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Year of Wonders
This novel ‘of the plague’ is pretty much as tragic and unrelentingly full of corpses as you might imagine for such a cheerful topic. But even though the subject matter seems about as grim as it is...
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Matin Brun (Brown)
This tiny, almost short story length book, translated from the French as simply ‘Brown’ was spectacular. It takes a familiar theme, that of a society becoming totalitarian and repressive, and presents...
View ArticleThe Finnish Institute
I came here a while ago now for the book launch of a very close friend Dr Emily Jeremiah, who translated a selection of the lovely poetry of Eeva-Liisa Maaner entitled Bright, Dusky, Bright....
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The Long Song by Andrea Levy
After a while series of poopy bookclub choices, not anyone’s fault because none of us read them beforehand, this, this I loved. Novels about slavery are tough going, the horror and degradation are...
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The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
This sparse and tense small novel (novella?) touches on epic themes of nationalism, identity & prejudice through a clever & disruptive narrative style. The entire text is told in am oral style...
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Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
A really enjoyable, page-turning novel, this second offering by the one that wrote The Time Travellers wife is set in the beautiful environs of Highgate Cemetery, one of the magnificent seven on the...
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We need to talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver
I’d already read this spectacular and terrifying modem classic for bookclub, but the film starring Tilda Swinton is coming out soon, and E has published an academic paper on it, so before indulging in...
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The Virgin suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Poignant and tragic, as the title tells you, this sad, melancholic novel trips you up with sudden flashes of black humour, but evoking a time and a heat with the stillness of a millpond, languid and...
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The post-birthday world by Lionel Shriver
A novel by the ‘Kevin’ author is always going to be compared with that modern classic tome. And I guess the only real reason I am here reading this is because I like Kevin so much, and the premise of...
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A gathering light by Jennifer Donnelly
Overall this novel for me was an innoffensive as a cucumber sandwich, not the most nutritious of meals, but filled a hole better than the empty calories of a chicklit saccharine pulp. The traumas of...
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