==Literary fiction==
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{{newreview
|author=Andrey Kurkov and Andrew Bromfield
|title=The Good Angel of Death
|rating=3.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Kolya cannot possibly expect what the act of moving flat, and finding a book among what the old folks who move out leave behind, might lead to. I can hint that it involves a trip of several hundreds of miles, involves a couple of pieces of anatomy the average man does not fancy leaving behind, a chameleon, Kolya being given as a husband-cum-present to a lovely young lady, and a lot more. The find involves Ukraine's national author, Taras Shevchenko, and a hunt for something he might have left behind in a desert abutting the Caspian Sea.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099513498</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Geoff Dyer
|summary=The novel starts at the end. Therefore we know that one of the two principal characters, namely Goro, appears to have committed suicide. The question is why. And the whole novel is an attempt to provide that elusive answer. Goro was an extremely successful film director of international repute. He was based in his native Japan but travelled extensively with his work. And you have to ask yourself why would a man such as this decide to end his life?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843547341</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Miguel Syjuco
|title=Ilustrado
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=When the dead body of Filipino writer Crispin Salvador is found floating in the Hudson River, apparently having committed suicide, his student and fellow Filipino, Miguel is suspicious that darker forces may have been behind his death, particularly when there is no sign of Salvador's latest manuscript that threatens to dish the dirt on the sleaze and corruption of the rich and powerful in his native Philippines. In order to investigate further, Miguel decides to write a biography of his teacher and mentor. That's the premise of this book, but it tells you almost nothing about the experience of reading it. This is no straightforward narrative of a regular crime fiction. It's a kaleidoscope of sometimes apparently disjointed writing that gradually comes together to create a story that only starts to come into focus about half way through, but it's not until the final pages where the true picture is brilliantly revealed.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330510002</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ian Mackenzie
|title=City of Strangers
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Paul Metzger – mid thirties, with a failed marriage, a broken relationship with his brother (who converted to Judaism), and a dying father (who is an ex-Nazi). Straight away there are obvious flaws with his family dynamic. As his writing career fails to take off he's left to churn out thousands of words for articles that have no meaning to him, the dregs of the publishing world. His life isn't quite as high flying as he hoped. But then Paul gets offered a lucrative book deal; the one thing he has wanted for years. The only catch is he has to write about his father.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099531852</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Matthew Yorke
|title=Pictures of Lily
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=As soon as Georgia Myers turns eighteen, she is going to find her biological parents. And she has lots of questions for them too; like where else might she have lived if she had not been given up and does she have any brothers and sisters? Mostly, however, Georgia just wants to ask ''why?''. Why was she given up for adoption? Why her?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849014124</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Joseph O'Connor
|title=Ghost Light
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=An unknown voice introduces the reader to actress Molly. She doesn't know it but she will be dead fairly soon. It's almost as if she's talking to herself throughout the introduction pages. The language is Irish vernacular so there's lots of good old Irish put-downs, classic descriptions and call-a-spade-a-shovel language. This richness and unmistakable lilt gives the reader a sense of place. Albeit, old Molly is almost living by her wits (which are varied and considerable) in the poorer areas of London. Her conversations with the local people, whether it's the inn-keeper or the local bobby on the beat are absolutely wonderful. She is one fine actress. I could not keep the smile from my face when reading these conversational gems. For example, Molly is trying to have a polite conversation with the inn-keeper Mr Ballantine when they are rudely interrupted 'Men barrel in and out with their swearing and gruffness ... Why can they never sit easy, must they always emit noises, and must the noises be deafening vowels?' Brilliant. The sheer beauty in all of this is that Molly, in her own private thoughts, in her own head, is giving off the most foul language of the lot of them. These conversations are also bitter-sweet. O'Connor's descriptions - especially of people are superlative. He doesn't try too hard (which is a gift in itself) but gets his message over to the reader.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0436205718</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jane Bowles
|title=Two Serious Ladies
|rating=3.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=First published in 1943, this is the story of Christina Goering and Frieda Copperfield who are two strained and constrained women who want to break free, although it is not entirely clear what it is they want to break free from. Society? The conventions of heterosexuality? The boredom of their female lives? Anyway, Christina is a wealthy spinster who takes a companion, Miss Gamelon, into her home where they settle into a routine of being catty to each other. Soon Christina's male friend, Arnold, moves in with them too, and later when they all move to a falling-down house on an island they are joined there by Arnold's father who has walked out on his wife. Christina leaves the house, trying to improve herself in some manner perhaps, but becoming a sort of prostitute, falling into relationships as a 'kept woman'. Mrs Copperfield, meanwhile, takes a trip to Panama with her husband. The couple drift apart as Frieda finds herself attracted to the seedy underworld of prostitution, drinking in bars and brothels, falling for a prostitute named Pacifica and leaving her husband to move in with her.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956003850</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Joanna Kavenna
|title=The Birth of Love
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=The Birth of Love has four interwoven storylines about characters in different times, past, present and future. The common theme is birth.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>057124517X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tishani Doshi
|title=The Pleasure Seekers
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Essentially this is a love story between two people - Babo from Madras and Sian from small-town Wales. You could argue that two more disparate cultures would be hard to imagine. Factor in that the novel opens in the heady, free love days of the 1960s and a very entertaining story starts to unfold.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747590923</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Yasmina Khadra
|title=What the Day Owes the Night
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Nine year old Algerian Muslim Younes is devastated when his father's farm is destroyed and his family have to move to the slum of Jenane Jato. However, while the rest of his family struggle, this turns out to be something of a blessing in disguise for Younes,
who is rescued by his wealthy uncle, a pharmacist. Renamed Jonas, he moves to live with his uncle and aunt in the vibrant European district of Rio Salado. There, he meets new friends Jean-Christophe, Simon, and Fabrice. But what seems to be an unbreakable friendship is tested to its limits by the return to the area of the beautiful Emilie, and the boys' problems increase as Algeria fights for its independence from France. The book is narrated by Jonas at a much older age, looking
back at his life, although the epilogue brings us to the present day as he visits a grave.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434019933</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Barbara Trapido
|title=Sex and Stravinsky
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Josh and Caroline and their daughter Zoe live on an old red bus in Oxford, even though both have quite well paid jobs as an academic and headteacher. Caroline has spent her adult life deferring her plans for the future in order to support her widowed mother who lives in a house nearby. Josh’s job in the drama department of Bristol University does offer him some opportunities to escape abroad though, this time to a conference in his native South Africa.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408802325</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Samantha Hunt
|title=The Seas
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=''The Seas'' follows the story of a nameless nineteen-year old girl who is lonely and adrift in a cruel coastal town so far to the north of the USA that the roads only run south. She misses her father, an absent alcoholic sailor, while her silence-loving mother, who grew up on an isolated island with deaf parents, worries deeply about her. Early on in the story we get the distinct impression that our narrator is not deemed 'normal' by her peers, who call her all sorts of unflattering things. With nothing to do in her small town, and no one to do it with, she spends her time pining for a local alcoholic called Jude who is fifteen years her senior, and who refuses her amorous advances on the grounds that it would be wrong. As the story unfolds, Jude and the girl's relationship grows and changes, sometimes in unexpected ways.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849013934</amazonuk>
}}