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[[Category:Literary Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Literary Fiction]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Kerrigan in CopenhagenJeremy Cooper|authortitle=Thomas E KennedyDiscord|rating=23.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Terrence Einhorn Kerrigan is an Irish-Danish American living in Copenhagen. He is 'Discord: a full-time writer and translator'lack of agreement or harmony (as between persons, things, who 'thinks or ideas) The principal example of himself discord within the novel, as a failed poetwith most instances of discord, which is a less complicated concept than a failed human being'easily located. His newest writing assignmentThe two protagonists of the novel, howeverRebekah Rosen and Evie Bennet, are as different as they come. Rebekah is an uptight, traditional and no-nonsense composer close to 'select retirement, while Evie is a sampling of one hundred force of nature, bounding onto the bestmusical scene as a precocious saxophonist, the most historicoozing with talent and charm. The two, predictably, the most congenial of Copenhagendon's 1t always see eye to eye,525 serving houses their approaches different and write them up for one of a one-hundred-volume travel guide: ''The Great Bars of the Western World'Evie's progressive views at odds with Rebekah's conservative leaning. KerriganHowever, though, 'does not wish something connects them beyond just their musical project: a sort of fragile alliance formed within the book to be written. He wants only to research it. Forever' - and preferably in the company of his green-eyed Associate, Anneliseclamour.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408841940</amazonuk>1804272264
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lois WaldenPolly Barton|title=AfterworldWhat Am I, A Deer?
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=The Duvalier family owe their wealth to sugar cane although their gratitude Polly Barton's debut novel is shown in varying degrees an intellectually playful yet emotionally exposed work that uses translation as both subject and various waysgoverning metaphor. From the patriarch William (who never recovered The narrator, newly relocated from being hit by a manhole cover) through his wife and children, down London to TheodoreBerlin, works translating video games into Japanese through the lad who gained comfort (and a certain amount process of secrecy) from travel and on localisation, rewriting language until it feels comfortably familiar to their black servant Rheta B, each has had a lifenew audience. Each also has Barton treats this as a story to tell andparadoxical act: arguably, whether alive or in Afterworldstriving for universality, language is endlessly repackaged, its originality at risk of disappearing altogether. From this, the novel opens out into a wider, they're going resonant question: to what extent do we translate ourselves in order to tell it.be understood, accepted, or loved?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908129859</amazonuk>1804272175
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kate ClanchyMaria Stepanova and Sasha Dugdale (Translator)|title=Meeting the EnglishThe Disappearing Act|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Struan Robertson was just seventeenDespite her anonymisation of place names and people, but set to go to Aberdeen to study dentistry, when his English teacher passed him a Stepanova's message in this short advertisementwork of autofiction is unmistakable. A novelist named M travels from B (ostensibly Berlin) to the town of F for a literary giant needed festival she is to be a carerguest speaker at. Why not take Detoured by erratic train schedules and nudged by forces beyond her control, her journey slowly bends toward a gap year? Struan had never been traveling circus. Swept up in this series of events, M eventually offers to ‘’England’’ before and he would be living step in Hampsteadfor a circus performer who has unexpectedly left the show. On the plus side he’d been working in The train functions as a care home to earn money motif of transience and he could do impermanence, while the work. Soon - almost too soon - Struan was circus embodies the main carer for Phillip Prys, rendered dumb reshaping of identity and paralysed by a massive stroke. His family couldn’t take care retreat into fantasy, an impulse that lies at the very heart of him - the young (very young) third wife was too busy with her painting. His son, Jake, had other things - anything else - to do rather than be in his father’s presence. Juliet had never been her father’s favourite but she wasn’t ‘’exactly’’ stable when it came to helpingnovel form itself.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0330535277</amazonuk>1804272329
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michele Forbes295967572X|title=Ghost MothPale Pieces|author=G M Stevens
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Belfast 1949: Katherine Our unnamed narrator is about to become engaged to fireman George Bedford when she meets Tom McKinleybegin a train journey with his companion Django. HeWhere they's bright fun re going and makes her feel more alive than dependablewhat the purpose of this journey is, boring George ever couldis uncertain. The weight of Django found the tickets ''on the decision Katherine eventually makes will haunt her for a lifetimefloor somewhere'' and has persuaded our narrator to accompany him. We fast forward to Belfast 1969 and Why not? Not much else is clear either - but we are probably in the past as the troubles in Northern Ireland exacerbate, as do pair travel to the cracks in Katherine's marriage. In fact 20 years station by coach and four children later, they've become chasmsthe train is a steam locomotive.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0297870440</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jennifer JohnstonMakenna Goodman|title=A Sixpenny SongHelen of Nowhere|rating=34.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Annie's father It could be argued that the pervading theme of this book is malaise - a hard-to-place feeling that something in your life is deadnot quite right. She's not particularly upset as it's The protagonist, a decade or so since they've had any contact. Dada (he preferred to be called 'Father') had wanted her to go into disgraced professor on the family businessbrink of losing both his career and his relationship, to make moneyembodies this feeling. She'd wanted to go to Trinity College in Dublin to read English LiteratureHowever, but instead she'd packed Goodman counteracts his discomfort with a suitcase force which is seductive, radical and unnerving: Helen. The connection between Helen and left for Londonthe protagonist is indirect yet intimate. As the former owner of the countryside house he's considering, where she still is - working Helen represents a volta in a bookshophis life, her past tied to his potential fresh start. Her mother died when she was young - Dada had sent The realtor who shows the protagonist around the child off to boarding school house shares stories about Helen, and did his best to ensure describes her as ''an entity that her motheris pure consciousness, beyond form's name was never referred to again - and it wasn't too long before he remarried. His death brought Annie back to Ireland and Although she found that lives in an assisted living facility now, Helen has powers beyond comprehension which the money had been left to wife number two (as he was confident that she would know how to look after it) but reader gets the house now belonged to Anniesense are not altogether innocuous.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1472209222</amazonuk>1804272205
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alex KovacsOlga Tokarczuk|title=The Currency House of Day, House of PaperNight|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Maximilian Sacheverell Hollingsworth was - as ''What's the name might suggest - good of aristocratic birth, but had broken off all contact with his family and in consequence found himself labouring for forty hours a week in a printing works in Dagenham. He came upon the idea of planning out his entire life and this he did in the course of a single afternoon whilst enjoying a little illicit sick leave in a pub in Bloomsbury. He would first become a counterfeiter - on a massive scale - and then a sculptor, filmmaker, collector of artefacts, sound artist and mystic. Circumstances would also turn him into a recluse, except world that keeps changing like that? How can one go on certain well-ordered occasions, most of which would occur - somewhat to his initial surprise - later calmly living in his life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1564788571</amazonuk>}}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''.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Ice-Cold HeavenJon Fosse and Damion Searls (translator) |authortitle=Mirko BonneVaim
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=From a space of 25 years, our narrator looks back on what happened when he ''All was 12 years oldstrange''.. Twenty five years that had to elapse, because that was the promise that he made. He is now happy, happy to have kept This haunting phrase encapsulates the secret as he promised Sarma he wouldpervading sense of otherworldliness which permeates this story set in Vaim, a fictional fishing village in Norway which paradoxically could not feel more real for Jatgeir and happier that he can now tell the story: he can tell us Eline, two of everything that happened in his childhood that year on the shores of the oldest lake protagonists caught in the world, Lake Baikalits melancholic current.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0704373246</amazonuk>1804271829
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Rabbit Back Literature SocietyClaire-Louise Bennett|authortitle=Pasi Ilmari JaaskelainenBig Kiss, Bye-Bye |rating=34.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Ella Milana Everything in this book, however sweet or seemingly innocent, is a language and literature supply teacher currently teaching steeped in her hometown of Rabbit Back anguish and dealing with challenging revelations in her lifedistortion. Ella is unexpectedly invited to join the hugely successful and influential Rabbit Back Literature SocietyEven a kiss, usually a group symbol of nine authors who were hand selected intimacy and mentored from childhood by Finland’s greatest author (Laura White) to become literary icons in their own rightcloseness, becomes evidence of love lost. There weere always intended to be ten members of When the society but Laura White has not selected a new member for decades narrator cries out internally, ''come over here and the appointment of Ella kiss me,'' it is less an invitation than a massive literary eventdesperate attempt to confirm her emotional numbness. The ceremony in honour imagined recipient of Ella’s new membership this plea is Xavier, her ex-partner, a ghost she conjures to the incredibly elite society is unfortunately overshadowed by Laura White’s disappearance at the ceremony itselftest her detachment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908968982</amazonuk>1804271934
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Angela YoungHelene Bessette and Kate Briggs (translator)|title=Speaking of LoveLili is Crying
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=For some people it's impossible to tell another person that they love them First published in 1953 in French, this novel is a timeless text which wrenches the hearts of its readers just as Bessette wrenches words and both are damaged. Iris could not tell her daughter, Vivie, that she loved her sentences from their proper position on the page and Matthewpositions them elsewhere, Vivie's childhood frienddisjointed, neighbour and would-be lover could not tell her how he felttruncated. For all three the result was years of separation with Vivie feeling that she was fundamentally unloveable and Like the whole situation was further complicated by Iris's mental disintegration and her treatment removing most lives of her memories of Vivie's childhood. If that sounds depressing and soul-destroying then I am doing ''Speaking of Love'' an injustice because it's also a story of trustcharacters, reconciliation and learning to speak about your feelingsthey are often left tragically incomplete.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B00G4401G4</amazonuk>1804271675
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Call of the UndertowJonathan Buckley|authortitle=Linda CracknellOne Boat|rating=54
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=If you read ''One Boat'' is a lot deeply introspective novella that defies traditional narrative structure, drawing the reader into a contemplative realm of booksphilosophical musings and fragmented memories flowing from our narrator and protagonist, then Teresa. Set against the fact evocative backdrop of your life is that you are always part-way through at least one a small coastal Greek town, this work masterfully captures the magic of themits setting and its power to provoke profound introspection. You read all Teresa herself recognises these qualities as the reason she has visited it after the death of the timeboth her parents. Over breakfastPrompted by her mourning, in the bath, waiting for trains, on trains, between trains. You make a cup of tea in order to have an excuse to sit-her narrative voice is meditative anddeeply self-read for half an houraware, inviting the reader into her labyrinthine cogitations. But even so, most of your reading It is done in stolen moments – often in moments when a nagging voice from the gremlin-centre book that not only requires but inspires depth of your brain thought, since its narrative structure is reminding you that you ''should'' be doing something elsefragmentary and ironically relies on analepsis for its propulsion.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908754303</amazonuk>1804271764
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Crow BlueEowyn Ivey|authortitle=Adriana LisboaBlack Woods Blue Sky
|rating=3.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Having lost her ''Black Woods Blue Sky'' tells the story of Birdie, the young mother at the age of thirteentoddler Emaleen, Evangelina embarks on who longs for a quest to not only find her biological father, but to delve into life beyond the past and discover things about her mother Alaskan lodge where she never knew. Set predominantly in North America and Brazilworks as a bar waitress, this novel explores Vanja's journeys, both physical a setting which enables her bad habits and emotional, as well as her relationships with key characters, in particular, that accidental neglect of her Mother's ex husband, FernandoEmaleen. Uprooting herself when barely Described as a teenager''wild card'', Vanja leaves she feels stuck in her home country of Brazil day-to-day life, and yearns to cross the Wolverine river and live with Fernando in Colorado, on the only connection she has at her disposal North Fork to enable fulfil her to trace her roots and biological familydesires of a simple life surrounded by nature. Narrated beautifully in the first personWhen she meets Arthur Nielson, the reader is propelled into the thoughts and feelings of the young but courageousa strange, determined taciturn andsolitary man, at timeswho says he has a cabin over there, very wiseshe feels called to go - and bring Emaleen with her. Without realising it, adolescent girlthis calling will transform hers and Emaleen's lives forever.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408838303</amazonuk>1472279042
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sally Rooney|title=Close Your EyesIntermezzo|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction |summary=Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of life and is something of a grandmaster at putting it into words. Her dialogue is gripping and so brilliantly frustrating, as her characters never quite say exactly what they feel. Among the many relationships woven into this story, the central one for readers to unravel is the fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and Peter Koubek. Ivan, a socially awkward chess prodigy, contrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, a successful lawyer living in Dublin. Following their father's passing after a long battle with cancer, the brothers' already strained relationship faces new trials.|isbn=0571365469}}{{Frontpage|author=Ewan MorrisonFyodor Dostoyevsky|title=White Nights
|rating=5
|genre=Literary FictionShort Stories|summary=1981: Emma remembers driving through a blizzardAs always in Dostoyevsky, the character work is sublime. That One is, her mother was driving, she was just never left wondering what a childcharacter is thinking or feeling because Dostoyevsky lays bare their innermost dispositions and temperaments with remarkable clarity. She remembers her mother singing|isbn=0241619785}}{{Frontpage|author=James Baldwin|title=Giovanni's Room|rating=4. Throughout everything5|genre=Literary Fiction |summary=''Giovanni's Room'' follows the narrator David, what she remembersan American man living in Paris, what everyone remembersas he navigates his torturous affair with Giovanni, an Italian bartender he meets in a gay bar. While David is how her mother sang. Actuallyengaged to Hella, she remembers lots of other things about her mother. Snippets mostly. Then she remembers losing her… being dropped who is travelling in London at her Dad'sSpain, who didn't really seem like the dad she remembered… then ''real tension in the novel arises not from his infidelity but from the Socialdeeper conflict within himself. It is David'' taking her aways crippling shame and denial of his sexuality that ultimately dooms his relationship with Giovanni.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099565757</amazonuk>0141186356
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The CommitmentsAlba de Cespedes |authortitle=Roddy DoyleForbidden Notebook|rating=54
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=It's the mid to late 1980s, This Italian work of feminist fiction holds an air of suspense and Outspan, Derek and Ray have just formed a band. The trio is three days old, with 'Ray on tension from the Casio and his little sister's glockenspiel, Outspan on his brother's acoustic guitarmoment our protagonist, [and] Derek on nothing'Valeria Cossati, as he can't afford a bass. They already feel directionless. They don't mind Depeche Modepurchases her forbidden notebook, but Derek and Outspan draw learns about herself in the line at The Human League, which is one of Ray's favourite groups. Such musical differences are already darkening the band's conception. There is also a problem with their name: And And And. Ray believes they should have an explanation mark after the second And, as it would 'look deadly on the posters'. Outspan, however, thinks Ray's an idiot, most intimate and tells him where to stick his second exclamation mark. But Outspan has a plan. They need to find Jimmy Rabbitte, for when it comes to music, Jimmy knowsrevealing ways.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>009958753X</amazonuk>1782278222
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Madonna on the MoonOttessa Moshfegh|authortitle=Rolf BauerdickMy Year of Rest and Relaxation
|rating=3
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Things are certainly strange in the small rural town of Baia Luna; all the stereotypes one would suspect in At best, this novel is a newly-Communist mountain village are turned on their head. People vocally feel free to dismiss the Soviet changes and technology, but secretly at the dead scathing critique of night enter the fields to try modern society and hear reveals the sounds fragility of Sputnik blipping its orbit overhead. Gypsy men willingly get baptised into human relationships; at worst, it is the ways cynical, predictable and religions slightly trite tale of their ''gajo'' neighboursan unlikeable protagonist. The most forceful character is This unlikely heroine, a teenager called Fritz, best friend of narrator Pavelslim, attractive and son to an ethnic German photographer. Part of Fritz's power seems to rest on him knowing a lot more than others about newly orphaned girl in her twenties is disillusioned with the village schoolteacher – enoughworld, perhapsbut resolves not to lose sleep over it: in fact, for her to disappear overnight?solution lies in her hibernation.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848875045</amazonuk>1784707422
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Aimee BenderMatthew Tree|title=The Color MasterWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=Another parade of fascinatingTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, unusual personalities a drunk and oddevents from the author chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of [[Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender|WillfulCreatures]]. This time out [[:Category:Aimee Bender|Aimee]]introduces us to people like Hans the fake Nazi, young William to whomhis artistic passions all people look the same failed miserably and Janet who decides had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to spice up herlove-life with detrimental results. Among other things we alsowitness a less-his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than-altruistic anti-war demonstration his daydreams and an oddoccurrence in an orchard showing how odd an apple-only diet could makeusset himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091953898</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 VannMosby Woods|title=Goat MountainA Whirly Man Loses His Turn
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=The eleven-year-old boy, his father, grandfather and Tom, a family friend, were on their annual hunting trip to West isn't the family's 640-acre ranch dominant force it once was. Nobody in northern California. Strictly the boy wasn't old enough West is quite sure how to hunt but family lore said that mend this time he would be allowed to kill his first buckor even if mending it is the best course of action. Governments are flailing. On the way to their camp they spotted A war here, a poacher and the boy's father set up his rifle and loaded it - hoping push for climate action there. A feeling that shooting the bolt would tell the poacher that he'd been spottednobody is in actual charge. The boy - we never know his name - Imagine then, there was allowed to look through a man with precognition. Imagine the rifle site, but he pulled the triggerstrategic advantage in this asset; a man who can tell you what will happen given any set of circumstances. Nothing That man would ever be valuable, right? Perhaps the same againmost valuable asset in history. For any of themImagine then, that this man loses this ability.What would governments do to get it back?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0434021989</amazonuk>B0C9SNG8R1
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0571379559|title=Over My Dead BodyThe House of Broken Bricks|author=Hazel McHaffieFiona Williams|rating=45
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=''The mother House of Broken Bricks'' is the story of a patient four people. Tess Hembry's roots are in Jamaica: temperamentally she might be happier there, but instead, she lives in dire need the house on the riverbank, built of broken bricks. Insubstantial as it might look, it's stood the passage of a hearttime, storms and a pair of lungsfloods. Her husband, Richard, struggles to grow his vegetables, ceases to pray for complete the survival of her son for the following uncomfortable reason: 'Feels like you're asking for somebody else delivery rounds - and to diebring in sufficient money.' Though merely an extra in They have twin boys - Sonny and Max, the main plot of McHaffierainbow twins. Sonny's colouring reflects his mother's Jamaican heritage. Max takes after his father. People don'Over My Dead Bodyt believe that they're related, much less twins and there', the situation of this s an assumption when Max is out with his mother quite successfully conveys just how complex the ethics of organ donation arethat she's his nanny.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0992623103</amazonuk>
}}
{{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}}{{Frontpage|author= Kay Chronister|title= Desert Creatures|rating= 4|genre= Dystopian Fiction|summary= With 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 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}}{{newreviewfrontpage|isbn=1803363002|author=Peter Stjernstrom and Rod Bradbury (translator)Eric LaRocca|title=The Best Book 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 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 story, beatable. Eric LaRocca's ''The Trees Grew Because I Bled There'' is not like that. It is a collection of short stories more interested in the Worldhorrors of illness, grief and humiliation. Horrors that linger and are harder to defeat than any ''Big Bad''.}}{{Frontpage|author=Madelaine Lucas|title=Thirst for Salt
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Titus Jensen may not have written many great novels for ''Love, I'd read, was supposed to be a while (if ever) light and weightless feeling, but his festival readings of othersI had always longed for gravity'' works are renowned Told from a retrospective view, a young woman unravels the year-long relationship that once defined her. WhyOverlaid with later wisdom, his rendition of ''The Diseases of the Swedish Monarchs narrator relives the affair with a man twenty years her senior from Gustavas Vasa its inception – the summer after finishing university – to Gustav Vits sorrowful end the summer after. Set against the backdrop of an isolated Australian coastal town '' has been compared favourably to his offerings from Thirst for Salt''Handbook for Volvo 245details the 24-year-old narrator''. Howevers deepening relationship with her older lover, one drunken night he and romantic poet Eddie X agree that their fame on the festival circuit would be insignificant by comparison if they could write the best book in the world; a combination of depicting its all genres-consuming nature, appealing to all tastes how it changed her perspective on both romantic and familial relationships and making all the best seller categories. They start work on how it the next day but, rather than collaborate, each wants the lone gloryaltered her irrevocably. The race (or should that be battle?) to the publishing date is on!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1843914808</amazonuk>0861546490
}}
{{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.''
''Beautiful Shining People'' revolves around the question of identity and acceptance. Of what it means to be human. Of what is real and what is artificial, and whether the development of technology is exciting or frightening.|isbn=191458564X}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Adriaan van DisJennifer Saint|title=BetrayalAtalanta|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary= Dutchman Mulder renews his acquaintance with his old friend Donald ''I was as worthy as he returns to South Africaany one of them. I would get on board that ship, I vowed. I would take my place, a land he knew well not just in the days name of apartheidthe goddess. Life may have moved on and apartheid ceased but some things have worsenedIt was for the sake of my name, too. Atalanta'' Princess. Warrior. Lover. Hero. Have Mulder Abandoned at birth for being born a daughter rather than a son, Atalanta is raised under the protective eye of the goddess Athemis and Donald made any difference at all? As they recall their shadier youthfashioned into a formidable huntress, they have one more who longs for adventure. When the opportunity comes – to join the Argonauts, a fierce band of warriors, descendent from the Gods themselves – Atalanta seizes the chance to struggle for someonefight in Artemis's freedom against all odds name and carve out her own legendary place in history. What follows is a violent societywhirlwind of challenges and discovery and through it, Atalanta must remember Artemis' fatal warning: that if she marries, it will be her undoing.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857051849</amazonuk>1472292154
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Her Privates WeAmanthi Harris|authortitle=Frederic ManningBeautiful Place|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Ernest Hemingway called Frederic Manning's ''Her Privates We'' 'The finest and noblest book of men in war' he had ever read. But Hemingway wasn't Padma, a very trustworthy manyoung Sri Lankan, so we tend has returned to defer judgementthe Villa Hibiscus on the southern coast of her home country. He This is, however, useful for contrast. Hemingway's tales of war (such as ''A Farewell to Arms'' and ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'') usually involve macho misfits and trite love stories, feats of derring-do and filmic dialogue; all the things, in fact, that have no a place in Manning's First World War novelshe spent her formative years. Why It is this? Well, by the time Hemingway started driving not a Red Cross ambulance on the Italian front (1918), Manning's service place she was already over. Neverthelessborn into, unlike but the illustrious (and self-mythologising) Hemingway, Manning spent his war deep in the trenches one she thinks of as home. How she came to be at the SommeVilla, mixing how it with became her home, and the machinations that have flowed through her life ever since she first arrived there provide the proletarian soldiery. As such, ''Her Privates Wescore'' is a brutal for this gentle and yet subtly violent novel concerning . Padma's present fails to escape her past and much like the 'subterranean, furtive, twilight life' musical score of the average Tommy, a work of startling powerfilm, and one that completely eclipses the war novels of strand weaves its way through everything that happens at the romantic HemingwayVilla.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184668787X</amazonuk>1784631930
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ruth Ozeki178563335X|title=A Tale for the Time BeingSea Defences|author=Hilary Taylor|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary= Ruth finds When we first meet Rachel Bird she's a trainee vicar, sitting in on a PCC meeting and wondering why they'Hello Kitty' bag washed re held when you need to pick the children up on the shore of Whaletown. Her husband, Christopher, the small Canadian island that she collects six-year-old Hannah and her husband Oliver call homeelder brother, Jamie, whilst Rachel holds a sobbing parishioner. Thelma's daughter-in-law won't let her see her grandson. As Ruth opens it and begins reading Holthorpe, on the diary safely protected insideNorfolk coast, she learns about Naois a lovely place, but Rachel is struggling to develop a teenager real bond with the parish - and she's in Japanawe of the vicar, Gail, but then she's been doing the job for more than thirty years. Through her writing Nao becomes real Rachel and Christopher hoped that a walk on the tales of her varied life, struggles at school and fascinating relatives compels Ruth to search for her, or at least to discover her fatebeach would do them some good - it was stormy but it was probably what they needed. And then Hannah went missing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857867970</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sebastian Faulks1398515388|title=A Possible LifeThe Boy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=Geoffrey swaps a career as a public school master for an existence as an English officer behind German lines during WWIIFirst of all, it was the earthquake, deep in the ocean floor, which created the tsunami and this, in turn, an experience that will take a lifetime to expungecaused the nuclear meltdown. The result was complete and utter devastation. Billy is a child sent to The deaths were uncountable, and the workhouse to give his family a chance loss of survivallivelihoods was widespread. Elena has to come to terms with an adopted brother, Jeanne The fact that many pets were separated from their owners came far down the French nursemaid lives in the shadow list of a onepriorities but -off encounter and Jack? He bears six months after the indelible heart print of tsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a girl who travels with dog outside a guitarconvenience store. Five lives, five stories, one human, emotional threadHe wasn't a dog person but the convenience store owner's comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to open his car door and Tamon the dog jumped in.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099549220</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tash Aw0989715337|title=Five Star BillionairePapa on the Moon|author=Marco North
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=China is a booming economy for people in a position to take advantage; people like Gary the pop star who once won a talent show, Yinghui the lingerie magnate or her childhood friend and property developer Justin who feels the weight of his family's expectations. Then there's Phoebe, moving to Shanghai from Some frogs had gotten into the country on a promise and a belief that to attract success one must act as if one already has itwell. Life will bring them into each other's orbit but it won't leave any of them the same as when they started.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007494157</amazonuk>}}
}}