132,655
edits
Changes
From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to searchno edit summary
[[Category:Literary Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Literary Fiction]]==Literary fiction==__NOTOC__ {{newreviewFrontpage|author=David AlmondMatthew Tree|title=The True Tale of the Monster Billy DeanWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=''This tale is told by 1 that died at birth by 1 that came into the world in days of endles war & at the moment of disaster... I am not clevaTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, so forgiv my folts a drunk and my mistayks. I am Billy Dean. This is the truth. This is my tale.'' The Monster Billy Dean tells the story chronic underachiever whose dreams of Billy, a boy born into the dystopia being exceptional at any of a war-torn town his artistic passions all failed miserably and the product who had endless crises of an illicit liaison between a young woman and her priestself confidence. His birth coincided with an apocalyptic bombing and So Tim applied himself to his parents have hidden him away from the ruins and the catastrophe in a single roomstudies, both out of shame and in the belief that cultivated his abilities rather than his coming into the world daydreams and surviving at such a violent moment signifies a sacred futureset himself high but achievable ambitions. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0670919055</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
}}
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=The book Can you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is in the first person, told by a woman who question should you make it? Or is a relative newcomer to this tiny villagethe question if you did, no more than a cluster of homes and a few basic amenities. would it land? The story opens in catch is that the lead-up to a horrendous stormanswer for both could well be.. The narrator has seen nothing like it before and is both afraid and excited. The locals take it all in their stride. They're a hardy bunch of disparate individuals and we get to know more them, one by one, as the story developsno.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906694710</amazonuk>}}
}}
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Despite not being The West isn'quoits and gin slings and rubbers t the dominant force it once was. Nobody in the West is quite sure how to mend this or even if mending it is the best course of bridge people' Elizabeth and Derek have embarked on action. Governments are flailing. A war here, a cruisepush for climate action there. Derek A feeling that nobody is probably hoping to proposein actual charge. Imagine then, but things do not go as plannedthere was a man with precognition. From Imagine the moment they encounter strategic advantage in this asset; a stranger as they board man who can tell you what will happen given any set of circumstances. That man would be valuable, right? Perhaps the shipmost valuable asset in history. Imagine then, the cruise proves that this man loses this ability. What would governments do to be revelationary for all concerned.get it back?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224091409</amazonuk>B0C9SNG8R1
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Richard Beard0571379559|title=Lazarus is DeadThe House of Broken Bricks|author=Fiona Williams
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=''The title certainly got my attention and when I read that Beard House of Broken Bricks'' is the Director story of four people. Tess Hembry's roots are in Jamaica: temperamentally she might be happier there, but instead, she lives in the house on the National Academy riverbank, built of Writing, London I was expecting great things from himbroken bricks. IInsubstantial as it might look, it'm also thinking in s stood the very next breath how audacious passage of time, storms and floods. Her husband, Richard, struggles to write a fictional book about a towering biblical character but thengrow his vegetables, many to complete the delivery rounds - and to bring in sufficient money. They have done just twin boys - Sonny and Max, the rainbow twins. Sonny's colouring reflects his mother's Jamaican heritage. Max takes after his father. People don't believe that they're related, much less twins and there's an assumption when Max is out with his mother thatshe's his nanny. Will he pull it off though?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184655506X</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Claire North
|title=House of Odysseus
|rating=5
|genre= Literary Fiction
|summary= ''What could matter more than love?''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Amy WaldmanKay Chronister|title=The SubmissionDesert Creatures|rating=54|genre=Literary Dystopian Fiction|summary=The front cover of the book With a world that I received is becoming increasingly inhospitable for review is subtle (as befitting the sensitive contents) and I humanity, post-apocalyptic fiction can see the two twin towers (as was) depicted in grey in the title word submissionbecome an almost masochistic thrill. The back cover announces that Whether it is a robotic takeover, a world devoid of water or a nuclear holocaust, this novel will be genre is a way for humans to cathartically experience their most existential fears. ''Published in time for the 10th anniversary of 9/11.Desert Creatures'' No pressure thenby Kay Chronister is a new work of post-apocalyptic fiction that aligns many of the fears that exist for humanity today. I open the book with It is a certain amount of trepidation, I have to admit and feel slightly as if I'm about shocking novel that still manages to tread on (literary) eggshellsfind hope. Heavens - what if I don't like the book?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0434019321</amazonuk>1803364998
}}
{{newreviewfrontpage|isbn=1803363002|author=Bernard BeckettEric LaRocca|title=AugustThe Trees Grew Because I Bled There|rating=45|genre=TeensHorror|summary=In an alternate worldHorror 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'', Tristan and Grace come from The Citywhether that is a home invader, a closed monster or a ghost, it usually something tangible and enclosed society in which religion dominates, by the end of the story, beatable. Tristan had been an acolyte at St AugustineEric LaRocca's''The Trees Grew Because I Bled There'' is not like that. He spent It is a childhood being drilled collection of short stories more interested in philosophical discussion the horrors of free will by the Rector. A star pupilillness, a single event made him question everything he had been taughtgrief and humiliation. Grace had spent the first part of her childhood in the convent, but a single act of kindness led Horrors that linger and are harder to her excommunicationdefeat than any ''Big Bad''. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857387898</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Daisy WaughMadelaine Lucas|title=Last Dance with ValentinoThirst for Salt
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=When I read on the front cover that this book is described by the Sunday Times as ''A grippingLove, bittersweet love storyI'' it wasn't a particularly good statement for me to d read. As a rule I don't generally 'do' love stories. If I happen , was supposed to read one every once in be a while then that's fine by me light and weightless feeling, but I donhad always longed for gravity''t encourage them! But, both the lovely title and the front cover did their job and pulled me in - just a little.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000739120X</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Steven AmsterdamMichael Grothaus|title=Things We Didn't See ComingBeautiful Shining People
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=This book has gained praise from the likes of the Washington Post ''But fearing something and the Financial times so I was really looking forward to a good - even great read. But did I get having it? I think that opening on the eve of the millennium (the most recent one) is pretty special in itself and should be a good 'hook' come to draw the reader in. The narrator, young, male (not named as yet) and his family pass are packing the family car for the journey aheadtwo different things. The poor car is full to bursting. Dad is a sceptic and he's taking no chances with this millennium situation and heAnd I's instructed his family m willing to pack more than the usual festive presents this time. They've (well, dad has) made the decision to get as far away from London as they can - just in case. Just in case bet most of what exactly is we fear will never mentionedhappen, only implied. So or we can take steps to change it's New Year celebrations with the grandparents.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009954704X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Alexander Maksik|title=You Deserve Nothing|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Does the world need another 'inspirational teacher lets down students' story? It's debatable, but this one is really rather good.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848545703</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=S J WatsonJennifer Saint|title=Before I Go To SleepAtalanta
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Rather ironically, 'Before 'I Go To Sleep' is not a book that you will forget in a hurry. Imagine, if you will, waking up every morning with no memory was as worthy as any one of who you are, where you are, or who the person lying next to you in bed isthem. You can remember things during the day, but once you go to sleep, your mind is effectively wiped clean. This is the slightly unusual form of amnesia I would get on board that the narratorship, Christine suffers from in Watson's first novel that is a daring and gripping literary thrillerI vowed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857520172</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Amos Oz|title=My Michael|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=The Introduction to this book has a lovely sub-heading - 'Forty Years Later' where Oz admits freely that now, today, he wouldn't attempt or ... 'dare write an entire novel in a female voice.' But I found his open telling of why and how he came to write the book in the first would take my place interesting and rather enchanting and whetted my appetite to get on and read the book. For example, Oz wrote most of the book not just in the cramped confines name of a toilet, would you believethe goddess. But It was for me what caught the sake of my attention was the fact that he tells his readers that Hannah, the central charactername, was in his head and determined to he heardtoo. Atalanta'Just shut up and write' she tells him. A Translator's Note follows before we get to the story proper.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009952905X</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Louis B JonesAmanthi Harris|title=RadianceBeautiful Place|rating=45
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Mark Perdue took his daughterPadma, Carlotta – or Lottaa young Sri Lankan, as she's known – has returned to the Villa Hibiscus on an indulgent fantasy weekend in Los Angelesthe southern coast of her home country. Lotta and some other teenagers were going to live the celebrity lifestyle for This is a few days, with gigs, recordings and stretch limos to ferry them aroundplace she spent her formative years. Mark's got problems of his own. He ''It is not a place she was'' an eminent physicist born into, but illness has taken its toll. His wife is still suffering the emotional effects one she thinks of a late-term abortion – as home. How she came to be at the family called the foetus 'Noddy' – and Lotta can't reconcile Villa, how she feels about the loss of it became her unborn siblinghome, even going as far as to say and the machinations that she would have given up the next ten years of flowed through her life ever since she first arrived there provide the ''score'' for this gentle and yet subtly violent novel. Padma's present fails to look after escape her past and much like the child. And Mark? Wellmusical score of a film, on the tarmac at LAX it dawns on him that a heart attack would be a convenient strand weaves its way out of through everythingthat happens at the Villa.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>158243736X</amazonuk>1784631930
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alice LaPlante178563335X|title=Turn of Mind|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=This is a beautifully-presented book with its eye-catching front cover and poetic title. Jennifer has had a busy and fulfilling professional life as a well-respected medical surgeon. Until now. She's gradually losing bits of her mind to Alzheimer's. Her family is supportive and keep popping in on a regular basis plus there's now a live-in carer, Magdalena, so that daily life and daily chores are just about covered.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846554632</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSea Defences|author=Jose Saramago and Margaret Jull Costa|title=The Elephant's JourneyHilary Taylor|rating=3.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=This novel is inspired by When we first meet Rachel Bird she's a trainee vicar, sitting in on a real event – the marriage gift of an elephant from Dom João III of Portugal PCC meeting and wondering why they're held when you need to his cousin Maximilian, pick the Hapsburg Archduke of Austriachildren up. When the gift was acceptedHer husband, the elephant SolomonChristopher, his mahout Subhro collects six-year-old Hannah and numerous soldiersher elder brother, oxen and portersJamie, walked from Lisbon to Vienna to deliver the present, arriving whilst Rachel holds a sobbing parishioner. Thelma's daughter-in 1552-law won't let her see her grandson. This Holthorpe, on the Norfolk coast, is a lovely place, but Rachel is struggling to develop a real bond with the story parish - and she's in awe of the vicar, Gail, but then she's been doing the job for more than thirty years. Rachel and Christopher hoped that journeya walk on the beach would do them some good - it was stormy but it was probably what they needed. And then Hannah went missing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099546884</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ross Raisin1398515388|title=WaterlineThe Boy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=Raisin has an enviable portfolio for one so youngFirst of all, it was the earthquake, having been named ''Sunday Times Young Writer Of The Year 2009'' deep in the ocean floor, which created the tsunami and his [[God's Own Country by Ross Raisin|previous novel]] receiving fulsome praise. No pressure then with this book, in turn, caused the nuclear meltdown. The story opens with all members of the Little family paying their respects to Cathyresult was complete and utter devastation. Some have travelled further than others as they all squeeze into Mick's modest houseThe deaths were uncountable, somewhere in Glasgowand the loss of livelihoods was widespread. A lessThe fact that many pets were separated from their owners came far down the list of priorities but -thansix months after the tsunami -posh partKazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. Mick is obviously numb with He wasn't a dog person but the shock of it all (even although his wife's death was not sudden - she had been ill for some time). Itconvenience store owner's clear comment that some of he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to open his car door and Tamon the family, distant members, feel uncomfortable and don't quite know how to actdog jumped in.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670917354</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jamil Ahmad0989715337|title=The Wandering FalconPapa on the Moon|author=Marco North
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary="In ''Some frogs had gotten into the tangle of crumbling, weather-beaten and broken hills, where the borders of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan meet, is a military outpost…" Thus begins the tale of Tor Baz, the Black Falcon. To this desolate place come two wanderers, a man and a woman seeking refugewell. ''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anna GavaldaDaisy Hildyard|title=Breaking AwayEmergency
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Garance is on her way The summary of this book doesn't come close to a family wedding. In the car with her brother and his wife she thinks about all her siblings, explaining what's happened in their lives and who they have all become. Throughout the journey she finds herself bickering constantly is done with her sister-in-law who always rubs her up the wrong way, and for the first time Garance senses some tension from her brother too who is usually calm and collected at all times. Is everything okay in his life or is his wife finally beginning to wear his patience thin? They take a detour en route to pick up another sibling, much to Carine's annoyance, and then on reaching the wedding there's a surprise in store for all of them as the four siblings find themselves on an unplanned escape, together once again, rediscovering their youthful selves in a fun, brief break from their real livespremise. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906040400</amazonuk>1913097811}}
{{newreviewFrontpage |author=Haley TannerSally Oliver |title=Vaclav The Weight of Loss |rating=4 |genre=Literary Fiction |summary= Marianne is grieving. Traumatised after the death of her sister, she awakes to find strange, thick black hairs sprouting from the bones of her spine which steadily increase in size and volume. Her GP, diagnosing the odd phenomenon as a physical reaction to her grief, recommends she go to stay at Nede, an experimental new treatment centre in Wales. Yet something strange is happening to Marianne and Lenathe other patients at Nede: a metamorphosis of a kind. As Marianne's memories threaten to overwhelm her, Nede offers her release from this cycle of memory and pain—but only at a terrible price: that of identity itself.|isbn= 086154112X }} {{Frontpage|author=Natalia Garcia Freire|title=This World Does Not Belong To Us
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Vaclav and Lena are both children of Russian immigrantsEarly comments on this debut novel from Ecuadorian writer Natalia García Freire include Tremendous, growing up in Brooklyna delight. Vaclav dreams of becoming a fantastic magician, I will agree with his friend Lena as his assistant, and as children they practise their routine together, making lists of the things they'll need, the costumes they will wear and the tricks they will perform. Vaclav first – tremendous is confident and happy, no understatement – but Lena 'a delight' is quiet, withdrawn and struggles perhaps using the expression in a way I'm not familiar with speaking English. Yet Vaclav believes, always, that they are destined I have to be togetherconfess my ignorance of the Spanish-language literary tradition so forgive my generalisation here. Even when Lena disappears one day and is gone from his life for many years still he hopes thatFrom the little I have read (in translation, somehow, he will find her againI don't read Spanish) there does seem to be a tendency towards the fantastical – the mystical realism.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0434020443</amazonuk>0861541901
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Neil JordanJennifer Saint|title=MistakenElektra
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=The front cover photograph and the blurb on 'Elektra' by Jennifer Saint tells the back cover give this book a misty, floaty, ethereal feel. The story starts at of three women who live in the end, if you get my driftheavily male dominated world of Ancient Greece. The adult Kevin attends a local funeral but he's careful to remain low-keyCassandra, hidden almost. Why is that? And whose funeral is it anyway? As early as page 6Clytemnestra, Jordan's poetic and atmospheric style is apparent Elektra are all bit players in lines such as ' the story of the Trojan War... close to Yet Jennifer Saint shows us that often the line of yew trees, were silent women have the massed umbrellas of most compelling stories and the mourners, retreating, like so many mushrooms come alive in a fairy-tale forestmost extreme furies.'|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848544197</amazonuk>1472273915
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Helen Humphreys8409290103|title=The Reinvention of LoveIf Only|author=Matthew Tree|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary='The Reinvention of Love' is Twenty-one of those stories that is so bizarre and strange that it could only be based on factual events. Essentially it is a good-year-old Malcolm Lowry had been sent abroad by his father, oldcotton-fashioned love triangle set mostly in Paris in broker AO Lowry: he asked his accountant, Mr Patrick, to ensure that the period from young man got on board the 1830s boat and thereafter Patrick was to the 1860s; send him a world where fighting duels is a commonplace eventmonthly allowance. The triangle features Patrick sent the great French literary writer Victor Hugo, his wife Adèle money regularly and the altogether strange critic Charles Sainta correspondence -Beuve who narrates much of this story, with brief breaks for Adèle's side of events and some letters written by sorts - sprang up between the Hugotwo although we hear more about what Lowry has to say than Patrick. It wasn's youngest daughter, also called Adèle (but lett that Lowry senior didn's call hert care for his son, as she it was known that he didn't care to her family, Dédé have him in this country where he might be a danger to his wife and other children. The alcohol problem was obvious even before Patrick managed to avoid confusion)get the young man on his way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687985</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Wesley StaceAntoine Laurain, Le Sonneur and Jane Aitken (translator)|title=Charles Jessold, Considered as a MurdererRed is My Heart
|rating=3.5
|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction |summary="Nothing [[:Category:Antoine Laurain|Antoine Laurain]] books have always been black and white and read in recent fiction prepared me for the power and the polish of my house. And so was this one, although I could have spelled that more accurately – this subtle tale of English music in the makingone was, a chiller wrapped in an enigma [New Statesman]" "His handling of dry comic dialogue and cynical affectation is reminiscent of P G Wodehouse… , black and white and red. Yes, he has an intelligentartistic collaborator on this piece, fun and thoughtful piece of fiction [Independent on Sunday]" Just two of I think it's possible to say not one page lacks the previous reviews that adorn the back cover influence of 'Charles Jessold…'some striking visual ideas.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099546574</amazonuk>1913547183
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Roy Jacobsen, Don Bartlett (translator) and Don Shaw (translator)B098FFFBH9|title=Child WonderSnowcub|author=Graham Fulbright|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=1961 was Fourteen-year-old Rachel is her school's animal rights project leader and she and her friend are producing a competition entry to highlight the way in which human beings exploit the animal world. She gets a year great deal of changesupport from her family: father Pip Harrison, a timelecturer at Imperial College, as Jacobsen puts itLondon, ''when men became boys mother Kate and housewives women''her twin, Nick. At Kate runs the outset Finn and his mother are leading family business, a quiet, rather timorous life toy shop called Cornucopia in a working class Oslo suburb. Then change overwhelms them, not through world eventsPutney, but in the form of a mysterious child who which is Finnwhere we's half sister. Linda is not like other children and Finnll meet Rachel's attempt to deal with her impact on his family is the central thread in this quintessential story main (if unsuspected) source of growing upinformation: five soft toys.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857050184</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Salman RushdieYancey Williams|title=Luka and Crosshairs of the Fire of LifeDevil|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Back in 1990, Salman Rushdie followed up his controversial 'Satanic Verses' with a book dedicated to his then nine year old son, Zafar, called 'Haroun and the Sea of Stories'. Now, his second son, Milan, finally gets a book of his own, although he had to wait until he was 13 for his father to get around to it. 'Luka and the Fire of Life' is very much a follow up to 'Haroun' and it is certainly helpful, although not necessary, if you have read that book as many of the events in the first book are referred to here.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555328</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Manuel de Lope and John Cullen (Translator)|title=The Wrong Blood|rating=45
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Although de Lope has written over a dozen novelsAward-winning crime writer Eddie Jablonski is getting on in years and, despite his strenuous objections and thanks to his daughter, finds himself living - or imprisoned, this is from Eddie's point of view - in room 315 of the first to be translated into English. The cover is as pretty as Garden of Eden nursing home, with only a picture and screams 'Spanish.' So fartrusty nursing aide, Jenkins, so goodfor palatable company. But I have Nothing is going to admit that on the whole most keep Eddie from his stock-in-trade of the European novels I've read over the last year or writing though, sohere, have fallen short of the mark for mehis readers, are his wanderings through his life's work. Will this one prove to be different?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099551853</amazonuk>0986031658}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Aravind Adiga0008421714|title=Last Man In TowerMrs March|author=Virginia Feito
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Following a Man Booker winning book like [[The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga|The White Tiger]] is always going problem began just after the publication of George March's most successful novel to date. Everyone but Mrs March (we know her first name only on the last page) seemed to either be a daunting challenge for any writerreading it or had already done so. Every day Mrs March went to the local patisserie to buy olive bread but on that particular morning, Patricia asked, let alone one when that book as she was wrapping the bread, ''but isn't this the authorfirst time he's first novel. In based a character on you?'Last Man in Tower' Adiga perhaps sensibly turns to a proven structure She mentioned that allows his story-telling skills to flourish. Gone are clever structural ideasJohanna, like the principal character had 'The White Tigerher mannerisms's' letter format and instead we get a straightforward engaging story set in modern day Mumbai where a rich builder . Perhaps this would not have mattered, except for the fact that Johanna is seeking to force residents the whore of an old apartment block to sell their flats to enable redevelopmentNantes - ''a weak, plain, detestable, pathetic, unloved, unloveable wretch.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848875169</amazonuk>''
}}
