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[[Category:Literary Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Literary Fiction]]==Literary fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Simon RichMatthew Tree|title=Elliot AllagashWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Meet thirteen year-old Seymor HersonTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, he's one a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of life's losers, the least popular boy being exceptional at Glendale a second rate private school in New York. He has made a virtue any of mediocrity his artistic passions all failed miserably and is happy who had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to simply survive his time at Glendale studies, cultivated his abilities rather than try and excel at anything. Meet thirteen year-old Elliot Allagash heir to one of the largest fortunes in America. Elliot who makes a habit of being thrown out of exclusive private schools has finally ended up at Glendale whose reliance on his family's funding means that he cannot be expelled despite his various misdemeanours. Expulsion not being an option Elliot embarks on an equally difficult project, to make Seymor into the most popular boy in school daydreams and beyond that to turn him into a young prodigy, the talk of the New York eliteset himself high but achievable ambitions. Can he achieve this? And at what cost?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846687543</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=James RobertsonB0C47LV1PC|title=And The Land Lay StillFragility|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Can you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the question should you make it? Or is the question if you did, would it land? The novel starts catch is that the answer for both could well be... at the end. We see the fictional character, photographer Mike Pendreich collating many, many photographs which his late father took with his trusty camerano. His father ''Fragility'' is generally acknowledged set as the better city of Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to emerge from the two at restrictions imposed during the craft; he simply had the knack. And what his son is now in charge of are black and white photographs charting a social history at that time. And we all know that a picture is worth a thousand words.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>024114356X</amazonuk>covid pandemic
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Damon GalgutMosby Woods|title=In a Strange RoomA Whirly Man Loses His Turn
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=The West isn'In A Strange Room' follows t the dominant force it once was. Nobody in the West is quite sure how to mend this or even if mending it is the actions best course of one action. Governments are flailing. A war here, a push for climate action there. A feeling that nobody is in actual charge. Imagine then, there was a man as he travels across three different countries, with three sets precognition. Imagine the strategic advantage in this asset; a man who can tell you what will happen given any set of companionscircumstances. That man would be valuable, playing three separate rolesright? Perhaps the most valuable asset in history. Never settled in one placeImagine then, narrator Damon continually hops from one country that this man loses this ability. What would governments do to another collecting more stamps in his passport than he does friends.get it back?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848873220</amazonuk>B0C9SNG8R1
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nicholson Baker0571379559|title=The AnthologistHouse of Broken Bricks|author=Fiona Williams|rating=45
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Readers who know ''The House of Nicholson Baker donBroken Bricks''t go to his work expecting convoluted plot, fast-paced action or non-stop dramais the story of four people. His novels at their best Tess Hembry's roots are in Jamaica: temperamentally she might be happier there, dissectbut instead, she lives in minute detail, the most intimate thoughts and daily doingshouse on the riverbank, usually built of a single characterbroken bricks. They are revealing Insubstantial as it might look, it's stood the passage of time, storms and surprisingfloods. Her husband, Richard, struggles to grow his vegetables, to complete the delivery rounds - and revel to bring in language itselfsufficient money. They have twin boys - Sonny and Max, like poetrythe rainbow twins. Sonny's colouring reflects his mother's Jamaican heritage. In other ways Max takes after his father. People don't believe that they are unlike poetry're related, which deals in suggestion much less twins and compression. And Bakerthere's an assumption when Max is out with his mother that she's novels generally deal in the oppositehis nanny.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847397824</amazonuk>
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{{Frontpage
|author=Claire North
|title=House of Odysseus
|rating=5
|genre= Literary Fiction
|summary= ''What could matter more than love?''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Adam ThirlwellKay Chronister|title=The EscapeDesert Creatures|rating=4|genre=Literary Dystopian Fiction|summary=When we first meet seventyWith a world that is becoming increasingly inhospitable for humanity, post-eight year-old Raphael Haffner, he apocalyptic fiction can become an almost masochistic thrill. Whether it is hiding in a spa hotel closet watching robotic takeover, a twenty-something year-old yoga instructor (who knows he's there) having sex with her boyfriend (who doesn't). Haffner is world devoid of water or a Britishnuclear holocaust, Jewish former banker who this genre is staying at the spa in Central Europe while on a mission way for humans to reclaim his dead wifecathartically experience their most existential fears. 's villa that was confiscated by the Nazis in the war. Thirlwell's narrator, some fifty years younger than Haffner (ie the age of the author), describes the aging libertine Haffner as Desert Creatures''lustful, selfish, vain by Kay Chronister is a new work of post- an entirely commonplace man''apocalyptic fiction that aligns many of the fears that exist for humanity today. CharmingIt is a shocking novel that still manages to find hope.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099539837</amazonuk>1803364998
}}
{{newreviewfrontpage|isbn=1803363002|author=Louise DeanEric LaRocca|title=The Old RomanticTrees Grew Because I Bled There|rating=4.5|genre=Literary FictionHorror|summary=Ken Horror taps into something primeval within us. It is nearly eighty used as a way to reflect our darkest emotions and he's obsessed with his death how we as humans react and planning his own funeralprocess them. HeMost horror fiction feature a ''Big Bad''s even helping out on , whether that is a home invader, a monster or a volunteer basis in ghost, it usually something tangible and, by the end of the local undertakerstory, beatable. Eric LaRocca's, but what he'd really like is to be back with his family. 'The trouble Trees Grew Because I Bled There'' is not like that they've rather moved on. His sister – who seems to have been It is a collection of short stories more interested in the perfect woman in his life – is deadhorrors of illness, grief and humiliation. He Horrors that linger and his first wife are divorced and heharder to defeat than any 's contemplating the same end to his second marriage. His elder son left home some twenty years ago as Gary and re-invented himself as Nick. At forty he's a solicitor, living with his girlfriend and her twelve-year old daughter and heBig Bad's happy. He really doesn't want Ken to spoil things, but there are some things which you just cannot avoid. Ken is one of them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905490194</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David SzalayMadelaine Lucas|title=The InnocentThirst for Salt|rating=45
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=This is a slim volume but it is tense, taut and has bite. The story see-saws between the 1970s and the late 1940s where much political activity occurs''Love, (thereI's an understatement) but especially in Russia as far as this novel is concerned. And as we dip into the even earlier period of the 1930sd read, we get was supposed to be a glimpse of the main characterlight and weightless feeling, Aleksandr, as a young man brimming over with political ideology. Along with his fellow students he fervently believed that but I had always longed for gravity'The making of Communism was something sacred to us.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099515881</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{Frontpage
|author= Michael Grothaus
|title=Beautiful Shining People
|rating=4
|genre= Literary Fiction
|summary= ''But fearing something and having it come to pass are two different things. And I'm willing to bet most of what we fear will never happen, or we can take steps to change it.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nicola BarkerJennifer Saint|title=Burley Cross Postbox TheftAtalanta
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=When a bag ''I was as worthy as any one of twenty seven undelivered letters was recovered from behind a hairdresser's in Skipton it fell to two local policemen to investigate what them. I would get on board that ship, I vowed. I would become known as Burley Cross Post Box Thefttake my place, for it was not just in the village name of Burley Cross, just before Christmas, that the Post Box goddess. It was forced open and the mail stolen. P C Roger Topping, of for the Ilkley force, took over the case from his old school friend Sargeant Laurence Everill without any great hope sake of successmy name, but the village was in turmoil and something had to be donetoo.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007355009</amazonuk>}}Atalanta''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tove JanssonAmanthi Harris|title=Travelling LightBeautiful Place
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=In Padma, a young Sri Lankan, has returned to the Villa Hibiscus on the southern coast of her home country of Finland – and no doubt throughout much of . This is a place she spent her formative years. It is not a place she was born into, but the rest one she thinks of Europe which is not quite so sniffy about foreign literature as Britain tends home. How she came to be – Jansson is generally recognised as an author of talentat the Villa, skillhow it became her home, verve and wit the machinations that extended far beyond have flowed through her life ever since she first arrived there provide the Moomin Troll stories ''score'' for which she is best known in this countrygentle and yet subtly violent novel. Those childrenPadma's books were first published in England sixty years ago and have remained in print ever since (as well as being adapted for just about every other medium going), present fails to escape her past and much like the musical score of a joy they are toofilm, but it is only recently that we have been granted strand weaves its way through everything that happens at the pleasures of reading her fiction for adultsVilla.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>095489958X</amazonuk>1784631930
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter Matthiessen178563335X|title=Shadow CountrySea Defences|author=Hilary Taylor
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=This is a big book by anyoneWhen we first meet Rachel Bird she's standards. Think of your average blockbuster a trainee vicar, sitting in terms of pages - then double iton a PCC meeting and wondering why they're held when you need to pick the children up. Due to its sheer breadth of narrative I think it best if I break it down into manageable bookHer husband, Christopher, collects six-sized chunks (the novel itself is subyear-divided into old Hannah and her elder brother, Jamie, whilst Rachel holds a trilogy generally known as The Watson Trilogy)sobbing parishioner. First off, thereThelma's an explanatory authordaughter-in-law won's note at t let her see her grandson. Holthorpe, on the beginning Norfolk coast, is a lovely place, but Rachel is struggling to ease develop a real bond with the reader parish - and she's in gentlyawe of the vicar, perhapsGail, but then she's been doing the job for more than thirty years. I took Rachel and Christopher hoped that a deep breath and dived in .walk 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>085705015X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alberto Barrera Tyszka1398515388|title=The SicknessBoy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=This literary novel is a slow burner. But First of all, it was the earthquake, deep in the very first page gives an insight into ocean floor, which created the beautiful language used throughout such as 'Medical people rarely used adjectives. They don't need to.' And later on there's another lovely sentence loaded with meaning tsunami and originality - 'Blood is a terrible gossipthis, it tells everythingin turn, as any laboratory technician knowscaused the nuclear meltdown.' The opening chapter is located in a consulting room where a rather tense conversation is taking placeresult was complete and utter devastation. The answer is extremely important to one man.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906694508</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Maureen Gibbon|title=Thief|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=It’s summerdeaths were uncountable, and school teacher Suzanne is renting a cabin by a lakethe loss of livelihoods was widespread. Spending her days reading and swimming, she also finds time to engage in some old fashioned letter writing with a stranger who responded to a personal ad she placed. He’s currently an inmate at The fact that many pets were separated from their owners came far down the state penitentiary, list of priorities but Suzanne’s not one to judge, and agrees to give their correspondence - six months after the tsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a shotconvenience store. Then she finds out what he’s in for – and it’s not pretty. Breville is He wasn't a convicted thief and rapist, and Suzanne herself was raped as a teenager, by a friend’s brother. That should be dog person but the end of it: any sensible person convenience store owner's comment that he would cut off all communication call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to open his car door and turn their back on Tamon the situation. But Suzanne is different and though she’s acknowledges that it might not be the healthiest of relationships, she maintains the back and forth with Brevilledog jumped in.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848871821</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Julia Franck0989715337|title=The Blind Side of Papa on the HeartMoon|author=Marco North
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=When I read ''Some frogs had gotten into the international bestseller'' on the front cover, as in this novel, my expectations are raised a notch or two. So, would this book meet those expectations? Franck gives the reader a short prologue and we see Helene, the main character of the novel, living in her middle-years. We know she has a husband who is carrying out some very important and crucial work for his country; his beloved Germany. The book is set in 1945 and Germany is in chaos. And Helen's young son has seen sights no 7 year old should witness. It's the stuff of nightmareswell. Their lives are also in chaos not to mention extreme danger and as a single parent who's at her wit's end she makes a monumental decision.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099524236</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Irene Nemirovsky|title=Jezebel|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Gladys Eysenach stands in the dock accused of murdering her young lover. She apparently took a gun from her handbag and shot him in the early hours of Christmas Day in her own home. What happened is clear – Gladys makes no attempt to deny it – but why it happened is less obvious, and Gladys doesn't seem inclined to offer much in the way of explanation. But gradually, oh so teasingly, we find out what really happened and why.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520389</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Louise Doughty|title=Whatever You Love|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Two police officers knock on Laura's door. They break the news to her that her 9 year old daughter Betty has been run over and killed. Betty's friend Willow is in hospital. Immediately, I was drawn into this story of a mother's worst nightmare coming true.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571254756</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Zachary MasonDaisy Hildyard|title=The Lost Books of the OdysseyEmergency
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Zachary Mason suggests that Homer's ''Odyssey'' was merely one particular ordering The summary of the events of Odysseusthis book doesn' return t come close to Ithaca after the Trojan War. 'Echoes of other Odysseys', he suggests exist, including a forty four-episode variation in a 'pre-Ptolomeic papyrus excavated from the desiccated rubbish mounds of Oxyrhnchus' and this is explaining what is 'translated' here. So we are presented done with these forty four often very short stories that reconstruct elements of the Odyssey in a kind of alternate reality, asking 'what if it were slightly different', and what emerges is a non-linear, mosaic of stories. If Homer had decided to present his book in DVD format, these would be in the 'extras' of alternative 'takes' on things. The result is like a jazz riff on the original storiespremise.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224090224</amazonuk>1913097811}}
{{newreviewFrontpage |author=Joseph SmithSally Oliver |title=TaurusThe 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
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=As the bull goes Early comments on this debut novel from paddock to stall in Ecuadorian writer Natalia García Freire include Tremendous, a delight. I will agree with the searing heat of the farm, he feels strangely disembodied - and yet all he feels first – tremendous is no understatement – but 'a delight' is his body: his huge bulk; perhaps using the angles at which he must hold up his heavy head expression in a way I'm not familiar with. I have to see what he needs to see; confess my ignorance of the strange latency that fills himSpanish-language literary tradition so forgive my generalisation here. He watches From the skittish grey horse, transfixed and yet repulsed by its grace and fluidity. He observes his captorslittle I have read (in translation, I don't read Spanish) there does seem to be a tendency towards the fantastical – the girl and boy siblings and their father, and he allows their goadings to gradually wake him from stuporous apathymystical realism. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224089978</amazonuk>0861541901
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Juan Gabriel VasquezJennifer Saint|title=The Secret History of CostaguanaElektra|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=In 1904 Polish-born British novelist Joseph Conrad wrote his novel about a self-publicising Italian expatriate 'Elektra' by Jennifer Saint tells the name story of ''Nostromo'', set three women who live in the fictitious South American republic heavily male dominated world of CostaguanaAncient Greece. Columbian writerCassandra, Clytemnestra, Juan Gabriel Vásquez imagines that and Elektra are all bit players in the fictitious José Altamirano has assisted Conrad in his research by telling him his own story, only to find that of the British novelist has subsequently inexcusably omitted him from his bookTrojan War. Now, he is seeking to set the record straight by telling Yet Jennifer Saint shows us that often the reader, who he imagines in silent women have the role of a jury, as well as someone named Eloísa (who we later find out about) most compelling stories and the same story to pass judgement on if this was fairmost extreme furies.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408800187</amazonuk>1472273915
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kenzaburo Oe8409290103|title=The Changeling|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=The novel starts at the end. Therefore we know that one of the two principal characters, namely Goro, appears to have committed suicide. The question is why. And the whole novel is an attempt to provide that elusive answer. Goro was an extremely successful film director of international repute. He was based in his native Japan but travelled extensively with his work. And you have to ask yourself why would a man such as this decide to end his life?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843547341</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewIf Only|author=Miguel Syjuco|title=IlustradoMatthew Tree
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=When the dead body of Filipino writer Crispin Salvador is found floating in the Hudson River, apparently having committed suicideTwenty-one-year-old Malcolm Lowry had been sent abroad by his father, cotton-broker AO Lowry: he asked his student and fellow Filipinoaccountant, Miguel is suspicious that darker forces may have been behind his deathMr Patrick, particularly when there is no sign of Salvador's latest manuscript to ensure that threatens to dish the dirt young man got on board the sleaze boat and corruption of thereafter Patrick was to send him a monthly allowance. Patrick sent the rich money regularly and powerful in his native Philippines. In order to investigate further, Miguel decides to write a biography correspondence - of his teacher and mentor. That's sorts - sprang up between the premise of this book, but it tells you almost nothing two although we hear more about the experience of reading it. This is no straightforward narrative of a regular crime fictionwhat Lowry has to say than Patrick. Itwasn's a kaleidoscope of sometimes apparently disjointed writing t that gradually comes together to create a story that only starts to come into focus about half way throughLowry senior didn't care for his son, but itwas that he didn's not until the final pages t care to have him in 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 true picture is brilliantly revealedyoung man on his way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330510002</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ian Mackenzie|title=City of Strangers|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=Paul Metzger – mid thirties, with a failed marriage, a broken relationship with his brother (who converted to Judaism)Antoine Laurain, Le Sonneur and a dying father Jane Aitken (who is an ex-Nazitranslator). Straight away there are obvious flaws with his family dynamic. As his writing career fails to take off he's left to churn out thousands of words for articles that have no meaning to him, the dregs of the publishing world. His life isn't quite as high flying as he hoped. But then Paul gets offered a lucrative book deal; the one thing he has wanted for years. The only catch is he has to write about his father.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099531852</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Matthew Yorke|title=Pictures of Lily|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=As soon as Georgia Myers turns eighteen, she is going to find her biological parents. And she has lots of questions for them too; like where else might she have lived if she had not been given up and does she have any brothers and sisters? Mostly, however, Georgia just wants to ask ''why?''. Why was she given up for adoption? Why her?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849014124</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Joseph O'Connor|title=Ghost Light|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=An unknown voice introduces the reader to actress Molly. She doesn't know it but she will be dead fairly soon. It's almost as if she's talking to herself throughout the introduction pages. The language is Irish vernacular so there's lots of good old Irish put-downs, classic descriptions and call-a-spade-a-shovel language. This richness and unmistakable lilt gives the reader a sense of place. Albeit, old Molly is almost living by her wits (which are varied and considerable) in the poorer areas of London. Her conversations with the local people, whether it's the inn-keeper or the local bobby on the beat are absolutely wonderful. She is one fine actress. I could not keep the smile from my face when reading these conversational gems. For example, Molly is trying to have a polite conversation with the inn-keeper Mr Ballantine when they are rudely interrupted 'Men barrel in and out with their swearing and gruffness ... Why can they never sit easy, must they always emit noises, and must the noises be deafening vowels?' Brilliant. The sheer beauty in all of this Red is that Molly, in her own private thoughts, in her own head, is giving off the most foul language of the lot of them. These conversations are also bitter-sweet. O'Connor's descriptions - especially of people are superlative. He doesn't try too hard (which is a gift in itself) but gets his message over to the reader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0436205718</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jane Bowles|title=Two Serious LadiesMy Heart
|rating=3.5
|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=First published [[:Category:Antoine Laurain|Antoine Laurain]] books have always been black and white and read in 1943, my house. And so was this is the story of Christina Goering and Frieda Copperfield who are two strained and constrained women who want to break freeone, although it is not entirely clear what it is they want to break free from. Society? The conventions of heterosexuality? The boredom of their female lives? AnywayI could have spelled that more accurately – this one was, Christina and is a wealthy spinster who takes a companion, Miss Gamelon, into her home where they settle into a routine of being catty to each otherblack and white and red. Soon Christina's male friendYes, Arnold, moves in with them toohe has an artistic collaborator on this piece, and later when they all move to a falling-down house on an island they are joined there by ArnoldI think it's father who has walked out on his wife. Christina leaves the house, trying to improve herself in some manner perhaps, but becoming a sort of prostitute, falling into relationships as a 'kept woman'. Mrs Copperfield, meanwhile, takes a trip to Panama with her husband. The couple drift apart as Frieda finds herself attracted possible to say not one page lacks the seedy underworld influence of prostitution, drinking in bars and brothels, falling for a prostitute named Pacifica and leaving her husband to move in with hersome striking visual ideas.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956003850</amazonuk>1913547183
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joanna KavennaB098FFFBH9|title=The Birth of LoveSnowcub|author=Graham Fulbright|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=The Birth Fourteen-year-old Rachel is her school's animal rights project leader and she and her friend are producing a competition entry to highlight the way in which human beings exploit the animal world. She gets a great deal of Love has four interwoven storylines about characters in different timessupport from her family: father Pip Harrison, a lecturer at Imperial College, pastLondon, present mother Kate and futureher twin, Nick. The common theme Kate runs the family business, a toy shop called Cornucopia in Putney, which is birthwhere we'll meet Rachel's main (if unsuspected) source of information: five soft toys.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>057124517X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tishani DoshiYancey Williams|title=The Pleasure SeekersCrosshairs of the Devil|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Essentially this is a love story between two people - Babo from Madras and Sian from small-town Wales. You could argue that two more disparate cultures would be hard to imagine. Factor in that the novel opens in the heady, free love days of the 1960s and a very entertaining story starts to unfold. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747590923</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Yasmina Khadra|title=What the Day Owes the Night|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Nine year old Algerian Muslim Younes Award-winning crime writer Eddie Jablonski is devastated when his father's farm is destroyed getting on in years and his family have to move to the slum of Jenane Jato. However, while the rest of despite his family struggle, this turns out strenuous objections and thanks to be something of a blessing in disguise for Younes,who is rescued by his wealthy uncledaughter, a pharmacist. Renamed Jonasfinds himself living - or imprisoned, he moves to live with his uncle and aunt from Eddie's point of view - in room 315 of the vibrant European district Garden of Rio Salado. ThereEden nursing home, he meets new friends Jean-Christophewith only a trusty nursing aide, SimonJenkins, and Fabricefor palatable company. But what seems to be an unbreakable friendship Nothing is tested going to its limits by the return to the area keep Eddie from his stock-in-trade of the beautiful Emiliewriting though, so here, and the boys' problems increase as Algeria fights for its independence from France. The book is narrated by Jonas at a much older agehis readers, lookingback at are his wanderings through his life, although the epilogue brings us to the present day as he visits a grave's work.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0434019933</amazonuk>0986031658}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Barbara Trapido0008421714|title=Sex and StravinskyMrs March|author=Virginia Feito
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Josh and Caroline and their daughter Zoe live on an old red bus in Oxford, even though both have quite well paid jobs as an academic and headteacherThe problem began just after the publication of George March's most successful novel to date. Caroline has spent Everyone but Mrs March (we know her adult life deferring her plans for first name only on the future in order last page) seemed to support her widowed mother who lives in a house nearbyeither be reading it or had already done so. Josh’s job in Every day Mrs March went to the drama department of Bristol University does offer him some opportunities local patisserie to escape abroad thoughbuy olive bread but on that particular morning, Patricia asked, as she was wrapping the bread, ''but isn't this the first time to he's based a character on you?'' She mentioned that Johanna, the principal character had 'her mannerisms''. Perhaps this would not have mattered, except for the fact that Johanna is the whore of Nantes - ''a conference in his native South Africaweak, plain, detestable, pathetic, unloved, unloveable wretch.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408802325</amazonuk>''
}}