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[[Category:New Reviews|Literary Fiction]]==Literary fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Evelio RoseroMatthew Tree|title=Good OfficesWe'll Never Know|rating=34.5

|summary=Here is a church in Bogota nobody seems Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to want to leave. In part one it is a large group of the elderly, given a weekly, tasteless meal be different from the charitable funds, but bitterly refusing to quit the place, making our main character Tancredo fear for his passivity. In part two it is the congregationfather, as a rare need for a stand-in priest seems to be a blessingdrunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. And in part three it is that priest So Tim applied himselfto his studies, stuck among the household of Tancredo, the girl who loves him, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and chorus of three weird old womenset himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857050672</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Barry UnsworthB0C47LV1PC|title=The Quality of MercyFragility|author=Mosby Woods

|summary=Can you make a 'The Quality of Mercy' picks up the story of the author's Booker Prize-winning Yo birthing person'Sacred Hunger' although joke? And if you haven't read could, is the first book, question should you won't be greatly disadvantaged as make it? Or is the relevant story lines are explained. What question if you might miss out on did, would it land? The catch is some of that the feeling answer for a few both could well be.... no. ''Fragility'' is set as the city of the main charactersPortland, most notably the Irish fiddlerOregon, Sullivan who, when this book picks up in spring 1767, has just escaped cautiously begins to emerge from prison where the remaining shipmates of restrictions imposed during 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 with those in bondage due to poverty, and particularly those working in the coal mines of County Durham.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091937124</amazonuk>covid pandemic

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Zadie SmithMosby Woods|title=White TeethA Whirly Man Loses His Turn|rating=54

|summary=Some books sneak up on youThe West isn't the dominant force it once was. Others are thrown at you from every corner of Nobody in the media West is quite sure how to mend this or even if mending it is the extent best course of action. Governments are flailing. A war here, a push for climate action there. A feeling that you almost make nobody is in actual charge. Imagine then, there was a conscious decision NOT to read them, or at least, not yetman with precognition. Let Imagine the furore die down. If they're still around strategic advantage in this asset; a few yearsman who can tell you what will happen given any set of circumstances. That man would be valuable, your subconscious whispersright? Perhaps the most valuable asset in history. Imagine then, maybe we'll go see what all the fuss was aboutthat this man loses this ability. What would governments do to get it back?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241954576</amazonuk>B0C9SNG8R1

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Ondaatje0571379559|title=The Cat's TableHouse of Broken Bricks|author=Fiona Williams

|summary=For ''The House of Broken Bricks'' is the first half or so story of this bookfour people. Tess Hembry's roots are in Jamaica: temperamentally she might be happier there, which sees an 11 year old boy called Michael (or Mynah to his friends) leave his home of Ceylon to travel to school in Englandbut instead, I wasn't really sure if it even had a plot. Focusing on his journey she lives in the 1950's aboard the ship to England, although occasionally leaping forward to his later life where he gives us tantalising glimpses as to what happened to his fellow passengers after house on the voyageriverbank, this originally seems to be nothing more than a series built of incredibly well-drawn character sketchesbroken bricks. In fairness Insubstantial as it might look, I should say that it''nothing more'' is rather harsh in this case – s stood the menpassage of time, women storms and children Ondaatje createsfloods. Her husband, from a supposedly cursed rich man seeking a cureRichard, struggles to a friendly thiefgrow his vegetables, to Michael's beautiful cousin Emily, are so beautifully conjured that I could complete the delivery rounds - and to bring in sufficient money. They have lived without a plot perfectly happily. However, we eventually realise there's a little more to this narrativetwin boys - Sonny and Max, and that this skilful author has been foreshadowing the events at the novelrainbow twins. Sonny's climax all along.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224093614</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Patrick McGuinness|title=The Last Hundred Days|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary='The Last Hundred Days' in question here are the final days of Ceausescucolouring reflects his mother's Romania in late 1989Jamaican heritage. Narrated by an unnamed young British expat who has a job offer from the English department of Bucharest University, despite never having interviewed for the job, we get an insight into the life under communist rule as Eastern bloc countries all around start to open up Max takes after the fall of the Berlin Wallhis father. We are told People don't believe that McGuinness lived in Romania in the years leading up to the revolutionthey're related, much less twins and this is no surprise as there is 's an authenticity here that could only have come from some level of inside knowledge.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1854115413</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jane Rogers|title=The Testament of Jessie Lamb|rating=3.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=The subject matter of 'The Testament of Jessie Lamb' ensures that this assumption when Max is not a comfortable read. Set in the near future, Rogers has imagined a truly terrifying virus that affects pregnant women, known as Maternal Death Syndrome or MDS. Everyone carries this illness but the effects, a cross between AIDS and CJD, ensure out with his mother that all pregnant mothers will die - without exception. Scientists have found a way to save some of the unborn children, but only by placing their mothers in a chemically induced coma from which they wonshe't recover. Now though, the scientists have also discovered a way 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 Lambs his nanny.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905207581</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sebastian BarryClaire North|title=On Canaan's SideHouse of Odysseus

|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Each chapter of 'On Cannan's SideWhat could matter more than love?' represents a day after the death of the narrator, Lilly Bere's, grandson, Bill. Initially the reader is bombarded by a stream of half thoughts but soon Lilly begins to outline her own life story from being the daughter of a police officer in Ireland at the end of the First World War, her subsequent flight to the USA, to ultimately living in retirement as a domestic cook to a wealthy American. It's a remarkable story, full of tragic events, but for all its hardships, Lilly is from a time when such things are to be endured rather than dwelt on.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571226531</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Chuck Palahniuk|title=Damned|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=The follow-up to the excellent 'Are you there, Satan? It's me, MadisonIthaca'. I'm picks up a spunkyfew months after where we left off. In the palace of Odysseus, lively tweenage girl, except I'm a dead onewith delicate care Queen Penelope continues to rule without her husband, who sailed to war at Troy and I'm in Hell, to my surprisethen by divine intervention never returned home. As ever she remains surrounded by suitors vying for the throne of the Western Isles. While I'm here I'll find out just where it is all those cold-calling telegraphers ring you from just while you're settling down to your evening meal, Having survived – politically and where physical – the worldchaotic storm that Clytemnestra brought to Ithaca's wasted sperm and discarded toenail clippings fetch upshores, Queen Penelope is on the brink of a fragile peace. I'll have very hairy encounters One that shatters however with demons the return of Satan's Orestes, King of Mycenae, and mankind's makinghis sister Elektra, and with some superlative plotting and flashbacks I'll find a clearer approach to why I was put here in the first placeseeking refuge.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224091158</amazonuk>0356516075

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alison PickKay Chronister|title=Far to GoDesert Creatures|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Dystopian Fiction|summary=At the risk of sounding triteWith a world that is becoming increasingly inhospitable for humanity, post-apocalyptic fiction can become an almost masochistic thrill. Whether it is a robotic takeover, a story set in 1938 Czechoslovakia on the eve world devoid of Nazi occupationwater or a nuclear holocaust, centred on this genre is a Jewish family is always going way for humans to put the reader through an emotional journeycathartically experience their most existential fears. Add in ''Desert Creatures'' by Kay Chronister is a young child and it's almost certain new work of post-apocalyptic fiction that you are going to be reaching for aligns many of the Kleenex at some point. But Alison Pick makes some interesting creative choices fears that add more layers to this storyexist for humanity today. Some will surprise the reader but the overall impact It is a wonderfully moving story with wholly believable charactersshocking novel that still manages to find hope.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755379411</amazonuk>1803364998

 {{newreviewfrontpage|isbn=1803363002|author=Madeline MillerEric LaRocca|title=The Song of AchillesTrees Grew Because I Bled There|rating=4.5|genre=Literary FictionHorror|summary=Before I started Horror 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. Most horror fiction feature a ''Big Bad'', whether that is a home invader, a monster or a ghost, it usually something tangible and, by the end of the bookstory, I looked out my copy of Homerbeatable. Eric LaRocca's ''The IliadTrees Grew Because I Bled There'' and skim-read its one page introduction (yes, yet another book is not like that. It is a collection of short stories more interested in my 'must-read' pile but it's been on it for about ahemthe horrors of illness, ten years)grief and humiliation. Having said Horrors that, it is rather dry linger and scholarly which didn't really inspire me are harder to get on with this book as I wasndefeat than any 't really looking for a 'heavyBig Bad' read, especially on a nice summer's day. Onwards ...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408816032</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tiziano ScarpaMadelaine Lucas|title=Stabat MaterThirst for Salt|rating=35

|summary=Translated by Shaun Whiteside from Scarpa's 2008 Italian original'Love, I'Stabat Mater' is set in d read, was supposed to be a Venetian orphanage light and weightless feeling, but I had always longed for girls run by nuns in what would have been around the 1700s. The girls at the gravity'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 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 Told from a retrospective view, a young woman unravels the year-long relationship that once defined her. Overlaid with later wisdom, the narrator relives the Wind|rating=3|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=The front cover is lovely affair with a man twenty years her senior from its inception – the summer after finishing university – to its blue and turquoise suggesting languid waterssorrowful end the summer after. The author Set against the backdrop of an isolated Australian coastal town 'The Jane Austen Book Club' (which I've read incidentally) 'fell in love with this novel.Thirst for Salt' 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 details the word 'fish' somewhere or other and there24-year-old narrator's a quote right at the beginning which gives the book deepening relationship with her older lover, depicting its quirky all-consuming nature, how it changed her perspective on both romantic and familial relationships and unusual title. (As I'm a fishy Piscean does that bode well for a good or sympathetic review, I wonder)how it altered her irrevocably.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906998906</amazonuk>0861546490

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Patrick deWittMichael Grothaus|title=The Sisters BrothersBeautiful Shining People

|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, But fearing something and having it details the adventures of come to pass are two brothers, Eli and Charlie Sisters, who are hired hands for a mysterious boss known only as the Commodoredifferent things. 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 ChildAnd I' is without doubt, as one might expect from this writer, beautifully written. Almost every page offers something m willing to smile about either in terms bet most of the comments of his characters what we fear will never happen, or, more often, the wry descriptions that the author offerswe can take steps to change it. 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>}}'

{{newreview|author=Lisa See|title=Dreams of Joy|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=It's the late 1950s, and America's teenagers (the very idea a brand new concept) are beginning to live the all-American dream. For some of them however it isnBeautiful Shining People't all 'Happy Days' diners and rock'n'roll. For revolves around the second generation Chinese immigrants there's an alternative: back 'home' there's a brave new world being forged, a world where 'we'd work in the fields question of identity and sing songsacceptance. We'd do exercises in the parkOf what it means to be human. We'd help clean the neighbourhood Of what is real and share meals. We wouldn't be poor what is artificial, and we wouldn't be richwhether the development of technology is exciting or frightening. We'd all be equal.' |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408822296</amazonuk>191458564X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Christine Dwyer HickeyJennifer Saint|title=The Cold Eye of HeavenAtalanta|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=I reviewed Hickey's [[Last Train From Liguria by Christine Dwyer Hickey| Last Train From Liguria]] so was keen to see if I'd enjoy this book too. The front cover says that Farley ''unravels the warp and weft of his life'' which is a great phrase - wish I'd though of it. Hickey lives in Dublin so I'm kind of expecting good characterization (as the book's location is Dublin) and a nice line in put-me-down wit. But will I get it? Time to find out ...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857890301</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Leon Jenner|title=Bricks|rating=3

|summary=Let me start on a positive: this slim volume is exquisitely presented and has a lovely 'traditional' feel about itI was as worthy as any one of them. Very covetable for book loversI would get on board that ship, I vowed. The front cover is also a bit I would take my place, not just in the name of a paradox - what with the workmanlike one-word title ''Bricks'' and the almost mystical/biblical-esque graphicsgoddess. Will this all help to draw It was for the reader in, wellsake of my name, I'm not too sure.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444706284</amazonuk>}}Atalanta''

{{newreview|author=David Almond|title=The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean|rating=4Princess.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=''This tale is told by 1 that died at birth by 1 that came into the world in days of endles war & at the moment of disasterWarrior.Lover.Hero. I am not cleva, so forgiv my folts and my mistayks. I am Billy Dean. This is the truth. This is my tale.''

The Monster Billy Dean tells Abandoned at birth for being born a daughter rather than a son, Atalanta is raised under the story protective eye of Billythe goddess Athemis and fashioned into a formidable huntress, a boy born into one who longs for adventure. When the opportunity comes – to join the dystopia of Argonauts, a war-torn town and the product fierce band of an illicit liaison between a young woman and her priest. His birth coincided with an apocalyptic bombing and his parents have hidden him away warriors, descendent from the ruins Gods themselves – Atalanta seizes the chance to fight in Artemis' name and the catastrophe carve out her own legendary place in history. What follows is a single room, both out whirlwind of shame challenges and in the belief discovery and through it, Atalanta must remember Artemis' fatal warning: that his coming into the world and surviving at such a violent moment signifies a sacred futureif she marries, it will be her undoing. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0670919055</amazonuk>1472292154

 {{newreview|author=Andrew Kaufman|title=The Tiny Wife|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=It all begins with a bank robbery. Only this isn't your typical sort of bank robbery since the robber demands not money but instead each person in the bank must give him the item of most sentimental value that they have with them. These range from photographs and a key through to a calculator...and on taking these items he says he is also taking fifty percent of their souls, and it is up to the victims to find the way to get their souls back, or to die trying.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007429258</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Yvvette EdwardsAmanthi Harris|title=A Cupboard Full of CoatsBeautiful Place

|summary=''He just knockedPadma, a young Sri Lankan, that has returned to the Villa Hibiscus on the southern coast of her home country. This is a place she spent her formative years. It is not a place she was allborn into, knocked and but the one she thinks of as home. How she came to be at the front door Villa, how it became her home, and waited, like the fourteen years machinations that have flowed through her life ever since Ishe first arrived there provide the 'd killed my mother hadn't happened...score'' Jinx is cold for this gentle and she knows ityet subtly violent novel. She cleans obsessively - a largely pointless task, since there is little mess Padma's present fails to clean since escape her husband past and young son, tired much like the musical score of her frigiditya film, moved out. She cooks beautifully balanced meals that look aesthetic on the plate. But her food offers sustenance, not comfort. In fact, Jinx feels most strand weaves its way through everything that happens at home amongst the dead people she works with as a funeral home cosmetologistVilla. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1851688382</amazonuk>1784631930

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Claudie Gallay178563335X|title=The Breakers|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=The book is in the first person, told by a woman who is a relative newcomer to this tiny village, no more than a cluster of homes and a few basic amenities. The story opens in the lead-up to a horrendous storm. The narrator has seen nothing like it before and is both afraid and excited. The locals take it all in their stride. They're a hardy bunch of disparate individuals and we get to know more them, one by one, as the story develops.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906694710</amazonuk>}}  {{newreviewSea Defences|author=Susan Hill|title=The Woman in BlackHilary Taylor

|summary=Arthur Kipps is When we first meet Rachel Bird she's a young solicitor working trainee vicar, sitting in on a fogPCC meeting and wondering why they're held when you need to pick the children up. Her husband, Christopher, collects six-bound London year-old Hannah and soon to be marriedher elder brother, Jamie, whilst Rachel holds a sobbing parishioner. Thelma's daughter-in-law won't let her see her grandson. All looks rosy for Arthur until one day he Holthorpe, on the Norfolk coast, is called into his boss' office where he a lovely place, but Rachel is tasked struggling to develop a real bond with the affairs parish - and she's in awe of the deceased recluse Alice Drablowvicar, Gail, but then she's been doing the job for more than thirty years. Alice Drablow had lived in the melancholy village of Crythin Gifford in an isolated house Rachel and Christopher hoped that a walk on the remote Eel Marsh, a house only accessible by a strange causeway when the tide is outbeach would do them some good - it was stormy but it was probably what they needed. It is here Arthur must travel to firstly represent his firm at her funeral and And then to sift through Mrs Drablow's house to ensure all her legal paperwork is in orderHannah went missing. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685621</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Julian Barnes1398515388|title=The Sense of an EndingBoy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)

|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary='The Sense First of an Ending' is almost more of a novella - all, it's a slim volume but exquisitely writtenwas the earthquake, as you might expect from Julian Barnes. It starts off describing deep in the relationships between four friends at schoolocean floor, narrated by one of which created the friendstsunami and this, Tony Websterin turn, but quickly it becomes clear caused the nuclear meltdown. The result was complete and utter devastation. The deaths were uncountable, and the loss of livelihoods was widespread. The fact that this is written many years laterpets were separated from their owners came far down the list of priorities but - six months after the tsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. Barnes has long been He wasn't a terrific observer of dog person but the English middle classes and convenience store owner's comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to open his style invariably contains satire car door and dry humour. And this being Barnes, this school clique is intellectual Tamon the dog jumped in interest, as the narrator recalls English and History teachers and student philosophising.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224094157</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Adam Levin0989715337|title=The Instructions|rating=2.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Now, I know that size isn't everything, but the first thing that strikes you about 'The Instructions' is that it is a brick of a book. It comes in at a wrist-challenging 1030 pages that almost encourages me to invest in an e-reader. It's also hugely ambitious for a first time writer not least that the book's action takes place over just a few days and Papa on the narrator is a ten year old child. While it starts encouragingly, it too rapidly becomes repetitive and dull and I found it a slog to get through. There are some great passages but these get too easily lost in this huge tome.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857861360</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewMoon|author=A L Kennedy|title=The Blue BookMarco North

|summary=Despite not being 'quoits and gin slings and rubbers of bridge people' Elizabeth and Derek have embarked on a cruise. Derek is probably hoping to propose, but things do not go as planned. From Some frogs had gotten into the moment they encounter a stranger as they board the ship, the cruise proves to be revelationary for all concernedwell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224091409</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Richard Beard|title=Lazarus is Dead|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=The title certainly got my attention and when I read that Beard is the Director of the National Academy of Writing, London I was expecting great things from him. I'm also thinking in the very next breath how audacious to write a fictional book about a towering biblical character but then, many have done just that. Will he pull it off though?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184655506X</amazonuk>}}'

{{newreview|author=Thierry Jonquet|title=Tarantula: The Skin I Live In|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=In a large French country house, an expert ''Walter stood waist-deep in facial reconstruction surgery keeps a beautiful woman locked up in her bedroom. He placates her with opium, but barks orders through hugely powerful speakers and an intercom. She tantalises him with her sexuality, which he tries to ignorethe fragrant water, naked except for when he seems to abuse it in a sort his beaten leather hat. Long strands of S/M way when he does let her into societytheir eggs wove around him, as he forces her to prostitute herselfsticky gray pearls with tadpoles inside them. Elsewhere, a young, inept bank robber holes himself up in a sunny house, waiting for Two of the dogs leaned over the heat to die. And finally, a young man is held chained up in a cellar opening and barked down at the hands strange noise of an unknown possessorthe buckets as he filled them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687942</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|author=Amy Waldman|title=The Submission|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=The front cover of the book How is that I received for review is subtle (as befitting the sensitive contents) and I can see the two twin towers (as was) depicted in grey in the title word submission. an opening? The back cover announces that style of this novel will be ''Published in time for the 10th anniversary form of 9/11interconnected short stories goes from succinct and laconic to wistful and musing, turning on a sixpence.'' No pressure then. I open And author Marco North, who has the book with a certain amount most wonderful turn of trepidationphrase, I have to admit and feel slightly starts as if I'm about he means to tread go on (literary) eggshells. Heavens - what if I don't like the book?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434019321</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Bernard BeckettDaisy Hildyard|title=AugustEmergency

|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction

In an alternate world, Tristan and Grace come from The City, a closed and enclosed society in which religion dominates. Tristan had been an acolyte at St Augustinesummary of this book doesn's. He spent a childhood being drilled in philosophical discussion of free will by the Rector. A star pupil, a single event made him question everything he had been taught. Grace had spent t come close to explaining what is done with the first part of her childhood in the convent, but a single act of kindness led to her excommunicationpremise. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857387898</amazonuk>1913097811}}

{{newreviewFrontpage |author=Daisy WaughSally Oliver |title=Last Dance with ValentinoThe 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=When I read Early comments on the front cover that this book is described by the Sunday Times as ''A grippingdebut novel from Ecuadorian writer Natalia García Freire include Tremendous, bittersweet love story'' it wasn't a particularly good statement for me to readdelight. As a rule I donwill agree with the first – tremendous is no understatement – but 't generally a delight'dois perhaps using the expression in a way I' love storiesm not familiar with. If I happen have to read one every once in a while then that's fine by me but I don't encourage them! But, both the lovely title and confess my ignorance of the front cover did their job and pulled me in Spanish- just a little.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000739120X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Maile Chapman|title=Your Presence is Requested at Suvanto|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=American nurse Sunny Taylor needed to get away from home and everything familiarlanguage literary tradition so forgive my generalisation here. She takes a gamble into From the unknown and ends up little I have read (in Finland. The language barrier seems to be the least of her problems. As a healthytranslation, relatively young female she sees on a daily basis ailments, minor and major, imagined and otherwise. I don''Suvanto'' (which gives the novel its titlet read Spanish) is the name of the well-known and well-regarded hospital. It operates on there does seem to be a tier system - those who can pay well for medical care and those who are less well-off. And tendency towards the accommodation, level of nursing and medical care and even fantastical – the food also operate on this tiered systemmystical realism.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099548674</amazonuk>0861541901

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Steven AmsterdamJennifer Saint|title=Things We Didn't See ComingElektra

|summary=This book has gained praise from 'Elektra' by Jennifer Saint tells the likes story of three women who live in the Washington Post and the Financial times so I was really looking forward to a good - even great read. But did I get it? I think that opening on the eve heavily male dominated world of the millennium (the most recent one) is pretty special in itself and should be a good 'hook' to draw the reader inAncient Greece. The narratorCassandra, youngClytemnestra, male (not named as yet) and his family Elektra are packing all bit players in the family car for story of the journey aheadTrojan War. The poor car is full to bursting. Dad is a sceptic and he's taking no chances with this millennium situation and he's instructed his family to pack more than Yet Jennifer Saint shows us that often the usual festive presents this time. They've (well, dad has) made silent women have the decision to get as far away from London as they can - just in case. Just in case of what exactly is never mentioned, only implied. So it's New Year celebrations with most compelling stories and the grandparentsmost extreme furies.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>009954704X</amazonuk>1472273915

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexander Maksik8409290103|title=You Deserve NothingIf Only|author=Matthew Tree

|summary=Does 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 young man got on board the boat and thereafter Patrick was to send him a monthly allowance. Patrick sent the money regularly and a correspondence - of sorts - sprang up between the world need another two although we hear more about what Lowry has to say than Patrick. It wasn'inspirational teacher lets down studentst that Lowry senior didn' story? Itt care for his son, it was that he didn's debatable, but t care to have him in this one is really rather goodcountry where he might be a danger to his wife and other children. The alcohol problem was obvious even before Patrick managed to get the young man on his way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848545703</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Judith HermannAntoine Laurain, Le Sonneur and Jane Aitken (translator)|title=AliceRed is My Heart|rating=43.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=''Alice'' is a collection of five short stories[[:Category:Antoine Laurain|Antoine Laurain]] books have always been black and white and read in my house. And so was this one, linked thematically since they all deal with the subject of deathalthough I could have spelled that more accurately – this one was, but they are also linked because the central characterand is, Aliceblack and white and red. Yes, is the same in each story. So rather than feeling like short stories the book he has a hint of the novel to itan artistic collaborator on this piece, yet the stories are never completed or fully told so and I think it's a novel where you're possible to say not always sure what's going onone page lacks the influence of some striking visual ideas.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184668529X</amazonuk>1913547183

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=S J WatsonB098FFFBH9|title=Before I Go To Sleep|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Rather ironically, 'Before I Go To Sleep' is not a book that you will forget in a hurry. Imagine, if you will, waking up every morning with no memory of who you are, where you are, or who the person lying next to you in bed is. You can remember things during the day, but once you go to sleep, your mind is effectively wiped clean. This is the slightly unusual form of amnesia that the narrator, Christine suffers from in Watson's first novel that is a daring and gripping literary thriller.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857520172</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSnowcub|author=Amos Oz|title=My MichaelGraham Fulbright|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=The Introduction to this book has a lovely sub-heading - 'Forty Years Later' where Oz admits freely that now, today, he wouldn't attempt or ... 'dare write an entire novel in a female voice.' But I found his open telling of why and how he came to write the book in the first place interesting and rather enchanting and whetted my appetite to get on and read the book. For example, Oz wrote most of the book in the cramped confines of a toilet, would you believe. But for me what caught my attention was the fact that he tells his readers that Hannah, the central character, was in his head and determined to he heard. 'Just shut up and write' she tells him. A Translator's Note follows before we get to the story proper.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009952905X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jacqueline Yallop|title=Obedience|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=The story opens with a much younger Sister Bernard - no more than a girl really. The daily lives of the nuns is regulated, with long hours for prayer, meditation and solitude. Everyone is housed, fed and watered adequately and that's as far as it goes. No little luxuries to speak of. Nothing to temper the harshness and the silence. Visits from family members are forbidden also. However, the young Sister Bernard appears to not only be coping very well with all of this but even embracing it. She doesn't grumble or complain about anything. However, even although she may appear saintly she is human, just like the rest of us and temptation does come along in the shape of a young man. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857891014</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Aatish Taseer|title=Noon|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary='Noon' sits somewhere between a collection of related short stories and a full blown novel in that it tells four different episodes in Rehan Tabassum's life, spread over a couple of decades. It explores some large issues though.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330540416</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Louis B Jones|title=Radiance|rating=45

|summary=Mark Perdue took his daughter, Carlotta – or Lotta, as sheFourteen-year-old Rachel is her school's known – on an indulgent fantasy weekend animal rights project leader and she and her friend are producing a competition entry to highlight the way in Los Angeleswhich human beings exploit the animal world. Lotta and some other teenagers were going to live the celebrity lifestyle for She gets a great deal of support from her family: father Pip Harrison, a few dayslecturer at Imperial College, with gigsLondon, recordings mother Kate and stretch limos to ferry them around. Mark's got problems of his own. He ''was'' an eminent physicist but illness has taken its tollher twin, Nick. His wife is still suffering Kate runs the emotional effects of family business, a late-term abortion – the family toy shop called the foetus Cornucopia in Putney, which is where we'Noddyll meet Rachel' – and Lotta can't reconcile how she feels about the loss of her unborn sibling, even going as far as to say that she would have given up the next ten years of her life to look after the child. And Mark? Well, on the tarmac at LAX it dawns on him that a heart attack would be a convenient way out s main (if unsuspected) source of everythinginformation: five soft toys.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>158243736X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alice LaPlanteYancey Williams|title=Turn Crosshairs of Mindthe Devil

|summary=This Award-winning crime writer Eddie Jablonski is a beautifully-presented book with its eye-catching front cover getting on in years and poetic title. Jennifer has had a busy , despite his strenuous objections and fulfilling professional life as a wellthanks to his daughter, finds himself living -respected medical surgeon. Until now. Sheor imprisoned, from Eddie's gradually losing bits point of her mind to Alzheimer's. Her family is supportive and keep popping view - in on room 315 of the Garden of Eden nursing home, with only a regular basis plus there's now a live-in carertrusty nursing aide, MagdalenaJenkins, so that daily life and daily chores are just about covered.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846554632</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jose Saramago and Margaret Jull Costa|title=The Elephant's Journey|rating=3for palatable company.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=This novel Nothing is inspired by a real event – the marriage gift of an elephant going to keep Eddie from Dom João III of Portugal to his cousin Maximilian, the Hapsburg Archduke stock-in-trade of Austria. When the gift was acceptedwriting though, the elephant Solomonso here, for his mahout Subhro and numerous soldiersreaders, oxen and porters, walked from Lisbon to Vienna to deliver the present, arriving in 1552. This is the story of that journeyare his wanderings through his life's work.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099546884</amazonuk>0986031658}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ross Raisin0008421714|title=WaterlineMrs March|author=Virginia Feito

|summary=Raisin has an enviable portfolio for one so young, having been named ''Sunday Times Young Writer Of The Year 2009'' and his [[Godproblem began just after the publication of George March's Own Country by Ross Raisin|previous most successful novel]] receiving fulsome praiseto date. No pressure then with this bookEveryone but Mrs March (we know her first name only on the last page) seemed to either be reading it or had already done so. The story opens with all members of Every day Mrs March went to the Little family paying their respects local patisserie to Cathy. Some have travelled further than others buy olive bread but on that particular morning, Patricia asked, as they all squeeze into Mickshe was wrapping the bread, ''but isn't this the first time he's modest housebased a character on you?'' She mentioned that Johanna, somewhere in Glasgowthe principal character had 'her mannerisms''. A less-than-posh part. Mick Perhaps this would not have mattered, except for the fact that Johanna is obviously numb with the shock whore of it all (even although his wifeNantes - 's death was not sudden - she had been ill for some time). It's clear that some of the familya weak, plain, detestable, pathetic, distant membersunloved, feel uncomfortable and donunloveable wretch.''t quite know how to act.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670917354</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Jamil Ahmad|title=The Wandering Falcon|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary="In the tangle of crumbling, weather-beaten and broken hills, where the borders of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan meet, is a military outpost…" Thus begins the tale of Tor Baz, the Black Falcon. To this desolate place come two wanderers, a man and a woman seeking refuge.  Refuge is denied them, since it places duties that the fort commander cannot accept, but instead he offers them shelter from the wind of a hundred and twenty days. For as long as they want it. Shelter, and food.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241145155</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Anthony Burgess|title=A Clockwork Orange|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=A Clockwork Orange comes under the heading of "books you feel you ought Move on to have read by now". Mostly these are books that you don't necessarily want to read, but are considered such classics that an inability to pass any kind of comment upon them suggests a gaping hole in your education.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241951445</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Paranormal Reviews]]