Reviewed by N.J. Cooper
One thing unites all the different sub-genres that make crime fiction so rich: the search for truth. Detectives, private investigators, psychologists, lawyers and unravellers of all kinds are concerned to strip away deliberate or casually misleading disguises to reveal the uncomfortable secrets of their own particular mystery and, in the best of the novels, offer some new insights into the common difficulties of our different lives [Read more...] in Reviews
It was a breezy day in March when I returned to London from two years of travel, my age 23, my prospects uncertain. I refreshed myself with coffee at the Roebuck before making my way to Fetter Lane, and the office of my godfather’s agent, Mr Ward. Conceivably, this gentleman might be about to determine the future course of my life in twenty words. I paused at the entrance to his premises to assume unconcern [Read more...] in Authors and extracts
Reviewed by Paul Sidey
In Watson-Grant’s vivaciously written novel, Skid’s mother has magic powers, and his older brother Frico possibly has the gift of being able to draw what he wants into being. But nothing can really change bad luck. However, the book exudes optimism and good faith, for all the betrayals and disasters that befall the family [Read more...] in Reviews
A.M. Homes wins 2013 Women's Prize for Fiction
Much of the fiction has been set in Westchester, in the bedroom communities and suburbs that hug New York City. This is Cheever country, Richard Yates country. Homes has cited the latter as an influence, also Grace Paley, who taught her for a while, as did Angela Carter. But in answer to a question about style and content, she cites John Steinbeck as a model: ‘I never want the fiction to be difficult to read, in and of itself. The ideas could be complicated but the object is to make something that anybody could read. [Read more...] in Authors and extracts
Bookfest? I think I would call it a freebie-fest. I’ve been to book fairs before, lots of them, in Frankfurt, London, Oslo and Berlin. I’m accustomed to them being rather oppressive trade shows heavily packed with meetings at which publishers talk to publishers or distributors or agents. But Book Expo in New York is something else [Read more...] in News and events
This is no bald polemic. It’s in fact a coming-of-age story of unusual impact, narrated boldly and convincingly from the point-of-view of a thirteen-year-old-boy living on a reservation in North Dakota, with a layer of adult retrospection on top. There are flavours of Spielberg, Dickens and Tom Sawyer to the tale of a group of small town boys, their jokes and entertainments. However for young Joe Coutts, the son of a judge, this will be a scarring story of lost innocence [Read more...] in Reviews
