May Crime Round-Up

N. J. Cooper

The adolescent Mitch is beautifully drawn in all his angry, yearning uncertainty as he acquires his first girlfriend and challenges her immensely rich and all-powerful father. When the boy disappears, there are many possible causes and outcomes, and Grey both stretches the tension and keeps her story realistic until the denouement. This is a moving novel, as a well as a convincing one, and it shows with great clarity how past crimes and well-meaning manipulation damage families for years afterwards [Read more...] in Reviews

Changes at bookoxygen

Nothing stays the same and so it is at bookoxygen where, as readers may have noticed, the flow of new material has become a bit more irregular. While the appearance of reviews, articles and extracts will ebb and flow, the commitment of the site to literary fiction, women writers and small presses remains the same, as does its belief in informed opinion. Publishers who wish to explore opportunities should contact elsbeth@bookoxygen.com

Lost Luggage

Jordi Punti

Reviewed by Paul Sidey

There is no doubt that Punti has come up with a good storyline. Four young men, Christof, Christophe, Christopher and Christofol discover they are related. They all have different mothers in different countries, and the same mysterious father, Gabriel Delacruz, who has disappeared. He was, it appears, a truck driver, whose business took him from Frankfurt, Paris, London and Barcelona [Read more...] in Reviews

A Bright Moon for Fools

Jasper Gibson

Follow the northern coast of Venezuela east until you get to the Paria peninsula and there, on its very tip, is the Caribbean village I made my home: Macuro. When Columbus arrived there, the only place where he set foot on the mainland, he thought he had found the literal garden of Eden. I too was faced with a biblical vision: a dirty, bearded man who looked like he had been struck by lightning. I turned on the taps. It was time to shave, to clean up my act, and this village took me in. [Read more...] in Authors and Extracts

Sila’s Fortune

Fabrice Humbert

Reviewed by John Petherbridge

Fabrice Humbert writes with great authority. His detailed accounts of Lev Kravaschenko’s and Mark Ruffle’s acquisition of their fortunes in the very different circumstances of post-Soviet Union Russia and the Miami poor are both totally convincing. Similarly his account of Simon working for a London bank as a quantitative analyst (quant) during the boom years of the 90s and early twenty-first century rings true [Read more...] in Reviews

Meeting the English

Kate Clanchy

Reviewed by Caroline Sanderson

Clanchy’s novel, which examines what happens when Struan – who has never in his life ‘been south’ – meets the English. And not just any English, but the eccentric Prys ménage of NW3 which appears as exotic and incomprehensible to him as a chattering class of tropical birds. And yet, miraculously, the ingénue but caring orphan boy from Cuik turns out to be rather good at sorting out everyone, as well as pushing bathchairs [Read more...] in Reviews

Women's Prize 2013 shortlist

bookoxygen warmly congratulates A.M. Homes, Hilary Mantel, Barbara Kingsolver, Kate Atkinson, Maria Semple and Zadie Smith, the six writers on the shortlist for this year’s Women’s Prize (formerly Orange Prize) for Fiction. Reviews of and Q&As with four of these authors can be found on this site.