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[[Category:Literary Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Literary Fiction]]==Literary fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Will Self295967572X|title=UmbrellaPale Pieces|author=G M Stevens|rating=2.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Will SelfOur unnamed narrator is about to begin a train journey with his companion Django. Where they's re going and what the purpose of this journey is, is uncertain. Django found the tickets ''Umbrellaon the floor somewhere'' spans a century taking three interwoven strands. One features Audrey Dearth, who in 1918 is a munitions worker who falls ill with encephalitis lethargica, a brain disease that spread over Europe after the Great War rendering many of its victims speechless and motionlesshas persuaded our narrator to accompany him. She Why not? Not much else is incarcerated in Friern hospital where, clear either - but we are probably in the early 1970s a psychiatrist, Zach Busner wakes her from her stupor using a new drug. In past as the final thread, in 2010 pair travel to the asylum has closed station by coach and the now retired Busner travels across north London seeking the truth about his encounter with his former patient. While that sounds like a fascinating story in its own right, be warned. Self's approach train is ambitiously modernistic making this a very heavy going tome even by Self's standardssteam locomotive.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408820145</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=JR CrookMakenna Goodman|title=Sleeping PatternsHelen of Nowhere|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Anneli Strandli lives with insomniacally introverted Berry WalkerIt could be argued that the pervading theme of this book is malaise - a hard-to-place feeling that something in your life is not quite right. The protagonist, among others but not in a romantically co-habiting waydisgraced professor on the brink of losing both his career and his relationship, embodies this feeling. They all share student accommodation complete However, Goodman counteracts his discomfort with attendant noise a force which is seductive, radical and comings unnerving: Helen. The connection between Helen and goingsthe protagonist is indirect yet intimate. Berry isn’t As the most forthcoming former owner of people but Anneli discovers the countryside house he's considering, Helen represents a manuscript volta in his desk and solife, sneaking into his room her past tied to read it, she hopes to discover from his writings potential fresh start. The realtor who shows the essence of Berry protagonist around the house shares stories about Helen, and describes her as ''an entity that his private nature hidesis pure consciousness, beyond form''. Meanwhile Berry is falling Although she lives in love but an assisted living facility now, Helen has difficulty communicating it to powers beyond comprehension which the reader gets the person concernedsense are not altogether innocuous.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908775521</amazonuk>1804272205
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Olga Tokarczuk
|title=House of Day, House of Night
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=''What's the good of a world that keeps changing like that? How can one go on calmly living in it?''
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Thea Lenarduzzi
|title=The Tower
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary= ''How unctuous are the fats of another's life, how dizzying their sugars in our bloodstream''.
In this compelling novel, Thea Lenarduzzi assumes the identity of T, the protagonist of this tale. Just as T's story is being told, the story of a second protagonist is unveiled: Annie, the daughter of a wealthy family in the 19th century, who died of tuberculosis after being locked in a tower, captures T's imagination. Annie's fate is, above all, an enticing story to T. It is a story which she consumes avariciously, both in a quest for truth and knowledge, and in service of myth, fable and fantasy. |isbn=1804271799}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mette JakobsenJon Fosse and Damion Searls (translator) |title=The Vanishing ActVaim
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Minou lives on a sparsely occupied, temperate island. In fact the only occupants apart from Minou and her Papa are Priest (the Priest), Boxman (a maker of magical boxes) and a dog called No Name. Minou’s mother used to live there too. She arrived on a boat with a bowl containing a peacock (a real live one called… yes… Peacock). But then one day Mama disappeared completely apart from one shoe. Minou misses her and the way that she encouraged Minou’s imagination, completely at odds with her father’s logical philosophical outlook. Papa doesn’t believe that Mama will return and so has symbolically buried the shoe but Minou thinks differently: Mama will come back.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099572478</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ned Beauman|title=The Teleportation Accident|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=It's hard to know where to start in reviewing Ned Beauman's Booker long-listed ''The Teleportation AccidentAll was strange''. Reading it, you feel like the parent of an ADHD-suffering child. At times it is lovable, brilliant and entertaining, at others you just want to reach for the Ritalin and tell it to sit in a corner quietly while it composes itself. A clue to both This haunting phrase encapsulates the brilliance and frustration pervading sense of Beauman is otherworldliness which permeates this story set in the vast range of writers to whom he has been compared Vaim, a fictional fishing village in both this Norway which paradoxically could not feel more real for Jatgeir and his first novel [[Boxer, Beetle by Ned Beauman|BoxerEline, Beetle]]. There are hints two of people as wide ranging as [[:Category:David Mitchell|David Mitchell]], [[:Category:P G Wodehouse|P G Wodehouse]], [[:Category:Douglas Adams|Douglas Adams]], Raymond Chandler even [[:Category:Angela Carter|Angela Carter]] to name just a few. Beauman takes a huge range of styles and genres and pushes them and bends them often to glorious effect, but it can be a challenge keeping up with him at timesthe protagonists caught in its melancholic current.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340998423</amazonuk>1804271829
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Deborah LevyClaire-Louise Bennett|title=Swimming HomeBig Kiss, Bye-Bye
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=JoeEverything in this book, however sweet or seemingly innocent, is steeped in anguish and distortion. Even a poet and Isabelkiss, his war-correspondent wife and their teenage daughter Nina rent usually a luxurious villa in the South symbol of France intimacy and invite their friends Laura and Mitchell to join themcloseness, becomes evidence of love lost. On their first day there Nina finds what appears to be a naked body floating in When the swimming poolnarrator cries out internally, but it's Kitty Finch. She pleads a mix-up 'come over booking dates here and when told that all the local hotels are fully booked for some days Isabel offers kiss me,'' it is less an invitation than a desperate attempt to confirm her the use emotional numbness. The imagined recipient of the spare bedroom at the villa. There's no obvious reason for why she does thisplea is Xavier, but what does become clear is that Kitty suffers from depression her ex- and partner, a ghost she's stopped taking conjures to test her medicationdetachment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908276029</amazonuk>1804271934
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Manu JosephHelene Bessette and Kate Briggs (translator)|title=The Illicit Happiness of Other PeopleLili is Crying|rating=34.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Meet what the first chapter calls ''the underdog family''. Tamil immigrants to MadrasFirst published in 1953 in French, they are below this novel is a timeless text which wrenches the breadline due to Ousep's constant drinking, hearts of its readers just as Bessette wrenches words and by him being a failed writer and mediocre journalist. His wife Mariamma has, shall we say, problems, sentences from their younger son is fixated proper position on the beautiful girl next door. But their other son Unni is a ''cartoonist hottie'' - a handsome prodigy of the comic strip world - or he was until he took a nosedive off their roof three years agopage and positions them elsewhere, disjointed, aged 17truncated. Ousep is still tracking through his son's friends and output, trying to seek Like the cause lives of this suicideher characters, and what we have here is the journey of the family as he struggles towards the truththey are often left tragically incomplete.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848543093</amazonuk>1804271675
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Naomi AldermanJonathan Buckley|title=The Liars' GospelOne Boat|rating=54
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=In ''The Liars' GospelOne Boat''is a deeply introspective novella that defies traditional narrative structure, Naomi Alderman gives drawing the perspective reader into a contemplative realm of four people on philosophical musings and fragmented memories flowing from our narrator and protagonist, Teresa. Set against the recent death evocative backdrop of a Jewish man named Yehoshuahsmall coastal Greek town, who is more commonly known these days by this work masterfully captures the anglicized name magic of Jesusits setting and its power to provoke profound introspection. These perspectives include Miryam (Mary), Teresa herself recognises these qualities as the reason she has visited it after the teacher's mother, Iehuda death of Qeriot (Judas Iscariot)both her parents. Prompted by her mourning, a one time follower of the man, Caiaphas, the High Priest of the great Temple in Jerusalem her narrative voice is meditative and finally Bardeeply self-Avoaware, Barabbas, a rebel who is determined to bring down inviting the occupying Roman presencereader into her labyrinthine cogitations. What makes this such It is a remarkable book is the sheer visceral nature that not only requires but inspires depth of the story telling. Each story thought, since its narrative structure is vividly told, fragmentary and Alderman evokes the time and place to such a level that you half expect to have developed a sun tan while reading the bookironically relies on analepsis for its propulsion.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>067091990X</amazonuk>1804271764
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Pat BarkerEowyn Ivey|title=Toby's RoomBlack Woods Blue Sky|rating=3.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Elinor Brooke ''Black Woods Blue Sky'' tells the story of Birdie, the young mother of toddler Emaleen, who longs for a life beyond the Alaskan lodge where she works as a bar waitress, a setting which enables her bad habits and her brother Toby had always been close but one day their relationship became more intimate than is acceptableaccidental neglect of Emaleen. The trick then, Described as Toby saida ''wild card'', was she feels stuck in her day-to get back -day life, and yearns to how their relationship was before. Toby concentrated cross the Wolverine river and live on calling her 'sis', whilst Elinor was never quite certain how they could turn the clock back North Fork to fulfil her desires of a time when they were more innocentsimple life surrounded by nature. But looking backWhen she meets Arthur Nielson, the summer of 1912 would seem idyllic: in 1917 Toby was reported 'Missinga strange, taciturn and solitary man, who says he has a cabin over there, Believed Killed'. Elinor was determined she feels called to find out how Toby died go - and bring Emaleen with her one route to . Without realising it, this knowledge was Kit Neville who was a fellow student of calling will transform hers at the Slade School of Art and who was in the fox hole when Toby met his fateEmaleen's lives forever.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241144574</amazonuk>1472279042
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeanette WintersonSally Rooney|title=The Daylight GateIntermezzo
|rating=4.5
|genre=FantasyGeneral Fiction |summary=1610s Lancashire, Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of life and Alice Nutter is the best landowner you could wish forsomething of a grandmaster at putting it into words. Single, rich Her dialogue is gripping and connectedso brilliantly frustrating, she takes no sides in as her characters never quite say exactly what they feel. Among the religious schisms James I has inheritedmany relationships woven into this story, and takes no bull from those trying the central one for readers to oppress unravel is the poor, putting them up fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and feeding them when no-one else willPeter Koubek. But those poor are seen as sinful by others - amoralIvan, dirty in minda socially awkward chess prodigy, body and spiritcontrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, and a successful lawyer living in league with the devilDublin. And people are beginning to question AliceFollowing their father's attitudes, choice of company - and ageless beauty. Thispassing after a long battle with cancer, then, is the based-on-truth story of how Alice Nutter got to be one of the accused in the Pendle Witch brothers' already strained relationship faces new trials.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099561859</amazonuk>0571365469
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tupelo HassmanFyodor Dostoyevsky|title=GirlchildWhite Nights
|rating=5
|genre=Literary FictionShort Stories|summary=Rory Dawn Hendrix (RD for short) lives with her mother As always in Dostoyevsky, the ironically named Calle de las Flores or Street of Flowers; a pretty name masking a less than idyllic settingcharacter work is sublime. For Calle One is never left wondering what a trailer park for those living a life sentence of poverty, the inhabitants being as upwardly mobile as their static, seedy homes. RD has half brothers but they live with character is thinking or feeling because Dostoyevsky lays bare their father, leaving RD to live alone with her mother innermost dispositions and nearby grandmother, a father being a luxury that Rory Dawn has learnt to live without. Rory Dawn is also a Girl Scout and has a handbook to prove it but she's in a troop of one, alone temperaments with the ideals of an organisation that she only glimpses through disadvantage and in the same way that she glimpses the materialistic world beyond her meansremarkable clarity. However, her mother wants more for her than the teen pregnancies that seem to have become their family heirloom and there is hope as RD is highly intelligent; but can this be enough?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>178087104X</amazonuk>0241619785
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anita DesaiJames Baldwin|title=The Artist of DisappearanceGiovanni's Room
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Anita Desai's 'Giovanni'The Artist of Disappearances Room'' is follows the narrator David, an American man living in Paris, as he navigates his torturous affair with Giovanni, an Italian bartender he meets in a collection of three novellas with several satisfying unifying featuresgay bar. All are set While David is engaged to Hella, who is travelling in modern day IndiaSpain, all involve some looking back the real tension in time and all three involve some consideration of the creative art - who it novel arises not from his infidelity but from the deeper conflict within himself. It is for, what happens to it once it leaves the artistDavid's control crippling shame and who 'owns' it. Most denial of all, each one is beautifully written, his sexuality that ultimately dooms his relationship with strong characters and evocative descriptions of personal loss. In terms of length each is relatively short - around 50 pages long - but after each one you feel that you've been engrossed in the story just as much as if you had read a novel of more conventional lengthGiovanni.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099553953</amazonuk>0141186356
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=James KelmanAlba de Cespedes |title=Mo Said She Was QuirkyForbidden Notebook
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Mo may have said that Helen was quirky - neurotic might have been a more accurate assessment This Italian work of his partner though. Although not a first person narrative, James Kelman's latest is another dramatic monologue, although feminist fiction holds an air of suspense and tension from the first time he has placed a female as his main character. Helen is a single mothermoment our protagonist, working nights as a croupier in a London casino. Mo is her Asian boyfriend. In fairness to HelenValeria Cossati, she has a lot to worry about - a damaged upbringing that has seen purchases her older brother leave home without trace, a failed marriageforbidden notebook, and a life of constant struggle. As usual with Kelman, his approach is tender, yet gritty learns about herself in the most intimate and often gently amusing. He's always sympathetic to his main characters. However, if you are new to Kelman, be warned that he is a writer that is heavy on a distinctive style more than plot per serevealing ways.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241144566</amazonuk>1782278222
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ivo StourtonOttessa Moshfegh|title=The Book Lover's TaleMy Year of Rest and Relaxation|rating=43|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary=Matt will admit that his writing career failedAt best, this novel is a scathing critique of modern society and so he had to join his wife in interior design, where he can use his love reveals the fragility of books to arrange - human relationships; at a cost - worst, it is the contentscynical, design predictable and most importantly the colours, slightly trite tale of upper class people's home libraries for theman unlikeable protagonist. He'll concede that it's This unlikely heroine, a good way to get into the housesslim, attractive and bedsnewly orphaned girl in her twenties is disillusioned with the world, of rich womenbut resolves not to lose sleep over it: in fact, such as his latest flame, Claudiaher solution lies in her hibernation. But why is this, his confession, talking of murder?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0552773875</amazonuk>1784707422
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John BanvilleMatthew Tree|title=Ancient LightWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=The narrator in John Banville's ''Ancient Light'' is Alex CleaveTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a stage actor in the curtain call drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of his career. For reasons that become clearer towards the end being exceptional at any of the book, he is recalling his first relationship, when as a teenager in 1950s Ireland, he artistic passions all failed miserably and who had a passionate affair with the mother endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to his best friend. Howeverstudies, cultivated his past is also blighted by recollections of abilities rather than his own daughter's suicide ten years previouslydaydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0670920614</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B0C47LV1PC
|title=Fragility
|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 catch is that the answer for both could well be.... no.
''Fragility'' is set as the city of Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to emerge from the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David RainMosby Woods|title=The Heat of the SunA Whirly Man Loses His Turn|rating=54
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=David Rain The West isn't the dominant force it once was. Nobody in the West is far too young quite sure how to be writing mend this or even if mending it is the best course of 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 with precognition. Imagine the strategic advantage in this exquisitelyasset; a man who can tell you what will happen given any set of circumstances. That's all I'm going to sayman would be valuable, right? Perhaps the most valuable asset in history. OhImagine then, you need me that this man loses this ability. What would governments do to justify that commentget it back? |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857892037</amazonuk>B0C9SNG8R1
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jeremy Chambers0571379559|title=The Vintage and the GleaningHouse of Broken Bricks|author=Fiona Williams
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Smithy''The House of Broken Bricks'' is the story of four people. Tess Hembry's roots are in Jamaica: temperamentally she might be happier there, a retired sheep shearerbut instead, now works she lives in the house on a vineyard in the countryside riverbank, built of Victoria, Australiabroken bricks. Too poor to retire and too ill from the after effects of his former alcoholic lifestyle to return to Insubstantial as it might look, it's stood the physically arduous world passage of shearingtime, he exists rather than lives amongst his mates and near his son storms and daughter-in-lawfloods. Meanwhile rumours abound about the deeds of local thug, Brett Clayton andHer husband, whether true or notRichard, he's definitely someone struggles to be avoided. Howevergrow his vegetables, when Brett's wife Charlotte leaves him to complete the delivery rounds - and asks Smithy to take her bring insufficient money. They have twin boys - Sonny and Max, he does so without a second thoughtthe rainbow twins. Sheltered under Sonny's colouring reflects his roof and protection, Charlotte confides in Smithy, forcing him to remember mother's Jamaican heritage. Max takes after his own past and dreamsfather. Meanwhile the unspoken question remains: Brett knows where Charlotte People don't believe that they're related, much less twins and there's an assumption when Max is so whatout with his mother that she's he going to do about it?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780871635</amazonuk>his nanny.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Claire North
|title=House of Odysseus
|rating=5
|genre= Literary Fiction
|summary= ''What could matter more than love?''
The follow-up to the excellent ''Ithaca'' picks up a few months after where we left off. In the palace of Odysseus, with delicate care Queen Penelope continues to rule without her husband, who sailed to war at Troy and then by divine intervention never returned home. As ever she remains surrounded by suitors vying for the throne of the Western Isles. Having survived – politically and physical – the chaotic storm that Clytemnestra brought to Ithaca's shores, Queen Penelope is on the brink of a fragile peace. One that shatters however with the return of Orestes, King of Mycenae, and his sister Elektra, seeking refuge.|isbn=0356516075}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Timeri N MurariKay Chronister|title=The Taliban Cricket ClubDesert Creatures|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Dystopian Fiction|summary=We all knowWith 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 world devoid of water or think a nuclear holocaust, this genre is a way for humans to cathartically experience their most existential fears. ''Desert Creatures'' by Kay Chronister is a new work of post-apocalyptic fiction that aligns many of the fears that exist for humanity today. It is a shocking novel that still manages to find hope.|isbn=1803364998}}{{frontpage|isbn=1803363002|author= Eric LaRocca|title= The Trees Grew Because I Bled There|rating= 5|genre= Horror|summary= Horror taps into something primeval within us. It is used as a way to reflect our darkest emotions and how we knowas humans react and process them. Most horror fiction feature a ''Big Bad'', whether that is a home invader, how oppressive life was for Afghansa monster or a ghost, particularly Afghan womenit usually something tangible and, under by the end of the Taliban regimestory, but when you read this novel, boy do you get beatable. Eric LaRocca's ''The Trees Grew Because I Bled There'' is not like that. It is a sense collection of short stories more interested in the horrors of how tough it really wasillness, grief and humiliation. Horrors that linger and are harder to defeat than any ''Big Bad''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1742378846</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alix OhlinMadelaine Lucas|title=InsideThirst for Salt
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Grace''Love, a therapistI'd read, stumbles upon was supposed to be a young man in the woods who has attempted to commit suicide, light and her vocational interests are immediately engaged. The novel takes us through their complex relationshipweightless feeling, both its surface routines and day to day moments but also Grace's eventually successful search I had always longed for the reasons behind Tuggravity's desperation. Ohlin interlaces with this the story of Mitch, Grace's ex-husband, and of Annie, one of her clients, chronicling both their relationship with Grace, but also their network of families and friends, acquaintances and colleagues.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780871104</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=Sarah QuigleyJennifer Saint|title=The ConductorAtalanta
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary=Composer Dmitri Shostakovich can block anything out whilst he's writing music: his wife Nina's voice, his children arguing, even the side effects I was as worthy as any one of living in Stalinist Leningradthem. HoweverI would get on board that ship, life is about to become more than an annoying distraction from music as Germany declares war on Russia and gradually initiates what history will come to know as the Siege of LeningradI vowed. Shostakovich then realisesI would take my place, not just as gradually, that his music may serve a purpose to sustain his compatriots in the absence name of sufficient food and hope. His Seventh Symphony becomes a protest against oppression, but he needs an orchestra to play it and the top musicians have been evacuated to save the country's cultural heritagegoddess. He therefore turns to Karl Eliasberg, It was for the aspiring but third rate conductor sake of a cobbled together orchestra. Music can create miracles but, for Eliasberg and his musiciansmy name, being able to play it will be the biggest miracle of alltoo.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190880002X</amazonuk>}}Atalanta''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sam ThompsonAmanthi Harris|title=Communion TownBeautiful Place
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Communion Town – one city but it may as well be many as each person's perception Padma, a young Sri Lankan, has returned to the Villa Hibiscus on the southern coast of it her home country. This is coloured by their experiences within ita place she spent her formative years. Each chapter introduces us to It is not a different storyplace she was born into, a different viewpoint and therefore, practically a different citybut the one she thinks of as home. Starting with How she came to be at the ominousVilla, creepy story of Nicolashow it became her home, and the machinations that have flowed through stories encapsulating such themes as recaptured friendship, murder her life ever since she first arrived there provide the ''score'' for this gentle and yet subtly violent novel. Padma's present fails to escape her past and an enigmatic take on much like the life musical score of a private investigatorfilm, we start to piece together that strand weaves its way through everything that happens at the nature of Communion Town..Villa. or do we?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007454767</amazonuk>1784631930
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Austin Ratner178563335X|title=The Jump ArtistSea Defences|author=Hilary Taylor|rating=45
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Austin RatnerWhen we first meet Rachel Bird she's debut novela trainee vicar, sitting in on a PCC meeting and wondering why they're held when you need to pick the children up. Her husband, Christopher, collects six-year-old Hannah and her elder brother, Jamie, whilst Rachel holds a sobbing parishioner. Thelma'The Jump Artist's daughter-in-law won't let her see her grandson. Holthorpe, first published in on the US in 2009Norfolk coast, is a fictionalised account of the extraordinary life of celebrated photographerlovely place, Philippe Halsman. Born but Rachel is struggling to develop a Latvian Jew, as a young man in 1928 he was walking in the Austrian mountains when he saw his father fall to his death. This would be traumatic for anyone, but the issues were compounded when he was accused of murder by real bond with the Austrian courts in what was probably antiparish -semitic and certainly xenophobic in explanation. Philippeshe's second trialin awe of the vicar, the first failing potentially because his mother had engaged a Jewish lawyerGail, details but then she's been doing the fundamental lack of evidence job for more than thirty years. Rachel and shoddy police work behind Christopher hoped that a walk on the accusationbeach would do them some good - it was stormy but it was probably what they needed. And then Hannah went missing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670921599</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Martin Amis1398515388|title=Lionel Asbo|rating=3.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Martin Amis can be relied upon to create some pretty nasty, self-centred central characters. Usually they are upper class cads The Boy and bounders but in Lionel Asbo his central character is at the polar opposite in terms of class. He's violent, uncouth and ignorant. He's a criminal whose usual sidekicks are a pair of vicious pit bulls. His 'manner' is a fictitious down trodden area of London called Diston Town where he lives in a tower block with his nephew, Des, who in fact is the central character in the book. Des, in contrast is far more sympathetic - intelligent and kind, that is if you overlook the fact that as a 15 year old he had an affair with his grandmother, Lionel's mother. Hey, no one's perfect. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224096206</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDog|author=Ben Fountain|title=Billy Lynn's Long Halftime WalkSeishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In Ben Fountain's ''Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk''First of all, it was the earthquake, deep in the ocean floor, Billy which created the tsunami and what is left of his Bravo troop colleagues are back from this, in turn, caused the war in Iraq following a brave firefight caught on camera by embedded journalistsnuclear meltdown. The result was complete and utter devastation. The US armydeaths were uncountable, keen to gain PR from the event has brought them back on an optimistically titled 'Victory Tour' despite and the loss of livelihoods was widespread. The fact that they are all to be re-deployed the next week. The majority of many pets were separated from their owners came far down the book takes place on the last day list of this tour when Billy is in his homepriorities but -state of Texas, where six months after the Bush link makes it even more protsunami -war, as the boys are invited to attend that most American of PR events, the Thanksgiving football game at the Dallas Cowboys stadiumKazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. Accompanying the troop is He wasn't a veteran Hollywood producer who has promised dog person but the soldiers convenience store owner's comment that he can sell their story would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to a movie studio for mega-bucks. If only it were that simpleopen his car door and Tamon the dog jumped in.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857864386</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=L R Fredericks0989715337|title=FarundellPapa on the Moon|author=Marco North|rating=3.54|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary=American Paul Asher is damaged by memories and dreams originating from World War I, or at least he thinks that's where they're from. Once the war is over and, as he's estranged from his father in the US, Paul decides to remain in the UK to find work. Work comes to him as he's asked to assist Lord Percy Damory at Farundell, Some frogs had gotten into the Damory ancestral home. Paul's job is straightforward: Sir Percy needs someone to whom he can dictate memoirs of a well-travelled life among distant tribes. However Paul's life at Farundell will be anything but straightforward thanks to the Damorys' apparent eccentricities, an ancestor from the 18th century who refuses to be labelled as a ghost and, of course, there's Sylvie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184854328X</amazonuk>}}
}}