Familiar genres of fiction such as historical, adventure, romance, and crime are being supplemented by new categories. This is presumably because there is no escape from the marketing drive towards ‘product development’, nor an end to the ceaseless human desire for novelty. Recent examples have been ‘chick lit’ to satisfy young female interest, and ‘misery […]
The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin Read More »
Sometimes a modern fiction title emerges which generates more than the standard publisher hype. Some alchemy is at work in the application of critical appraisal upon popular taste and word-of-mouth recommendation. With the title’s reputation established, literary types suffer unease, if not shame, for having not read these acclaimed works. Examples are: Orlando (1928) by
The Wych Elm by Tana French Read More »
Jane Harper (http://janeharper.com.au/Books) has followed up the success of her first two novels The Dry (2017), and Force of Nature (2018) with this crime thriller published in February 2019. A summary of The Lost Man is as follows. Two brothers meet at the remote border of their vast cattle properties under the scorching sun of the Australian
The Lost Man by Jane Harper Read More »
Matt Haig (http://www.matthaig.com/) has a broad range of literary output across adult fiction and non fiction, children’s literature, young adult vampire novels, and a candid autobiographical account of fighting depression ‘Reasons to stay alive’. In 2017 Haig offered this uplifting tale ‘How to stop time’. Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret. He may look like
How to stop time by Matt Haig Read More »
Lee Child (http://www.leechild.com/) sells crime thriller novels on a shipping container scale. His legion of devoted readers mark their diaries with the expected date of character Jack Reacher’s next outing. This one will be November 2018. Library shelves are empty at the places where his fiction is stored, and reservation lists are long. There is
Past Tense by Lee Child Read More »
It’s March 2018. Migration is a hot topic as we enter into the final 12 month period before the UK leaves the European Union. Whichever way the UK succeeds or fails to control the number of migrants entering this country, global migration seems set to become a major phenomenon. It looks likely that millions of
John Boyne (http://johnboyne.com/) was born in Dublin, where he still lives. His first short story was published by the Sunday Tribune and in 1993 was shortlisted for a Hennessy Literary Award. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of East Anglia. He has chaired the jury for the
The Heart’s Invisible Furies Read More »
Joan Silber (http://joansilber.net/?page_id=18) is an American novelist and short story writer. She is the author of Household Words (Penguin Books, 1981), which won a PEN/Hemingway Award, and Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories (W.W. Norton, 2004), which was a finalist for both the 2004 National Book Award and the Story Prize. She has received grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National
A young woman named Amanda lies dying in a rural hospital. A boy named David sits beside her. She is not his mother. He’s not her child. Together, they tell a haunting story of broken souls, toxins, and the power and desperation of family. Fever Dream is a nightmare come to life, a ghost story
