"My God, its full of books"
I have previously read Melissa Harrison's non fiction nature books (I loved The stubborn light of things), but this is the first of her novels that I have tried. Just like her non fiction work, this is beautifully written, with a deep understanding of the natural world, and with a wonderful empathetic humanity. It is tells the story of an English village over the course of six months, told through the linked narrative voices of the villagers (each chapter through the viewpoint of a different person). Clare, a woman who has lived all her life in the village is dying, but the village too is passing away in so many ways - everything is interconnected.
An interesting overview of the periods of country living of three key female writers of the first part of the twentieth century - Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Rosamond Lehmann. Sylvia Townsend Warner is a favourite writer of mine, and what largely attracted me to this volume, though it was great to also learn more about Woolf and Lehmann (the latter of whom I knew very little about). Enjoyable and informative.
Winner of the 2026 Queen Mary Small Press Fiction Prize and published in a beautiful limited edition by Tangerine Press.
I am not quite sure what to make of this one. A strange prose poem, written in a clipped pidgin English, that makes it a challenging read. It tells the tale of Flo, a young woman in search for her lost brother in a never fully defined post apocalyptic England, where she encounters a series of increasingly bizarre characters. A fever dream (nightmare) like cross between A Clockwork Orange and The Road.
This book seems to be everywhere at the moment, but it fully deserves the buzz that it is creating. It is original, topical, well written and most of all highly enjoyable. I wont say too much about the plot, as I don't want to give away any spoilers, but I understand plans are already afoot to turn it into a movie, and I am not at all surprised.
This was an inventive and experimental novel, Lanchester's debut, the story of Tarquin Winot, a snobbish Francophile food connoisseur. It is told in the form of Winot's narrative description of various menus, through which he gradually reveals his past, and the fact that he might not be all that he at first seems.
Enjoyable, without entirely blowing me away.
A very Grimm fairytale.
This one was not for me, though I am a big horror fan, and love Angela Carter, who was clearly an influence for this story. It seeks to shock from the opening paragraph, but it does so with all the subtlety of a sledge hammer. Too long, too repetitive, and with gaping plot and character holes.
I have read and enjoyed all of Jenni Fagan's previous fiction (starting with Luckenbooth, and then working back to those that I had missed), so was excited to see that she had a new novel out. The plot here revolves around the work of a band of individuals processing the newly dead on their arrival in the afterlife, with lead character Edi, pining for the son she has left behind on Earth.
It is surreal, absurdist, at times darkly comic and at others philosophical, and then polemic (against the billionaries, the politicians, those of privilege and full of delusion). If I have a criticism it would perhaps be in the consistancy of its world building, but I am not sure this matters, for it it is made up for in the honest passion and humour of its narrative voice.
This covers the final year of the marriage of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes (July 1961 - December 1962), a year spent at a cottage they had purchased in North Tawton in Devon. It is told in a series of short stories, each through the perspective of different villagers and friends, with Sylvia and Ted as peripheral characters. The linked stories begin in December 1962, and progress backwards, each one a month or so prior to the last.
Plath and Hughes are such interesting people, individually and as a couple, and this sounded like a fascinating prospect, examining their relationship, right up to their breakup, and ending (infact beginning), just two months before Plath's suicide. Unfortunately, the narrative devices (the differing perspectives and the reverse timeline) did not quite work for me, and if anything detracted from what should have been the focus of the story. At heart, this is a collection of short stories, and inevitably some are better than others. This, combined with the differing perspectives, and the unusual timeline, killed the momentum for me, so that by the end third of the book, I was just wanting it to finish, which is a real shame. I dont want to be too harsh, as the stories are very well written, but as a whole it just did not gel.
I have to tread carefully with this review, as I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but enough to say that it the story of a man tormented by the ghosts of his past and then at war with nature as a proxy for this torment.
In style and indeed in subject matter it reminded me of Ernest Hemingway (specifically The old man and the sea), or perhaps even Cormac McCarthy (something like Child of God), where bad and often deranged men do bad and deranged things. Not that Bernardo, the main character, is inherently bad, but an irrational madness does seize him, leading down a very dark path.
A short novel (just 202 pages) but an impressive one
Though this is a debut novel, the author is an award winning poet, and this latter fact certainly shows, for the language and phrasing is highly poetic. It is beautifully written.
It is the story of David, a Catholic priest and Margaret, a lay Catholic theology teacher and a love affair that develops between them, which will result in David's laicization (de-frocking as a priest) if it is consumated. Told over two timelines - the first being mid 1960s and the second, decades later, with Margaret in a nursing home being visited by her grandson.
While I enjoyed this, I would say that it is as much a commentory on the Catholic church in the 1960s (following the second Vatican council) as it is a love story (the two main characters do not even meet until halfway through the novel). It is a very slow burn love story. I also think the second timeline was not needed, and if anything detracted from the overall story. Not perfect then, but overall a fine, beautifully told debut novel.
I was drawn to this as soon as I heard the concept - an eco-horror, with people turning into trees. It was an interesting and enjoyable read, though It took me a little while to properly get into it, due I think mainly because of the way it is written - each chapter broken up into numerous small sections. It touches upon many issues: climate change, AI, death and grief, in a genuinely thought provoking way. If I have one issue, I would say I found the many voidstar references (a comic the lead narrator was obsessed with when younger) a little wearing, but overall an excellent book.
Beautifully written but explicitly grotesque body horror. I enjoyed this, but it is not for the squeamish in its description of a wife caring for her husband (the libertine Edward, who has an unknown disease presumed caught from his frequenting brothels) as his body literally falls apart. Very dark, and with unexpected twists, this was a supremely crafted novella.
The true story of an early 17th century Danish Witch trial, told from the perspective of a wax figure made by Christenze, the lead accused witch. Strikingly poetic in style, it is interspersed with spells taken from contemporary Grimoires, and all of this, combined with the unusual narrative device, does make The wax child a challenging and occasionally confusing read. However I would certainly recommend it overall, as it is very well written and translated, and is certainly evocative in its portrayal of this terrible period in history.
A smart, fast paced, amusing and warm-hearted, study of a dysfunctional American family - three daughters (Abigail, Louise and Harper), their parents Catherine and Bud, plus any number of side characters, such as War crimes Wes and Miss Winkle. This was slightly outside my genre comfort zone, and it treads a fine line of absurdist whimsy at times, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
A remarkably accomplished debut novel, which, right from the off, carries a real sense of menace and foreboding, that builds steadily towards a dark crescendo in its final pages. This is steeped in Celtic folklore, but it's also easy to detect the influences of modern folk horror, like Andrew Michael Hurley (Starve acre) or Francine Toon (Pine), as well as cinematic horrors (like The Shining or The Thing). Highly recommended and I will eagerly read whatever comes next from Liam Higginson.
Excellent debut novel, being the story of Jago, a twenty year old with brain damage, following a cardiac arrest. He has returned to his native Cornwall to convalesce, living with his uncle in a remote farmstead. The story unfolds slowly, as Jago encounters his criminal neighbour, the infamous Bill Sligo. It is told in Jago's simple, paired back, narrative voice, and is all the more powerful for its simplicity, written with a great sense of place, and a clear love of the Cornish coast. A gentle and refreshing joy of a novel.
Book no 10 in Penguin books Green ideas series, these three short chapters are extracts from Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding sweetgrass. The honorable harvest, the main part of the book is about the ethic of reciprocity with an animate Earth, respecting mother nature, and is a wonderful inspiring read.
This is a fairly long novel at over 500 pages, and the first three quarters were a fairly straightforward, competantly written, dual narrative plot, half historical fiction, half mystery, following two women linked across 800 years distance. The problem with it for me came in the final quarter, when quite suddenly the author resorts to moving the story along with chapter after chapter of solid exposition. This last section of the novel was a real slog to complete and several times I nearly gave up. I perservered with it to the bitter end, though honestly I'm not sure it was worth the effort.
As with most multi author short story collections, this is a mixed bag. Stand out classic stories include Pomegranate seed by Edith Wharton, The Mezzotint by M.R.James and The Black Cat by Edgar Allen Poe. All great stories, but in many collections. I enjoyed Playmates by A.M.Burrage and was not familiar with that one. Tiny ghosts by Amy Gicalone was interesting, but I'm not sure I would call it a ghost story as such.
A good heavyweight (600pp) guide to the Penguin modern classics series of books which was launched by the publisher in 1946, and includes, as the name suggests, some of the best classic literature of the last 100 years. Arranged by country, and then by author, it is beautifully illustrated and I love it as a reference book, to find authors that I might like to try.
A beautifully illustrated guide to the remarkable wilding project being undertaken at Knepp. This is not an in depth study (for that read Isabella's original Wilding), but is a designed as an overview (and simplified) version of the ideas and achievments covered in Tree's original book. Angela Harding's illustrations are the perfect accomaniment to the text, and like the original Wilding, this is a book to inspire and give hope.