drawing near, their uneasy bonds to each other strengthen as their truths are unveiled. They find an uneasy comfort that becomes true loyalty and empowerment. While few in their company survive to recount the tale, their story has lived on to haunt the deepest of memoriesachievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857205420</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Irene NemirovskyB0C47LV1PC|title=The Wine of SolitudeFragility|author=Mosby Woods

|summary=Helene adores her father but hates her motherCan you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, who neglects her and sees her as nothing more than an inconvenience. She grows up with is the realisation that question should you make it? Or is the only way question if you did, would it land? The catch is that her mother can hurt her is to sack her French governess – the only person who has ever tried to give Helene a stable upbringinganswer for both could well be... The winds of war blow them all from a fictional Kiev, to a harsh St Petersburg and on to a snowy Finland to end up – finally – in France at the end of the First World War. Helene's father has made a lot of money from mining in Siberia but whilst the family might have money – ridiculous amounts of it – they have nothing elseno.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701185570</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Per Petterson|title=It's Fine By Me|rating=3.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=We see Audun start his new school in Oslo. The building'Fragility'' is set as the city of Portland, the classroomsOregon, cautiously begins to emerge from the teachers, even restrictions imposed during the other pupils all seem to scare him. He refuses to conform and insists on wearing his sunglasses - indoors. It's not an affectation though, apparently he has some facial scarring around his eyes.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846553695</amazonuk>covid pandemic

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=John O'ConnellMosby Woods|title=The Baskerville Legacy: A NovelWhirly Man Loses His Turn

|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary=1900, and a man on a ship coming back from The West isn't the Boer War to edit the Daily Express meets one of his heroes dominant force it once was. Nobody in the form of Arthur Conan Doyle. With similar experiences and interests yet different enough West is quite sure how to bounce off each other they take up mend this or even if mending it is the idea best course of collaborating on action. Governments are flailing. A war here, a plotpush for climate action there. A feeling that nobody is in actual charge. When they do fix on time to do soImagine then, it leads to literary prospects, which lead to there was a man with precognition. Imagine the strategic advantage in this asset; a week's research together on Dartmoorman who can tell you what will happen given any set of circumstances. That man would be valuable, which leads to ''The Hound of right? Perhaps the Baskervilles''most valuable asset in history. But perhaps in a way Imagine then, that only one of them intendedthis man loses this ability.What would governments do to get it back?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907595465</amazonuk>B0C9SNG8R1

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kenzaburo Oe0571379559|title=The Silent CryHouse of Broken Bricks|author=Fiona Williams

|summary=Featuring rioting and looting ''The House of Broken Bricks'' is the story of four people. Tess Hembry's roots are in Jamaica: temperamentally she might be happier there, but instead, she lives in the house on the riverbank, built of broken bricks. Insubstantial as it might look, it's stood the passage of corporate supermarkets time, storms and anger against immigrantsfloods. Her husband, this is a timely reRichard, struggles to grow his vegetables, to complete the delivery rounds - and to bring in sufficient money. They have twin boys -issue of Nobel Prize for Literature winner’s Kenzaburo Óe’s 1967 classic Sonny and Max, the rainbow twins. Sonny's colouring reflects his mother's Jamaican heritage. Max takes after his father. People don't believe that they'The Silent Cryre related, much less twins and there's an assumption when Max is out with his mother that she' which was cited by the Nobel committee as s his key worknanny.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846688078</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Hector Tobar|title=The Barbarian Nurseries|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=The Torresfollow-Thompsons seem up to have it allthe excellent ''Ithaca'' picks up a few months after where we left off. A beautiful homeIn the palace of Odysseus, two healthy boys and enough money not with delicate care Queen Penelope continues to have rule without her husband, who sailed to worry about practical matterswar at Troy and then by divine intervention never returned home. The cherry on As ever she remains surrounded by suitors vying for the cake is their employment throne of their maid Araceli. She works like a trouper and keeps the large house spick and spanWestern Isles. She is lucky enough to have her own private quarters (if small Having survived – politically and rather basic) in physical – the back garden area. She knows within herself chaotic storm that she should be grateful, should really be jumping up and down with glee and thanking her lucky stars Clytemnestra brought to have this job. SheIthaca's managed to escape the poverty and violence of Mexico after all. But as she goes about her daily housekeeping duties she feels like some alien living shores, Queen Penelope is on another plant. Planet America. Araceli is young, single and childless and at times she misses the hustle and bustle brink of her old lifea fragile peace. And here Tobar gives an excellent account of One that shatters however with the affluent part return of LA where the Torres-Thompson's live - ' ... in this house on a hill high above the oceanOrestes, on a cul-de-sac absent King of pedestrians or playing childrenMycenae, absent of traffic .and his sister Elektra, seeking refuge..'|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444726757</amazonuk>0356516075

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alistair MacLeodKay Chronister|title=No Great MischiefDesert Creatures|rating=54|genre=Literary Dystopian Fiction|summary=No Great Mischief With a world that is becoming increasingly inhospitable for humanity, post-apocalyptic fiction can become an almost masochistic thrill. Whether it is a novel which captures the essence robotic takeover, a world devoid of belonging and the need water or a nuclear holocaust, this genre is a way for humans to be a part of onecathartically experience their most existential fears. ''Desert Creatures''s history. This by Kay Chronister is the story a new work of a small part post-apocalyptic fiction that aligns many of Clann Calum Ruadh, the people of Red Calum, emigrants to Canadafears that exist for humanity today. It sweeps from contemporary Toronto to evoke Cape Breton in the fifties and back to the clearances of Scottish history. MacLeod tells the tale with the dignity and stature of an ancient myth, holding up is a shocking novel that still manages to our gaze what it means to be a part of a race, a family and a placefind hope. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099283921</amazonuk>1803364998

 {{newreviewfrontpage|isbn=1803363002|author=William GiraldiEric LaRocca|title=Busy MonstersThe Trees Grew Because I Bled There|rating=45|genre=General FictionHorror|summary=Charles Homar loves his GillianHorror taps into something primeval within us. It is used as a way to reflect our darkest emotions and how we as humans react and process them. HeMost horror fiction feature a 's proved 'Big Bad'', whether that is a home invader, a monster or a ghost, it to us, if not to herusually something tangible and, by going after her possessive, jealous state trooper the end of an ex with the intent to kill - if only ended up rescuing a cat insteadstory, beatable. But lo and behold, sheEric LaRocca's declared she's off to discover the real love of her life - the giant squid'The Trees Grew Because I Bled There'' is not like that. Failing to stop this, Charlie spends too long with It is a Nessie obsessive, then goes on a hunt collection of his own - for Bigfoot, all short stories more interested in the whilehorrors of illness, chapter by chapter, sending his narrative of the same grief and humiliation. Horrors that linger and are harder to a magazine as essays for one of those autobiographical, frivolous columnsdefeat than any ''Big Bad''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393079627</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Colson WhiteheadMadelaine Lucas|title=Zone One|rating=4|genre=Horror|summary=To start, Thirst for once, with the book's style - this has probably the least dialogue of any book you'll read this year. There are some comments from characters, but they're few and far between - as are those characters that can actually speak. For we're in a devastated New York, later this century, and our three main protagonists are cleaning up after a worldwide plague of zombies. The active ones have mostly been gunned down by the military, but there are a few still locked away in hidden corners - as well as inactive ones, called stragglers, who seem stuck in one instant, whether finishing off their last office job for the millionth time, or like a ghost haunting a place relevant to them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846555981</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Michela Murgia and Silvester Mazzarella (Translator)|title=AccabadoraSalt

|summary=This beautiful, slim volume has won no less than six literary prizes. Murgia paints an early and evocative picture of the young central character''Love, Maria as she makes mud tarts. But this innocent activity is about to come to an abrupt halt. Her birth mother struggles to feed and clothe all her children (Maria is the fourth child and is really a nuisance) so when an opportunity arises which I'solves the problem of Maria' if you liked read, then she grabs it with both hands. Maria is quickly and rather unceremoniously adopted by an older woman who just happens was supposed to be a widow. She has no children of her own light and seems to lead a rather lonelyweightless feeling, insular life. She is old enough to be a grandmother, let alone a mother. Will she be able to cope with a noisy youngster under her roof? You wonder why shebut I had always longed for gravity''d want to take in a raggedy child, or any child for that matter, in the first place. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857050451</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Khaled Hosseini|title=The Kite Runner (Graphic Novel)|rating=4|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=A confession. If there's one book I'm not likely to readTold from a retrospective view, it's that which everyone else is reading. If it turns into a hugely popular film for all young woman unravels the leftyear-wing chattering classes to rave over, then long relationship that's just more grist to my mill – I'll always have a chance to catch up on it once defined her. Overlaid with later onwisdom, even if I never take that opportunity. I'm not alone in acting like this the narrator relives the affair with a man twenty years her senior from its inception – the summer after finishing university – see a friend and colleague's similar admission when reviewing [[White Teeth by Zadie Smith]]to its sorrowful end the summer after. But at least, through Set against the medium backdrop of an isolated Australian coastal town ''Thirst for Salt'' details the graphic novel, the book reviewing gods have conspired to let me see just what I24-year-old narrator'm missing, s deepening relationship with this adaptationher older lover, by Italian artistsdepicting its all-consuming nature, of a hugely successful – how it changed her perspective on both romantic and familial relationships and therefore delayable – novelhow it altered her irrevocably.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408815257</amazonuk>0861546490

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jaimy GordonMichael Grothaus|title=Lord of MisruleBeautiful Shining People

|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=West Virginia, 1970. We're at a rundown race track, of the dusty kind rundown horses 'But fearing something and their rundown owner/trainers fetch up living in, with the occasional race having it come to interrupt the boredom. Into pass are two different things comes a young upstart hoping to surprise all with his four unknown quantities and make a packet before fleeing. His girlfriend is here too And I'm willing to help outbet most of what we fear will never happen, and naively eager for success and knowledge, but old hands like Medicine Ed have seen or we can take steps to change it all before. Also in the background are some small-time gangsters who are not too keen at for once not knowing who is doing what and how races are going to be run and won.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857386697</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|author=Joan Leegant|title=Wherever You Go|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Religion kicks off this book, even before ''Beautiful Shining People'' revolves around the first page. The title is from a passage from the Book question of Ruth. The only female central character, Yona is travelling from her home in America to visit her sister identity and large familyacceptance. She's not really looking forward Of what it means to itbe human. She's nervous. The two sisters live very different lives Of what is real and what is artificial, and haven't seen each other for a decade. Leegant tells us all about whether the massive rift in their relationshipdevelopment of technology is exciting or frightening.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0393339890</amazonuk>191458564X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Charles FrazierJennifer Saint|title=NightwoodsAtalanta|rating=4.5

|summary=If you have read Charles Frazier's 'Cold Mountain'I was as worthy as any one of them. I would get on board that ship, or indeed seen the film, then you'll have a fair idea what to expect from his latest offering - 'Nightwoods'I vowed. As with 'Cold Mountain'I would take my place, not just in the landscape name of the Appalachians is the dominant character, this time set in the 1950sgoddess. He even manages to get his requisite bear into It was for the story although thankfully it fares rather better than the unfortunate beast in his first book. The darksake of my name, oppressing majesty and beauty of the mountains and woods pervades the whole storytoo.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444731246</amazonuk>}}Atalanta''

{{newreview|author=Shuichi Yoshida|title=Villain|rating=3Princess.5|genre=Crime|summary=Well, I suppose I'd better begin with the bad which was there were moments at the start of this novel when I thought I couldn't possibly read it right to the endWarrior. It's written in such a stilted, factual style with details about the road networks of the local area and exactly how much anyone pays for anything they eat or buy or rent! Faced, for example, with the paragraph ''cars setting out from Nagasaki that take the pass road to save money take the Nagasaki Expressway from Nagasaki to Omura, then to Higashi-Sonogi and Takeo, and get off at the Saga Yamato interchangeLover. Intersecting this east-west Nagasaki Expressway at the interchange is Route 263'' I thought I'd never manage to read more than a couple of lines before falling asleep! Still, I persisted and actually, I'm glad I didHero.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099526654</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Mike French|title=The Ascent Abandoned at birth for being born a daughter rather than a son, Atalanta is raised under the protective eye of Isaac Steward|rating=3|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Isaac is married the goddess Athemis and fashioned into a formidable huntress, one who longs for adventure. When the opportunity comes – to Rebekah. They have sonsjoin the Argonauts, a fierce band of warriors, Esau descendent from the Gods themselves – Atalanta seizes the chance to fight in Artemis' name and Jacob, naturallycarve out her own legendary place in history. There What follows is a half-brother Ishmael whirlwind of challenges and a back-story of marital betrayal discovery and the out-casting of sonsthrough it, Atalanta must remember Artemis' fatal warning: that if she marries, it will be her undoing.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956881017</amazonuk>1472292154

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=A PortsmouthAmanthi Harris|title=The Beautiful Torment of a DreamPlace|rating=35

|summary=Padma, a young Sri Lankan, has returned to the Villa Hibiscus on the southern coast of her home country. This is a beautifully presented book with its enigmatic front cover and equally enigmatic titleplace she spent her formative years. After reading It is not a place she was born into, but the blurb on one she thinks of as home. How she came to be at the back cover I was left with a feeling of wishy-washiness howeverVilla, how it became her home, as regards and the machinations that have flowed through her life ever since she first arrived there provide the storyline''score'' for this gentle and yet subtly violent novel. Unfortunately Padma's present fails to escape her past and much like the musical score of a film, that strand weaves its way through everything that happens at the contents confirmed this for meVilla.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956493602</amazonuk>1784631930

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kevin Wilson178563335X|title=The Family Fang|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Annie Fang and her brother Buster are back living at home with their parents - where they never thought they'd ever be again. But it has come to this - her film actress career is on the rocks with the kind of self-destruction so much enjoyed by tabloid writers, and he - well, he's here because of a jumbo spud gun. Neither want life back at home, as throughout their childhood they were used by their parents - without much planning, without any consideration of feelings, or consent - in a whole career of performance art pieces, designed to enact a point of life or just cause havoc.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447202384</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSea Defences|author=Philip Roth|title=Nemesis|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=1944, Newark, New Jersey. Summer. Hot. Bucky Cantor, a young Jewish man, is gym teacher and playground attendant-cum-sports instructor for the district, helping all those interested become fit young men, able to do what his eyesight prevents him from doing - serving in the forces. Things would be fine if his girlfriend were closer at hand, if it were cooler, and if there were no polio epidemic happening. But there is, and nobody knows what is causing it. Is it flies? Is it a gang of taunting Italian kids spreading it from neighbourhood to neighbourhood? Is it blacks, germs on money - is it in fact Cantor himself, draining all the youthful vigour from his charges under a blistering sun?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099542269</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tom Wolfe|title=A Man in FullHilary Taylor

|summary=IWhen we first meet Rachel Bird she'll hold my hands up right now s a trainee vicar, sitting in on a PCC meeting and say that no, I havenwondering why they't read Wolfe's much-acclaimed [[The Bonfire of re held when you need to pick the Vanities by Tom Wolfe|The Bonfire of the Vanities]]children up. I've heard a lot about itHer husband, Christopher, over the yearscollects six-year-old Hannah and her elder brother, in newspapers etc that I almost feel that I ''have'' read itJamie, mind youwhilst Rachel holds a sobbing parishioner. So IThelma'm really pleased to have the chance to read this muchs daughter-in-awaited novellaw won't let her see her grandson. At Holthorpe, on the Norfolk coast, is a stonking 700+ pages most of which are packed tight lovely place, but Rachel is struggling to develop a real bond with Wolfethe parish - and she's particular style in awe of prosethe vicar, ItGail, but then she's been doing the job for more than thirty years. Rachel and Christopher hoped that a veritable feast for readerswalk on the beach would do them some good - it was stormy but it was probably what they needed. And then Hannah went missing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099554771</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=J M Coetzee1398515388|title=Scenes From Provincial LifeThe Boy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)

|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary='Scenes from Provincial Life' is a compilation First of JM Coetzee's three fictionalised memoirs: 'Boyhood' first published all, it was the earthquake, deep in 1997the ocean floor, 'Youth' published in 2002 which created the tsunami and [[Summertime by J M Coetzee|Summertime]] published this, in 2009turn, caused the nuclear meltdown. In one sense they clearly belong together in this single edition The result was complete and yet they utter devastation. The deaths were initially published separatelyuncountable, and the loss of livelihoods was widespread. What strikes The fact that many pets were separated from their owners came far down the reader list of this compilation is priorities but - six months after the tsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. He wasn't a dog person but the change in style convenience store owner's comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to open his car door and focus of Tamon the third book dog jumped in the series.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846554853</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Henning Mankell0989715337|title=DanielPapa on the Moon|author=Marco North

|summary=A young Hans Bengler has decided to leave his homeland of Sweden and make an expedition across the inhospitable Kalahari Desert. Brave - or extremely foolish. I'm sticking with 'Some frogs had gotten into the latter. My reasons are that Bengler is portrayed by Mankell as a rather dull, insular and unimaginative young man. He doesn't really get along with his family (such as they are) nor does he seem to have many friendswell. It's also plain that he's desperate to leave his cold Sweden for warmer climes. But at what cost?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009948143X</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Mohammed Hanif|title=Our Lady of Alice Bhatti|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Alice is nervous. She's being interviewed 'Walter stood waist-deep in the fragrant water, naked except for a job at the local hospitalhis beaten leather hat. Even although her nursing skills are far from idealLong strands of their eggs wove around him, she believes she's in sticky gray pearls with a shouttadpoles inside them. She presents herself Two of the dogs leaned over the opening and barked down at her charming best and it seems to workthe strange noise of the buckets as he filled them. She's now employed and earning some much-needed money. She knows she'll have to work really hard and probably long hours too. The hospital in question is in downtown Karachi: a seething mass of patients many of whom have no choice but to lie in corridors etc.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224082051</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Evelio Rosero|title=Good Offices|rating=3.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Here How is a church that for an opening? The style of this novel in Bogota nobody seems to want to leave. In part one it is a large group the form of the elderly, given a weekly, tasteless meal interconnected short stories goes from the charitable funds, but bitterly refusing succinct and laconic to quit the place, making our main character Tancredo fear for his passivity. In part two it is the congregationwistful and musing, as turning on a rare need for a stand-in priest seems to be a blessingsixpence. And in part three it is that priest himselfauthor Marco North, stuck among who has the household most wonderful turn of Tancredophrase, the girl who loves him, and chorus of three weird old womenstarts as he means to go on.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857050672</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Barry UnsworthDaisy Hildyard|title=The Quality of MercyEmergency

|summary='The Quality summary of Mercy' picks up the story of the author's Booker Prize-winning 'Sacred Hunger' although if you haven't read the first this book, you wondoesn't be greatly disadvantaged as the relevant story lines are explained. What you might miss out on come close to explaining what is some of the feeling for a few of the main characters, most notably the Irish fiddler, Sullivan who, when this book picks up in spring 1767, has just escaped from prison where the remaining shipmates of the slave ship, the 'Liverpool Merchant' await their trial of piracy. Slavery and abolition thereof remains a central theme of this sequel, but the book draws some poignant similarities done with those in bondage due to poverty, and particularly those working in the coal mines of County Durhampremise.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091937124</amazonuk>1913097811}}

{{newreviewFrontpage |author=Zadie SmithSally Oliver |title=White TeethThe Weight of Loss |rating=4 |genre=Literary Fiction |summary= Marianne is grieving. Traumatised after the death of her sister, she awakes to find strange, thick black hairs sprouting from the bones of her spine which steadily increase in size and volume. Her GP, diagnosing the odd phenomenon as a physical reaction to her grief, recommends she go to stay at Nede, an experimental new treatment centre in Wales. Yet something strange is happening to Marianne and the other patients at Nede: a metamorphosis of a kind. As Marianne's memories threaten to overwhelm her, Nede offers her release from this cycle of memory and pain—but only at a terrible price: that of identity itself.|isbn= 086154112X }} {{Frontpage|author=Natalia Garcia Freire|title=This World Does Not Belong To Us

|summary=Some books sneak up Early comments on youthis debut novel from Ecuadorian writer Natalia García Freire include Tremendous, a delight. Others are thrown at you from every corner of I will agree with the media to first – tremendous is no understatement – but 'a delight' is perhaps using the extent that you almost make expression in a conscious decision NOT to read them, or at least, way I'm not yetfamiliar with. Let I have to confess my ignorance of the furore die downSpanish-language literary tradition so forgive my generalisation here. If they're still around From the little I have read (in a few yearstranslation, your subconscious whispers, maybe weI don'll go see what all t read Spanish) there does seem to be a tendency towards the fantastical – the fuss was aboutmystical realism. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241954576</amazonuk>0861541901

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael OndaatjeJennifer Saint|title=The Cat's TableElektra|rating=54

|summary=For 'Elektra' by Jennifer Saint tells the story of three women who live in the first half or so heavily male dominated world of this bookAncient Greece. Cassandra, which sees an 11 year old boy called Michael (or Mynah to his friends) leave his home of Ceylon to travel to school in EnglandClytemnestra, I wasn't really sure if it even had a plot. Focusing on his journey and Elektra are all bit players in the 1950's aboard story of the ship to England, although occasionally leaping forward to his later life where he gives Trojan War. Yet Jennifer Saint shows us tantalising glimpses as to what happened to his fellow passengers after the voyage, this originally seems to be nothing more than a series of incredibly well-drawn character sketches. In fairness, I should say that ''nothing more'' is rather harsh in this case – often the men, silent women and children Ondaatje creates, from a supposedly cursed rich man seeking a cure, to a friendly thief, to Michael's beautiful cousin Emily, are so beautifully conjured that I could have lived without a plot perfectly happily. However, we eventually realise there's a little more to this narrative, the most compelling stories and that this skilful author has been foreshadowing the events at the novel's climax all alongmost extreme furies.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224093614</amazonuk>1472273915

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Patrick McGuinness8409290103|title=The Last Hundred DaysIf Only|author=Matthew Tree

|summary='The Last Hundred Days' in question here are Twenty-one-year-old Malcolm Lowry had been sent abroad by his father, cotton-broker AO Lowry: he asked his accountant, Mr Patrick, to ensure that the final days of Ceausescu's Romania in late 1989. Narrated by an unnamed young British expat who has man got on board the boat and thereafter Patrick was to send him a job offer from monthly allowance. Patrick sent the English department money regularly and a correspondence - of Bucharest University, despite never having interviewed for sorts - sprang up between the job, two although we get an insight into the life under communist rule as Eastern bloc countries all around start hear more about what Lowry has to open up after the fall of the Berlin Wallsay than Patrick. We are told It wasn't that McGuinness lived Lowry senior didn't care for his son, it was that he didn't care to have him in Romania in the years leading up this country where he might be a danger to his wife and other children. The alcohol problem was obvious even before Patrick managed to get the revolution, and this is no surprise as there is an authenticity here that could only have come from some level of inside knowledgeyoung man on his way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1854115413</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Antoine Laurain, Le Sonneur and Jane RogersAitken (translator)|title=The Testament of Jessie LambRed is My Heart

|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=The subject matter of 'The Testament of Jessie Lamb' ensures that this is not a comfortable [[:Category:Antoine Laurain|Antoine Laurain]] books have always been black and white and readin my house. Set in the near futureAnd so was this one, Rogers has imagined a truly terrifying virus although I could have spelled that affects pregnant women, known as Maternal Death Syndrome or MDS. Everyone carries more accurately – this illness but the effectsone was, a cross between AIDS and CJDis, ensure that all pregnant mothers will die - without exceptionblack and white and red. Scientists have found a way to save some of the unborn childrenYes, he has an artistic collaborator on this piece, but only by placing their mothers in a chemically induced coma from which they wonand I think it't recover. Now though, s possible to say not one page lacks the scientists have also discovered a way influence of immunising frozen, pre-MDS embryos which, if they can be placed in a willing volunteer, may ultimately allow the survival of the human race. However, the volunteers need to be under 16½ or the likely success rates are too low. Step forward one Jessie Lambsome striking visual ideas.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1905207581</amazonuk>1913547183

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sebastian BarryB098FFFBH9|title=On Canaan's SideSnowcub|author=Graham Fulbright|rating=4.5

|summary=Each chapter of 'On CannanFourteen-year-old Rachel is her school's Side' represents animal rights project leader and she and her friend are producing a day after competition entry to highlight the death of way in which human beings exploit the narrator, Lilly Bere's, grandson, Billanimal world. Initially the reader is bombarded by She gets a stream great deal of half thoughts but soon Lilly begins to outline her own life story support from being the daughter of a police officer in Ireland at the end of the First World War, her subsequent flight to the USAfamily: father Pip Harrison, to ultimately living in retirement as a domestic cook to a wealthy American. It's a remarkable storylecturer at Imperial College, full of tragic eventsLondon, but for all its hardshipsmother Kate and her twin, Lilly is from a time when such things are to be endured rather than dwelt onNick.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571226531</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Chuck Palahniuk|title=Damned|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary='Are you there Kate runs the family business, Satan? It's me, Madison'. I'm a spunky, lively tweenage girl, except I'm a dead one, and I'm toy shop called Cornucopia in HellPutney, to my surprise. While I'm here I'll find out just where it which is all those cold-calling telegraphers ring you from just while you're settling down to your evening meal, and where the world's wasted sperm and discarded toenail clippings fetch up. Iwe'll have very hairy encounters with demons of Satanmeet Rachel's and mankind's making, and with some superlative plotting and flashbacks I'll find a clearer approach to why I was put here in the first placemain (if unsuspected) source of information: five soft toys.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224091158</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alison PickYancey Williams|title=Far to GoCrosshairs of the Devil

|summary=At the risk Award-winning crime writer Eddie Jablonski is getting on in years and, despite his strenuous objections and thanks to his daughter, finds himself living - or imprisoned, from Eddie's point of sounding trite, a story set view - in 1938 Czechoslovakia on room 315 of the eve Garden of Nazi occupationEden nursing home, centred on with only a Jewish family trusty nursing aide, Jenkins, for palatable company. Nothing is always going to put the reader keep Eddie from his stock-in-trade of writing though, so here, for his readers, are his wanderings through an emotional journey. Add in a young child and ithis life's almost certain that you are going to be reaching for the Kleenex at some point. But Alison Pick makes some interesting creative choices that add more layers to this story. Some will surprise the reader but the overall impact is a wonderfully moving story with wholly believable characterswork.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755379411</amazonuk>0986031658}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Madeline Miller0008421714|title=The Song of AchillesMrs March|author=Virginia Feito

|summary=Before I started The problem began just after the book, I looked out my copy publication of HomerGeorge March's ''The Iliad'' and skim-read its one page introduction most successful novel to date. Everyone but Mrs March (yes, yet another book in my 'must-read' pile but it's been we know her first name only on the last page) seemed to either be reading it for about ahem, ten years)or had already done so. Having said Every day Mrs March went to the local patisserie to buy olive bread but on thatparticular morning, Patricia asked, as she was wrapping the bread, it is rather dry and scholarly which didn''but isn't really inspire me to get on with this book as I wasnthe first time he't really looking for s based a character on you?'heavy' read She mentioned that Johanna, especially on a nice summerthe principal character had 'her mannerisms''s day. Onwards Perhaps this would not have mattered, except for the fact that Johanna is the whore of Nantes - ''a weak, plain, detestable, pathetic, unloved, unloveable wretch...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408816032</amazonuk>''

{{newreview|author=Tiziano Scarpa|title=Stabat Mater|rating=3|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Translated by Shaun Whiteside from Scarpa's 2008 Italian original, 'Stabat Mater' is set in a Venetian orphanage for girls run by nuns in what would have been around the 1700s. The girls at the 'Ospedale' are trained as musicians and singers who play from a hidden gallery in the adjoining church for the patrons of the Instituto della Pietà. However, this is a highly stylised little book, bordering Move on the almost poetic, narrated from the point of view of one of the orphans, a young violinist named Cecilia who goes on to tell of the impact of the appointment of a new in-house composer, one Don Antonio, or Vivaldi as most of us know him.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687691</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Christien Gholson|title=A Fish Trapped Inside the Wind|rating=3|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=The front cover is lovely with its blue and turquoise suggesting languid waters. The author of 'The Jane Austen Book Club' (which I've read incidentally) 'fell in love with this novel.' High praise indeed. I'm hoping to do the same. Everything about this book stinks (and I use the word explicitly). All of the chapters have the word 'fish' somewhere or other and there's a quote right at the beginning which gives the book its quirky and unusual title. (As I'm a fishy Piscean does that bode well for a good or sympathetic review, I wonder).|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906998906</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Patrick deWitt|title=The Sisters Brothers|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Invariably, the Booker Prize longlist contains one book that is more on the side of light reading than the more worthy and overtly literary fare that it is usually associated with. 'The Sisters Brothers' is the 2011 choice. Set in the US in 1851, it details the adventures of two brothers, Eli and Charlie Sisters, who are hired hands for a mysterious boss known only as the Commodore. Narrated by Eli, who has slightly more of a conscience than his older brother, the story starts with the Commodore ordering a hit, for reasons unknown, on a certain Hermann Kermit Warm.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847083188</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Alan Hollinghurst|title=The Stranger's Child|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Alan Hollinghurst's Booker-nominated and long-awaited 'The Stranger's Child' is without doubt, as one might expect from this writer, beautifully written. Almost every page offers something to smile about either in terms of the comments of his characters or, more often, the wry descriptions that the author offers. The structure of the book is episodic, split into five parts covering pre-World War One, the 1920s, the 1960s, the 1980s and finally the early 2000s. It offers a thoughtful and well observed picture of changes in society and culture over this period and in particular of attitudes to homosexual relationships, although admittedly Hollinghurst's subjects tend to fall into a narrow band of well educated, artistic and often aristocratic members of society. Writers, poets and artists are the subject matter rather than the man on the street. His male characters are invariably homosexual while his females mostly either remain unmarried or have dysfunctional marriages.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330483242</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Paranormal Reviews]]