Newest General Fiction Reviews

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These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly

Crime (Historical)

Jennifer Donnelly wrote one of my all-time favourite books, A Gathering Light, so I was very excited to read her latest novel and see how it compared. Like A Gathering Light, These Shallow Graves is a historical novel with a murder mystery at its heart and a feisty heroine who challenges the standards of the day. Full review...

No, Thanks! I'm Quite Happy Standing!: Marie Sharp 4 by Virginia Ironside

General Fiction

Retired art teacher Marie Sharp is wondering whether it's time to move house to be nearer her son Jack and grandson Gene. The wondering doesn't take up all her time though. For a start there's the new, new-age lodger Robin and, talking about men, Marie is getting on really well with her ex-husband David. This single life in which they dib into each other's worlds on a regular basis seems the perfect way forward. However not all is rosy: friend Penny's drinking too much plus a holiday in India has unexpected conclusion. Oh and there's the burglaries too. Who says that retirement is relaxing and uneventful? Full review...

Lingua Franca by William Thacker

General Fiction

Clichéd as it may sound, language finds itself at the very core of human existence and experience. On the one hand, it defines individual cognition and thoughts and serves as a way of communicating these thoughts to others; on the other, it defines the social sphere, giving social values to things, reflecting history, and constructing a common identity. It is also what William Thacker's second novel, Lingua Franca, revolves around. Full review...

Invincible Summer by Alice Adams

Literary Fiction

As Alice Adams's debut novel opens in the summer of 1995, four university friends are lounging on Bristol's Brandon Hill, drinking and contemplating what the future holds. There's Eva Andrews, raised in Sussex by a single father; siblings Sylvie and Lucien Marchant, neglected by their alcoholic mother; and Benedict Waverley, a rich kid whose parents have a holiday home on Corfu. Eva has a crush on Lucien, while Benedict is besotted with Eva. Full review...

The House at the Edge of Night by Catherine Banner

General Fiction

The House at the Edge of Night is an epic family saga, spanning some 95 years and several generations. The story begins when Amedeo Esposito arrives at the isolated Sicilian island of Castellamare to serve as the first doctor in the island's history. He is immediately captivated by this strange little community; a heady mix of tradition, superstition and ritual. An island so small is naturally a hotbed of gossip, with 'overheard' confessions being dutifully relayed across the five-mile island within minutes of being heard. The benevolent Saint Agata watches over her people and bestows the odd miracle upon the fortunate. This is the place that Amedeo chooses to make his home and together with his resourceful wife Pina, they slowly restore the 'cursed' House at the Edge of Night to its former glory as a bar and meeting place for the locals. Full review...

Make Something Up by Chuck Palahniuk

Short Stories

What are we to make of that subtitle-seeming writing on the front cover – stories you can't unread? Does that not apply to all good fiction? Clearly it is here due to the reputation of the author, and the baggage his name brings to the page. We'd expect a dramatic approach from anything Palahniuk writes, and an added frisson, an extra layer, from which we might be forced to shrink back. But a lot of the contents don't quite go that far. Yes, things are dramatic, when society starts attaching defibrillators to itself, to create the perfect, simple, care- (The Price is Right-, and Kardashian-) free happiness. A man buys a horse for his daughter – but boy is it the wrong horse to buy. A man falls in love – yes, sometimes the plot summaries of these stories really are better off for being short (speaking of which, don't turn to the three-page entrant here as a taster, it'll put you off by dint of being, almost uniquely here, a nothing story). A call centre worker can't convince people he's on the level and even in their country – until someone starts riffing back to him. A housing estate report conveys bad regulation violations, but not as bad as the happenings at a 'Burning Man'-styled festival, in a very clever couple of tales. But many too are the instances where that extra step has been taken. Full review...

Griffin and Sabine 25th Anniversary Edition: An Extraordinary Correspondence by Nick Bantock

General Fiction

Oh Griffin and Sabine, where have you been all my life? I've loved epistolary novels and ones that take the narrative two-and-fro of letters and bring us closer to the sender than any omniscient narrator can hope to do. I've still got the childlike love of picking at an envelope stuck in a book to pull out a sheet of something else – not only is there the wonder at the handmade construction of something so bluntly and undeservedly called 'a book', but there is the frisson of being the first person to see this artefact ever. So how have I never seen this book before, and its cycle of sequels, concerning the correspondence between two completely different people? Full review...

The Girls by Lisa Jewell

General Fiction

When Clare takes her two tween daughters Pip and Grace to live in leafy Virginia Terrace, she is hoping for anonymity, a blank slate and a fresh start. Not so long ago, her story was in all of the newspapers when her paranoid-schizophrenic husband burned down the family home. Her new house seems a world away from her previous life. The crescent has a communal garden at its heart, where friendly neighbours socialise and children can run free. But does this new freedom come with a price? Full review...

Cold Calling by Russell Mardell

General Fiction

Five years on, Ray still can't get over the loss of his girlfriend. Five years is a long, long time to pine and mourn but Ray just doesn't seem to be able to get off the treadmill of it all. The only meaningful relationships he has are with his therapist and best friend Danny. And it's not as though his job provides much in the way of escape - Ray works for an insurance company as a cold caller. This is how, one day, he comes to speak to Anya. Full review...

The Sunlight Pilgrims by Jenni Fagan

General Fiction

Dylan walks away from this family's small London indie cinema in 2020 to live on a Scottish caravan site. His new neighbours Constance and her transgender 12 year old Stella have troubles of their own, but the odd British winter isn't helping. As the country faces true Arctic temperatures life goes on… or at least it tries to. Full review...

The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas, Torbjorn Stoverud and Michael Barnes (translators)

General Fiction

We're somewhere in rural Scandinavia, on the shores of a large lake, but in a community relying on the farmland that is scattered in amongst the woods. Our chief concerns are brother and sister – Mattis and Hege. He, Mattis, is what the other villagers call 'simple' – sure, he knows a few things about life, and what makes a clever person and what makes a well-turned phrase, and how to talk to girls and when to not stare at them, but he is definitely not quite as the others would wish. Those others include his sister, who is seeing her life waste away in listening to his chatter, knitting jumpers to make ends meet, and regretting in her own small way what has got her to middle-age in this situation. But from this galling introduction, you should take away the bigger picture – even if there is no way out, the life in this countryside is brilliantly conveyed, full of sun as well as shade, of labour and of idleness, and wit and charm as much as hardship. I defy you to read this and think this corner of Scandinavia bleak. Full review...

The Girl With No Name by Diney Costeloe

General Fiction

Thirteen year old Lisa escapes from Nazi Germany on the Kindertransport and arrives in England in August 1939. She can't speak a word of English and her only belongings are crammed into a small suitcase. Among them is one precious photograph of the family she has left behind in Germany. Lonely and homesick, not knowing if she will ever see her family again, Lisa is adopted by a childless couple, and then bullied at school for being German. But worse is to come when the Blitz blows her new home apart, and she wakes up in hospital with no memory of who she is, or where she came from. The authorities give her a new name and despatch her to a children's home. With the war in full swing, what will become of Lisa now? Full review...

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick

General Fiction

On the first anniversary of his wife Miriam's death, Arthur Pepper feels he might finally be up to the task of clearing out her wardrobe. He hasn't got far when he stumbles across a gold charm bracelet he doesn't recognise. If he hadn't been feeling so out of sorts because of the anniversary he would never have rung the phone number he found engraved on the golden elephant. That would have been a shame, because then he would never have set out on his peculiar quest to find out who his wife used to be before she met him. From York to London, Paris and beyond, Arthur pursues Miriam's past and learns things about his wife, his children and himself that he never imagined. Full review...

Hitman Anders and the Meaning of It All by Jonas Jonasson and Rachel Willson-Broyles (translator)

General Fiction

There's feeling on edge, and there's feeling on edge. Per is a hotel receptionist partly because his father and grandfather didn't give him a better destiny, and partly because he was working there when it was a shoddy knocking joint. He's feeling on edge because someone has decided to live there, in room seven, and proudly announced that it's about the first place he's had as an adult to live in that isn't a prison – the man, Hitman Anders, has killed three people in separate fits of rage. And now Per is feeling even more on edge because Johanna, a woman in a dog-collar has turned up, tried to blag twenty kronor for a badly-worded prayer in Per's favour (even though she's been sacked as a priest and is in fact a rampant atheist), and has now colluded to jointly with Per become Hitman Anders' criminal hit-job agents. But could anything make a newly rich Per – and Johanna – feel more on edge, than Hitman Anders gaining a conscience…? Full review...

Roxy by Esther Gerritsen and Michele Hutchison (translator)

General Fiction

I liked the premise for this novel: a young wife (Roxy) is told at the beginning of the book that her much older husband has been killed in a car accident. To add to the shock of this, the revelation that he died in the arms of his (naked) lover in the car, on the hard shoulder, is a further blow to Roxy. I found this an interesting set-up for a story, and wondered how this was going to go. As the blurb on the back of the novel tells us, she is looking for revenge, I thought the book would be a development of the character of Roxy into a self-motivating, strong character. But this wasn't the case. Full review...

The Daughter's Secret by Eva Holland

General Fiction

Six years ago, Stephanie and Nate ran away together. She was 15, and he was her geography teacher. Awkward. We pick up the story with Ros, Steph's mother, as she learns that Nate is about to be released from prison, earlier than planned in just 11 days for now. The book takes place over those 11 days leading up to Mr Temperley's release as Ros struggles to break the news to her daughter. She's bound to be devastated by it…isn't she? Full review...

Inside of Me by Hazel McHaffie

General Fiction

It's never specifically said that India Grayson losing her father when she was eight was the cause of her anorexia when she was fifteen, but you see, losing is the best description of what happened. He was a strong swimmer, but even he might have got into difficulties and what other explanation was there for the pile of his clothes on the beach? Only India never quite believed that he was dead and his body had never been found. Had it been something about her that forced him away? Full review...

The One-in-a-Million Boy by Monica Wood

General Fiction

I do love it when I read a book that stays with me after I've finished reading. This was one of those books, rootling its way a little more into my heart each time I picked it up to read. It's the story, mostly of Miss Ona Vitkus, a one hundred and four year old lady who has a young boy scout come over to help her with jobs and how he ultimately ends up changing her life, and not at all in the way you might imagine since before we even begin the story the boy is dead. Full review...

I Am Radar by Reif Larsen

General Fiction

Racial tensions, identity, parental responsibility, a child's best interest, love, science, war – Reif Larsen's I Am Radar falls nothing short of having rich thematic content. Its cornucopia of thematic explorations is interwoven into a complex web of stories, taking the reader on a journey, both literal and figurative, from suburban New Jersey to an Arctic no man's land to Congo and the Bosnian warzone. Full review...

Ace of Spiders by Stefan Mohamed

General Fiction

Stanly is frustrated. Having set himself up as London's protector, he's finding that the everyday practicalities of superheroism are challenging at best, and downright tedious at worst. So it's almost a relief when an attempt is made on his life and Stanly finds himself rushing headlong into a twisted adventure, with enemies new and old coming out of the woodwork. However, even with his friends and his ever-increasing power behind him, he may have bitten off more than he can chew this time. The monsters are coming… and nothing will ever be the same! Full review...

The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild

General Fiction

It's set to be the sale of the century: Russian oligarchs, Arab sheikhs, rappers and heiresses are all lined up to bid for The Improbability of Love, a small Antoine Watteau oil painting depicting a courting couple overlooked by a clown. The painting was missing until six months ago, when Annie McDee bought it from a junk shop for £75 as a birthday present for an incompatible fellow she met through Internet dating. When he didn't show for dinner and the junk shop mysteriously burnt down so that she couldn't ask for a refund, the painting became hers. Thirty-year-old Annie had been in a rut: after a painful break-up from Desmond, with whom she ran a cheese shop and café in Devon, she moved to London and was working as a PA to randy Italian film director Carlo Spinetti. She also acquired an unwanted roommate: her alcoholic mother, Evie. Full review...

The Exclusives: No One Can Hurt You More Than a Friend by Rebecca Thornton

General Fiction

Josephine is a successful archaeologist on a dig in Amman when she gets the email she never expected: Freya wants to meet up with her. The reason isn’t such a surprise though. In 1996 Freya and Josephine were best friends at boarding school till the aftermath of a night out clubbing. Freya desperately wants to talk to Jo about the events that ripped their friendship apart, the events that Josephine has avoided speaking or thinking about in more than a decade. Full review...

Stork Mountain by Miroslav Penkov

General Fiction

A young man, his grandfather and a stork with a broken wing are the company of rebels at the heart of this lively tale set in Bulgaria's Strandja Mountains. The storks that return to the mountains each spring are migrants, like so many of the people that have passed through the region over the centuries. The young narrator is also in transit, born in Bulgaria, but raised and educated in America. The story opens with his return to Bulgaria in search of his grandfather who has broken off contact with his family in America. But the young man's motives are not as clear cut as first appears. Full review...

After Birth by Elisa Albert

Literary Fiction

This book is definitely not for anyone who has a rosy picture of new motherhood. In fact, I would probably avoid it if you are contemplating giving birth in the near future. For any woman who has ever struggled through the first few months of motherhood, however, or a partner of somebody who is going through it, it is an astounding and revelatory read. Never before have I read a more searing, honest and open discussion of the emotional upheaval a woman often goes through after giving birth. Full review...

Too Close to the Edge by Pascal Garnier and Emily Boyce (translator)

General Fiction

Meet Pascal Garnier. Normally, in starting a review that way, I'm on about the main character of the book, but it could be said the biggest character of any Pascal Garnier book is Pascal Garnier, not that that's a flaw. Over a half-dozen titles I've come to know the pattern of his output, and it's fair to say this example fits it very well. Again, not a fault. His thrillers have a small cast list of characters, trapped somehow in a small community, cut off by weather, season or remoteness. Here we are with Eliette, and just a handful of others, and watching her as she celebrates the return of spring to her remote home, an ex-silk farm in southern France. All characters have a darkness about them, including Eliette – she had wanted to retire to the place with her loving, long-term husband, but he died of cancer months before retirement. And the final piece of the Garnier pattern is that that darkness, the black surrounding the night stars to use one of the more memorable lines here, is that things – said situation, other people, life itself – cause people to do some equally black and stupid acts… Full review...

The Forgotten Summer by Carol Drinkwater

General Fiction

It is time for the annual grape harvest at Les Cigales, and Jane is preparing herself for a busy day, overseeing the work. At this moment in time, Jane's life seems as perfect as it gets: living in a stunning location with a husband who adores her and a job that allows her the freedom to travel. There is, however, a significant cloud hanging over Jane's perfect world: a vindictive mother in law who despises her and is determined to make her as miserable as possible. Clarrisse Cambon is a woman with an axe to grind and poor Jane is the unwilling recipient of her vitriol. Full review...