|summary=A young, anonymous, vagrant collapses on the steps of a hospital in Romania. He doesn't speak and remains a mystery to the staff that tries to treat his obvious symptoms but can't seem to reach the silent person beneath. However, Safta, a nurse, suggests that he may be deaf and produces drawing materials. Coincidentally, the man is able to draw beautifully, but this is no coincidence to Safta. There are reasons why she can't disclose it, but she knows this man. They grew up together in pre-war Romania, a whole world away when the country had a king, beautiful cities untouched by bombing and being able to read a foreign language wasn't punishable by imprisonment in work camps... or worse.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408821125</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Elanor Dymott
|title=Every Contact Leaves a Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=We learn from the prologue that the narrator, Oxford educated lawyer, Alex's wife has been murdered. We also know that Alex knew little of his wife, Rachel's past, particularly of the time that they spent together at Worcester College. This is critical in understanding who may have killed her, and why. What follows is Alex learning about this hidden past. ''Every Contact Leaves a Trace'' is partly a thriller and partly a whodunnit although the structure adopted by Elanor Dymott is somewhat unusual.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224094033</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Andrew Motion
|title=Silver: Return to Treasure Island
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Even if you have not read Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 classic ''Treasure Island'', or you have read it a long time ago, the chances are that you will be broadly familiar with the story and in particular some of the rich characters he created because they have entered into the culture of our image of pirates. Before Johnny Depp convinced us that pirates looked like Keith Richards, it was the terrifying image of Long John Silver and his parrot, squawking 'pieces of eight', double dealing his way to buried treasure and the innocence of young narrator Jim Hawkins that conjures up what we think of in terms of pirate adventure. But Stevenson left some tantalizing threads to his tale, not least the fact that Silver made off with only the majority of the treasure and left the remaining silver behind together with three marooned pirates to fend for themselves. Setting the story 40 years after these events, Andrew Motion picks up the tale and has the offspring of Hawkins, in the form of his son also called Jim and Long John Silver's daughter Natty returning to collect the remaining bounty. Of course, it's never going to be that simple.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224091190</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sadie Jones
|title=The Uninvited Guests
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=On a spring evening in 1912 preparations were being made for a supper party to celebrate the twentieth birthday of Emerald Torrington. It was taking place at Sterne, the much-loved home of the family, although finances were uncertain and no one was quite sure how much longer they would be able to stay in the house. Emerald's mother had hopes that she would be able to marry Emerald off to John Buchanan, a local entrepreneur, but Emerald was far from convinced. Her step-father was in Manchester trying to raise the funds to keep the house going but Emerald and her brother Clovis, Patience Sutton and her brother Ernest along with Buchanan and the household staff prepared for what they hoped would be a delightful evening.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701186712</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Etgar Keret
|title=Suddenly, a Knock on the Door
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=In the opening, titular story, Keret is forced by several people to create, and alter, a short short story. It's a plain metaphor for the history of Israel, but it proves that this modern Scheherazade is not too far removed geographically from the original. And what follows are probably the sort of short, tantalising, open-ended, rough-round-the-edges and surreal results of being compelled to carry on telling tall tales on a nightly basis.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701186674</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Rachel Joyce
|title=The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Harold and Maureen Fry were unremarkable: one long marriage, one adult offspring and a long retirement stretching out in front of them like a prison sentence. One morning everything changed. The catalyst was a letter from Queenie, an ex-colleague of Harold's. He knew he needed to respond and thought that posting a letter would suffice. However, a chat with a girl at the local petrol station made him realise that a letter couldn't be enough. He had to provide Queenie with hope... he had to walk.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857520644</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John Lanchester
|title=Capital
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=With a gentle nod to the great commentator of London life of the past, John Lanchester sets his wonderfully entertaining state of the nation book around Pepys Road. With a huge cast of characters, he looks as a cross section of London life and while in some ways not quite perfect, it comes pretty darn close.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571234607</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Russell Banks
|title=Lost Memory of Skin
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Some readers may understandably be deterred from reading Russell Banks's ''Lost Memory of Skin'' due to its controversial subject matter and there's no doubt that it's a morally complex read. The main character, known only to us at 'the Kid' is a young man who is a convicted sex offender. Set in south Florida, he is forced to reside, with other offenders and his pet Iguana, under a causeway. While living here, he encounters a huge and enigmatic man, known only as 'the Professor' from the local university who is apparently studying homelessness amongst sex offenders and the two form an uneasy friendship.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685761</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Anne Tyler
|title=The Beginner's Goodbye
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Aaron's wife, Dorothy, was killed in an accident. An oak tree fell on their home, demolishing the sun porch where Dorothy happened to be at the time. He worried that if he had done things differently (a matter of some biscuits and a television set) Dorothy might not have been where she was and might still be alive and for a while he camped out in the wrecked house until further damage forced him to move in with his sister. It was then that he realised that Dorothy wasn't really dead - well, not dead as we understand it - as she materialised in odd places, wearing the clothes she used to wear and eventually staying with Aaron for longer periods of time. And gradually they began to bicker, just like a long-married couple...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701187190</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Christopher Burns
|title=A Division of the Light
|rating=3.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Gregory Pharoah is a professional photographer whose genre is sometimes photojournalism, but more commonly portraiture or nudes. Like his job, his nature is towards the superficial. One day, returning from photographing a bishop (for clarity, this is a portrait assignment and not a nude!) he is the only witness to a street robbery where Alice Fell is the victim. Alice is a fatalist who believes in some kind of divine plan that means there is a reason for everything. She's enigmatic, by nature and by design as this is a quality that she enjoys cultivating. Thus these two different characters become part of the same story and what happens in the following six months is ultimately surprising and even shocking.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857386352</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Chochana Boukhobza
|title=The Third Day
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Set in Jerusalem in the late 1980s, an elderly, Jewish, celebrated cellist Elisheva is visiting Israel with her protégé, Rachel, ostensibly to give a concert performance. It quickly becomes apparent that Elisheva survived the Nazi camps by playing her music for the feared camp commander, known as the Butcher of Majdanek, and while on the surface she survived this ordeal well, it is clear that she has a darker intent with her three day visit. Through an underground network of Nazi hunters, she has managed to lure the Butcher from his home in Venezuela to visit Israel. Will they meet and what will happen when they do?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857050966</amazonuk>
}}
