A Beginner’s Guide to Running is a novel of fabulous contradictions. It’s a light-hearted, hilarious story about the aftermath of domestic violence and bereavement. It’s a sweary, alcohol-fuelled romp about finding yourself in the relentlessness of single parenting. It made me laugh until I couldn’t breathe, cry until my head hurt and indulge in more […]
contemporary fiction
Review: In the Blink of an Eye, by Jesse Blackadder
Toddlers can be as fast as lightning for such small packages. Taking your eyes off them for even a second can have catastrophic consequences. In The Blink of an Eye, by Jesse Blackadder, is a powerful and heart-shattering story about a family living with exactly those consequences. Teenaged Jarrah loves his little brother, Toby, to […]
Review: Improvement, by Joan Silber – novel or linked short stories?
I really enjoyed Improvement, by Joan Silber. The writing is gorgeous, the characters are simultaneously unusual and everyday, and Silber’s tracking of the way small actions impact lives around the globe and back again is intriguing and masterful. But I have a small bone to pick. Improvement is marketed as a ‘novel’. To me, it’s not a […]
Review: The Silent Patient, by Alex Michaelides
The Silent Patient, by Alex Michaelides, is a fabulously twisty thriller that sent chills running down my spine and had me muttering more than one ‘Phwoar!’. Convicted of the murder of her photographer husband, famous painter Alicia Berenson spends her days locked up in a high security psychiatric hospital. Nobody knows why she killed her […]
Review: The Girls at 17 Swann Street, by Yara Zgheib
The Girls at 17 Swann Street, by Yara Zgheib is a heart-wrenching novel about Anna Roux who has been booked into 17 Swann Street by her desperate husband. 17 Swann Street is a residential treatment facility for patients with severe eating disorders. She is quickly diagnosed with life-threatening anorexia nervosa and her dangerous and difficult […]
Review: The Truths and Triumphs of Grace Atherton, by Anstey Harris
On finishing The Truths and Triumphs of Grace Atherton I dearly wanted to stand up and shout, ‘Bravo! Bra-vooo!’, clap wildly and whistle as though I were at an orchestral concert. But I would have woken up everyone in my house. So I settled for a mental fist pump instead. Grace Atherton inhabits the edges […]
