Reviewed by Elizabeth Hilliard Selka
The novels are autobiographical and thus offer us a riveting insider’s view of the confusion in Eastern Europe in the first year of the Second World War – and the insider, herself an outsider, is Harriet. Woven into the day-by-day unsettling upheavals of the politics and practicalities of war is the story of Harriet’s marriage, her growing understanding of the man she has so suddenly married and revelations about the unforseeable complexities of love [Read more...] in Reviews
Reviewed by Alison Burns
The great strength of this novel is Scarlett’s understanding of both the bleakness and the love in the world of these young people. Finn’s chapters show a child seeking to protect his family while also trying to grasp what is happening to his body. Joe’s show the courage, loyalty and rage of a young man who experiences directly the collateral damage of gang activity [Read more...] in Reviews
* A 2020 Notable Book
Reviewed by Rachel Hore
As a one-time journalist in Delhi, Deepa Anappara knows of what she writes, and her prose, richly punctuated by local idiom, is exceptionally vivid. She evokes the variety, individuality and vitality of the characters in Jai’s community with skill and humour, whilst underlining the appalling conditions in which they live. There’s little sanitation and they must join long queues for toilets or simply use the rubbish dump or the street [Read more...] in Reviews
* A 2020 Notable Book
Reviewed by Elizabeth Hilliard Selka
Doris Langley Moore found time to write six novels between 1932 and 1959, of which Not At Home was published in 1948 and is now reissued alongside her others by Dean Street Press with an introduction by Sir Roy Strong…The story introduces Elinor MacFarren, a botanical artist living alone in a large London house full of beautiful things who, to defray costs, takes a lodger. To summarize the plot briefly, this is a disaster [Read more...] in Reviews
Reviewed by N.J. Cooper
Hermione Lee gives detailed synopses of all Stoppard’s plays, even the least significant, setting each one in the context of his life and ideas, as well as other work being produced at the time, some of which inspired him or gave him ideas. She shows how hard he worked to create the opportunities that came his way. Anyone hoping for a career in the theatre (or as any kind of writer) would do well to read each page of this long life to understand what he or she is undertaking [Read more...] in Reviews
Reviewed by Alison Burns
In ‘Flowers in Water’, Sweeney makes a whole story out of a man’s devotion to making invisible films. When he watches these with his estranged daughter, you believe that they are seeing the same things. In ‘The Woman Whose Child Was A Very Old Man’, a revolutionary and perfectly effective solution to childcare is suggested. The married couple in ‘The Chair’ develop a routine that helps them to deal with their anger (Doris Lessing would have loved this one) [Read more...] in Reviews
