[[Category:Literary Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Literary Fiction]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->
{{newreview
|author= Michael Hughes
|title= The Countenance Divine
|rating= 4.5
|genre= Literary Fiction
|summary=In 1999, a programmer is trying to fix the millennium bug, but can't shake the sense he's been chosen for something.
In 1888, five women are brutally murdered in the East End by a troubled young man in thrall to a mysterious master.
In 1777, an apprentice engraver called William Blake has a defining spiritual experience; thirteen years later this vision returns.
And in 1666, poet and revolutionary John Milton completes the epic for which he will be remembered centuries later.
But where does the feeling come from that the world is about to end?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473636507</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Emily Bitto
|summary= Aggie is one of Texas' downtrodden. Dirt poor and abused. ''a 'sub' from a 'sub' family'' … ''Her father and brother enact that 'sub'-ness on her, week in, week out.'' ''She has only the vaguest notion that there is something wrong with the abuse she endures..''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178507959X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tarjei Vesaas, Torbjorn Stoverud and Michael Barnes (translators)
|title=The Birds
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0914671200</amazonuk>
}}