Changes

|author= Tahi SaihateJennifer Saint|title= Astral Season, Beastly SeasonElektra|rating= 3.54|genre= Literary Fiction|summary= We long for our past even though it is a place to which we can never return'Elektra' by Jennifer Saint tells the story of three women who live in the heavily male dominated world of Ancient Greece. Tahi SaihateCassandra, Clytemnestra, and Elektra are all bit players in her debut novel ''Astral Season, Beastly Season'' illustrates how these rose-tinted glasses the story of the Trojan War. Yet Jennifer Saint shows us that often lie. Her novel is a meditation on youth the silent women have the most compelling stories and how the things we do as a teenager can seem intensely important and often life-alteringmost extreme furies.|isbn= 19162771011913097854

|authorisbn=Laura Imai Messina8409290103|title=The Phone Box at the End of the WorldIf Only|author=Matthew Tree|rating=4.5

|summary= In the northeast of JapanTwenty-one-year-old Malcolm Lowry had been sent abroad by his father, in Inwate Prefecture a man installed a telephone box in cotton-broker AO Lowry: he asked his garden. ''Inside there is an old blackaccountant, telephone, disconnectedMr Patrick, to ensure that carries voices into the wind.'' It is a real place, a necessary place, young man got on board the boat and I am pleased thereafter Patrick was to see send him a monthly allowance. Patrick sent the IMPORTANT NOTE that money regularly and a correspondence - of sorts - sprang up between the author attaches two although we hear more about what Lowry has to her story, say than Patrick. It wasn't that the place is not a tourist destinationLowry senior didn't care for his son, it is a sacred place, a place was that must he didn't care to have him in this country where he might be left a danger to his wife and other children. The alcohol problem was obvious even before Patrick managed to those who really need itget the young man on his way.|isbn=178658039X

|author=Amin MaaloufAntoine Laurain, Le Sonneur and Jane Aitken (translator)|title=The DisorientedRed is My Heart|rating=3.5|genre=Literary Fiction |summary=[[:Category:Antoine Laurain|Antoine Laurain]] books have always been black and white and read in my house. And so was this one, although I could have spelled that more accurately – this one was, and is, black and white and red. Yes, he has an artistic collaborator on this piece, and I think it's possible to say not one page lacks the influence of some striking visual ideas.|isbn=1913547183}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B098FFFBH9|title=Snowcub|author=Graham Fulbright

|summary= Adam has lived in Paris for years, speaks French more easily than his native Arabic. In fact he hasnFourteen-year-old Rachel is her school't been back s animal rights project leader and she and her friend are producing a competition entry to his homeland for 25 yearshighlight the way in which human beings exploit the animal world. An old friend is dying…or as Adam prefers to think She gets a great deal of him support from her family: father Pip Harrison, a former-friendlecturer at Imperial College, London, perhaps not as harsh as an ex-friendmother Kate and her twin, or maybeNick. The falling out was Kate runs the family business, a long time agotoy shop called Cornucopia in Putney, and Adam's partner has no idea what it was about, even so she urges him to go knowing that hewhich is where we'll regret not doing so. Not knowing whether hemeet Rachel's going because he needs or wants to, or simply because he was asked, he's on the next planemain (if unsuspected) source of information: five soft toys. |isbn=B07ZQSK9CY

|author=Joanne M HarrisYancey Williams|title=A Pocketful Crosshairs of Crowsthe Devil|rating=4.5|genre= Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary= I have always been of the mind that once you're above pictureAward-book level winning crime writer Eddie Jablonski is getting on in years and, despite his strenuous objections and before you get thanks to graphic sex & violencehis daughter, finds himself living - or imprisoned, from Eddie's point of view - in room 315 of the Garden of Eden nursing home, with only a trusty nursing aide, Jenkins, there for palatable company. Nothing is no difference between books going to keep Eddie from his stock-in-trade of writing though, so here, for children and books for adults. There his readers, are good books and poor oneshis wanderings through his life's work. And Joanne Harris does not produce poor ones|isbn=0986031658}} {{Frontpage|isbn=0008421714|title=Mrs March|author=Virginia Feito|rating=4. ''A Pocketful of Crows'' is clearly aimed at the younger readers as witness 5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=The problem began just after the use publication of the middle initial in the authorGeorge March's most successful novel to date. Everyone but Mrs March (we know her first name only on the last page) seemed to differentiate from her adult offerseither be reading it or had already done so. Ignore Every day Mrs March went to the local patisserie to buy olive bread but on that if particular morning, Patricia asked, as she was wrapping the bread, ''but isn't this the first time he's based a character on you have loved anything from ?''Chocolat She mentioned that Johanna, the principal character had 'her mannerisms'' onwards you will know . Perhaps this would not have mattered, except for the fact that Harris Johanna is mistress the whore of Nantes - ''a weak, plain, detestable, pathetic, unloved, unloveable wretch.''}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B005FM76AA|title=The Duke's Children|author=Anthony Trollope|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=The story opens to probably the modern fairy taleworst news of all: Lady Glencora Palliser is dead. This Her husband, Plantagenet Palliser, the Duke of Omnium, is nearly paralysed by grief and struggling - at the same time - to adjust to no differentlonger being prime minister, or even in office. It He seeks to protect and guide his three adult children, which is an utter delighteasier said than done when none of them wishes to ''be'' guided. Silverbridge (his elder son, actually called Plantagenet, but always known by his title) and Gerald are destined to be sent down from Oxford and Cambridge respectively and to run up gambling debts, occasionally in eye-watering sums. Lady Helen has fallen in love with - and wishes to marry - Frank Tregear, the penniless son of a poor squire, which the Duke cannot countenance, not least because he sees echos of what might have happened when he married Lady Glencora. He's about to learn that parents do not always get their way.|isbn=1473222184

|authorisbn=Frederic Beigbeder and Frank Wynne (translator)B004O37B6A|title=A Life Without EndThe Prime Minister|author=Anthony Trollope

|summary=I looked at Plantagenet Palliser, the calendar Duke of Omnium, is the other week, and disappointedly realised I have prime minister of a birthday this year – I know, yet another one. It woncoalition government but he't be one s privately enraged at the seemingly unstoppable rise of the major numbers, but the time when I have the same number as Heinz varieties looms on the horizonFerdinand Lopez. And then a few of the big 0Lopex is exotic -numberssome describe him as Jewish, others as Portuguese but the truth is that no one knows and if all goes well, I'll be an OBELopez is not going to explain. (Which The ladies of course stands for Over Bloody Eighty.) Now if thatsociety, even Palliser's the extent of my mid-life crisisown wife, I guess I have to be happy. Our author here doesn't use that exact phraseLady Glencora, are supporters but he might be said to be living one. Determined to find out how to prolong life for as long as he wants – he would like to see 400 – he hops right into bed with the assistant to the first geneticist he interviews, and they end up with a child, which after Lopez makes an advantageous marriage Palliser is at least a way of continuing placed in the life position of having to support his genes, and wife's actions when Lopez loses a motive to keep on goingby-election. But how can he get to not flick the The Duke'final way outs payment of Lopez' switch, especially when foie gras tastes so nice?|isbn=1642860670election expenses in an attempt to stem gossip about his wife will come back to haunt him.

|authorisbn= Maryse CondéB00474HVX4|title= The Wondrous and Tragic Life of Ivan and IvanaPhineas Redux|author=Anthony Trollope|rating= 4.5|genre= Literary Fiction|summary= We live It's some time since we heard from [[Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope|Phineas Finn]]. Having succeeded in parliament and achieved a post- world: post-colonialism, post-modernismpaying position he fell out with those who provided his income and returned to Ireland where he married Mary, post truthhis childhood sweetheart. The list goes on. There are numerous works that utilise the prefix post He was fortunate to get a job in Cork (or Dublin - in their categorisation, but perhaps none more so than Maryse Condé. In her new novel, ''The Wondrous recollections may vary) and Tragic Life seemed settled into a life of Ivan and Ivana''domesticity. To bring Finn back, Condé writes with fervour about the scars left by colonialism on the countries Trollope had to which it latched itself. Ivan kill off poor Mary and Ivana are twins born Phineas emerges in Guadeloupe, London as a French overseas department. They grow up childless widower with intense and passionate feelings for each other. As they grow up and a legacy from an aunt who died at just the right time to allow the move overseas, the ravages of a post-colonial society drive them apart with tragic consequencesto be possible.|isbn=1642860697

|author= Ukamaka OlisakweJessie Greengrass|title= Ogadinma Or, Everything Will Be All RightThe High House|rating= 4.5|genre= Literary Fiction|summary= The new novel by Ukamaka Olisakwe Charles Darwin taught that all living matter evolved to pass on its genetic material with the implied belief that your progeny will then pass on theirs. However, that train of thought is a look at the trauma and heartache slowly seems to have fallen out of being a woman in 1980s Nigeriafavour. The title is Today's young generation are discovering that their parents and their parents'Ogadinma parents did not seem to think that far ahead. Or, Everything Will Be All Rightthey did think that far ahead and thought "it's not my problem" or "there's nothing I can do". Ogadinma is Raising a child and living in a world on the eponymous heroine precipice of the story.. We are with her in every scene and it catastrophe is her narrative voice that leads the story, although Olisakwe writes in third personwhat drives ''The High House'' by Jessie Greengrass. This provides is not a sense of detachment for the reader and highlights the isolation of Ogadinmascience-fiction novel. She This is exiled from her father's home and sent to Lagos where she our reality. This is married to an older man named Tobe. Their marriage descends into violence and indignities the life our children and Ogadinma must utilise her resourcefulness their children will have to escapelive.|isbn=19116481601800750072

|author=Elliot ReedCharlie Carroll|title=A Key to Treehouse LivingThe Lip|rating=45|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary=This ''Melody Janie Rowe'' even the name is the story evocative of…probably of a young boy, William Tycewhatever we want it to be, who is being raised by his uncle after the death of his mother and his fathermaybe that's abandonmentthe point. HoweverTo me the name sings of English folk music, but even in my use of that word English, it isnI know I'm putting an emmet take on things. And Melody Janie Rowe is anti-emmet. |isbn=1529334179}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B003UH99X4|title=The Eustace Diamonds|author=Anthony Trollope|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=It was generally thought that Sir Florian Eustace had come to regret his marriage but he didn't told in the usual narrative waylive long enough for this to become a problem. InsteadAfter his death, his wife, the book is made up Lizzie - still only in her late teens - was in possession of glossary entries, written by William, as a way of describing certain events, situations very valuable diamond necklace and emotionswas determined that she would not hand it over to her husband's executors. It runs alphabeticallyShe was adamant that Sir Florian had given it to her absolutely, starting with ABSENCE, then moving although the precise circumstances of the giving varied from telling to ALPHABETICAL ORDERtelling. As I began Lady Eustace was not a woman to read I did find myself thinking 'what on earth?!' but I soon grew used whom truth meant a great deal. All that was important to the styleher now, she maintained, and was instead caught up in William's storyher son. And, of course, her diamonds.|isbn=1911545418

|authorisbn= Karina Sainz Borgo and Elizabeth Bryer (translator)B003L7TDMU|title= It Would Be Night in CaracasPhineas Finn|author=Anthony Trollope|rating= 4.5|genre= Literary Fiction |summary= ''It Would Be Night in Caracas'' illuminates Phineas Finn is the everyday horrors son of modern day VenezuelaDr Malachi Finn, a successful doctor in Killaloe in County Clare, who sent his son to London to train as a lawyer. It begins with the death of Adelaida Falcon Phineas's mother interest is more in making influential friends than in becoming a lawyer and chronicles Adelaida's coming to terms with her new solitude one of them, Barrington Erle, suggests that he runs for Parliament in the forthcoming election. His father is not entirely in favour of this world as members are not remunerated and her attempts it would be up to escape ithim to provide financial support for his son as well as funding his election. Danger stalks One of the shadows doctor's patients is Lord Tulla who controls the borough of Loughshane andby this stroke of luck Finn is, in eventually, elected by a society where the establishment is crumbling, who can you turn to? |isbn=0062936867small margin.}}

|isbn=1471186393B003A6W0FO|title=Photographer of the LostCan You Forgive Her?|author=Caroline ScottAnthony Trollope

|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary=May 1921On the surface ''Can You Forgive Her?'' looks deceptively simple: it's the story of one woman and two men who are vying with each other for her love. Edie receives Alice Vavasor was originally engaged to her cousin, George Vavasor but she broke off that engagement and later became engaged to John Grey. When we first meet Alice she's on an extended tour of the continent with George Vavasor and his sister Kate. It's obvious that there's still a photograph through great deal of chemistry between John and Alice - and Kate is all for encouraging the postrelationship as it would tie Alice to her. There is no letter or note with George wants Alice but it's a matter of ''amour propre'' rather than love: he has little consideration for anyone other than himself and the original engagement had fallen through because of his infidelity and deceitfulness. There This thread is nothing written on the back story of the photographa very complicated love affair and a woman who lacks confidence in her own judgement. It You might not like Alice to start with but you will warm to her.}}{{Frontpage|author=Lucy Holland|title=Sistersong|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Sistersong is part of a picture genre I particularly enjoy, the modern retelling of her husbandfolk and fairy tales. These stories, for most of us, Francisare a cornerstone of childhood and I relish seeing them retold with fresh eyes and a fresh perspective. Francis has been missing for four yearsIf handled well these retellings give new life and new meaning to stories that are now becoming increasingly narrow and outdated, fleshing out characters, examining relationships and re-evaluating the role of women. TechnicallySistersong is a perfect example of a modern retelling done well, he has been "missingthe plot is handled with care, believed killed" keeping its archaic historical feel but allowing the characters to come to life, to feel real and human, most importantly they feel relatable in a modern world whilst still feeling appropriate for the pre-Saxon age they live in. This is a masterpiece of storytelling and I was captivated from beginning to end.|isbn=1529039037}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B002SQCYWQ|title=The Complete Barchester Chronicles|author=Anthony Trollope|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=When I told my daughter that is not something I didn't know what to listen to now that I'd finished [[The Complete Novels: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion by Jane Austen|The Complete Novels of Jane Austen]] for the second time on the trot she had the perfect answer: The Barchester Chronicles and they were in my inbox in a young widow can believematter of minutes. She hangs They're not ''quite'' as well known as the Austen books but they're an excellent follow on .}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B077K6BQFD|title=The Complete Novels: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion |author=Jane Austen|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Yes - that's over eighty-one hours of listening for the word purchase of one audio book. All six major novels are read by conmedienne Alison Larkin and they'missing', disbelieving re presented in the word killedorder in which they were published.

|isbnauthor=1509896465Andrea Bajani and Elizabeth Harris (translator)|title=The Nightjar|author=Deborah HewittIf You Kept a Record of Sins

|genre=FantasyLiterary Fiction|summary=This was an incredibly readable novella, but one that left me a little conflicted. We start as our hero arrives at Bucharest airport, and before we even know his gender or the nature of the person he's addressing in his second person monologue of a narration, we see him picked up by his mother'The Nightjar'' s chauffeur, and carted off to do all the necessary introductions before said mother is an unusual and exciting storyburied the following day. Alice Wyndham lives The mother was a normal life businesswoman, who clearly left northern Italy and settled in London until she finds a box on Romania with her doorstep one morning (night-time and business) partner, and her life begins feelings of abandonment are still strong. And so we flit from current (well, this came out in the original Italian in 2007, so moderately current) Bucharest, to unravelthe lad's childhood, fastand see just what he has to tell her as a private farewell address.|isbn=1939810965}}{{Frontpage|author=Afonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)|title=Kokoschka's Doll|rating=2. From that 5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Well, this looked very momentmuch like a book I could love from the get-go, her life which is flooded with magicwhy I picked my review copy up and flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of it. I found things to potentially delight me each time – a weird section in the middle on darker stock paper, a chapter whose number was in the 20,000s, lossletters used as narrative form, expectation and particularlyso on. It intrigued with the subterranean voice a man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of it mentioned, betrayaltoo. As everything around her shifts, all But you've seen the star rating that she knowscomes with this review, all and can tell that she thinks she knowsif love was on these pages, must changeit was not actually caused by them. Who can she trust? Who must she trust? Who will she trust? More importantly, can she even trust herself So what happened?|isbn=1529402697

{{Frontpage|class-"wikitable" cellpaddingisbn="15"0571362672|title=Snow|author=John Banville|rating=5|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=''Well, at least you're a Wexford man.''

<!-- Ann Patchett -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1526614960.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1526614960/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Dutch House by Ann Patchett]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]] When we first meet Danny and his elder sister, Maeve Conroy, theySo said Colonel Osborne when he welcomed DI St John (pronounced 're both living at The Dutch House with their parents and under the gaze of the portraits of the former owners whose oil paintings still hang on the walls. ItSinjun's a strange family dynamic: Cyril Conroy is distant and the closest Danny seems ) Strafford to come to him is when he goes out with him on a Saturday collecting rents from properties the family ownsBallyglass House just before Christmas 1957. Elna Conroy is loving, but absent increasingly often until Osborne was master of the point comes when the children are told that she will not be returning. In other circumstances this might have affected Maeve Keelmore Hounds and Danny deeply, but their primary relationship is had done something memorable with each otherthe Inniskilling Dragoons at Dunkirk. It's a bond which only death will break. [[The Dutch House by Ann Patchett|Full Review]] <!-- Tove Jansson -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0954899520.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0954899520/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[A Winter Book by Tove Jansson]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] Tove Jansson's worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, written in the 1940s and later becoming television characters of the simplicity, naivety and sheer 'goodness' that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Simple drawings, simple stories, simple goodness. What is often forgotten outside of her native Finland is that she was a serious writer…that she wrote for adults as well as children…and that she niceties had a feeling for the natural world and the simple life that not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of how the world might be. [[A Winter Book by Tove Jansson|Full Review]] <!-- Jansson -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0954221710.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0954221710/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Summer Book by Tove Jansson]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[Literary Fiction]] Tove Jansson's short novel about Summer is several worlds away from the Moomintrolls she is most famous for outside her native Scandinavia. Book yourself an afternoon this Summer, and take yourself and The Summer Book somewhere quiet, preferably within sight and sound of the sea, settle back and prepare to be transported. [[The Summer Book by Tove Jansson|Full Review]] <!-- Sedgwick -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1788542347.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788542347/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Snowflake, AZ by Marcus Sedgwick]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]] This is a deep, interesting read unlike any book I've read in quite some time. The novel's story follows a young man named Ash in the process of joining a community of sick people in the curiously named town of Snowflake, Arizona. These people are sick, but it's not a sickness you've heard of. Instead, they're environmentally ill – affected by household chemicals and fabrics, pesticides, static electricity, and radiation – and their only ''cure'' is to stay in the town away from the real world. Though it's about a real place, the people in it are fictional. It really is a place apart, quite literally cut off from the outside world – people are even required to decontaminate themselves thoroughly before becoming fully integrated. [[Snowflake, AZ by Marcus Sedgwick|Full Review]] <!-- Mulligan -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1784742716.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1784742716/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[Train Man by Andrew Mulligan]]=== [[image:2.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]] I came to this book thinking I knew just what to expect, established even though it is [[:Category:Andy Mulligan|the author's]] debut in the adult novel market (hence the more mature name – he used to be an Andy). I thought it simple to sum up, the tale of a middle-aged man who knows too much about train travel having his life turned around in the most pleasant way. I hadn't opened it when I'd shelved it alongside [[:Category:Chris Cleave|Chris Cleave]], and [[:Category:David Nicholls|David Nicholls]]. I expected some whimsy, some warmth and some affirmative loveliness. More fool me. [[Train Man by Andrew Mulligan|Full Review]] <!-- Anstruther -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1784631647.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1784631647/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[A Perfect Explanation by Eleanor Anstruther]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] Enid Campbell there was a woman who, Catholic priest dead on the face library floor with some precious bits of it, had everythinghis anatomy missing. Leading the life of an aristocrat – full of inherited wealth Strafford was from Roslea at Bunclody and splendourthis, glamourous locales and high expectations. Only Enid's life has been plagued by mental illness – undiagnosed, untreated and threatening both Enid and those close to her. After losing custody of her children, Enid sells her son to her sister for £500 – along with his good-but is this an act of greed-shabby suit, or an act of desperation? Exploring the true story marked him out as of her own grandmother, Eleanor Anstruther has found the perfect subject for an explosive, moving and beautifully well written debut. [[A Perfect Explanation by Eleanor Anstruther|Full Review]] <!-- Laguna -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:191070962X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/191070962X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Choke by Sofie Laguna]]=== [[image:2star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]] ThereOsborne's a dull, dispiriting pang of disappointment that comes when you try something everyone else loves class and find out that you're really not into itobviously Protestant. Coffee. Ice skating. A new Netflix series. Books are like that, but doubly so. [[The Choke by Sofie Laguna|Full Review]] <!-- Varenne -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0857058738.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0857058738/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Equator by Antonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] It strikes me that nobody can speak well of the Wild West outside the walls of a theme park. Our agent to see how bad it dead priest was here is Pete FergusonFather Tom Lawless from Scallanstown, who bristles at - despite the indignity of white man against Native 'Indian', who spends days being physically sick while indulging different religions - was in a buffalo hunt, and who hates the way man – and woman, habit of course – can turn against fellow man spending time at the bat of an eyelidBallyglass House. But this book is about so much more than the 1870s USA, and the attendant problems with gold rushes, pioneer spirits and racial genocide. He finds himself trying to find this book's version of Utopia, namely the Equator, where everything is upside down, people walk on their heads with rocks in their pockets to keep them on the ground to counter the anti-gravity, and where, who knows, things might actually be better. But that equator is a long way away – and His horse was stabled there's a whole adventure full of Mexico and Latin America between him and it… [[Equator by Antonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)|Full Review]] <!-- Kan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1911115847.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1911115847/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Nights of the Creaking Bed by Toni Kan]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category: Literary Fiction| Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] ''Nights of the Creaking Bed'' is a collection of short stories by Toni Kan. The series of stories tell of the lives and lusts of an assortment of characters living in and around Lagos, Nigeria. Nigeria, in this collection, is imbued with its very own heart of darkness. Danger stalks the shadows and people are killed for nothing more than a wrong look. Kan writes with a vitality and passion that allows these cynical stories to achieve a glimmer of hope. [[Nights of the Creaking Bed by Toni Kan|Full Review]]