Published by Viking / Penguin, 2016, 288 pages. When we first meet him, Leon is 8 years old, going on 9. He is in the hospital with his mother Carol, holding his baby brother, Jake, for the first time. This first scene sets up the way things are going to be: Leon holding his new …
Not So Stories: edited by David Thomas Moore
Published by Abaddon, 2018, 368 pages. When I was a child, I loved Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories, tales of how animals became what they are: how the leopard got its spots, the camel its hump and the rhinoceros its skin. But it’s a book that doesn’t age well. Kipling, after all, was part of …
Continue reading Not So Stories: edited by David Thomas Moore
The Sellout: Paul Beatty
Published by OneWorld Publications, 2016, 304 pages. “This may be hard to believe, coming from a black man, but I’ve never stolen anything. Never cheated on my taxes or at cards. … I’ve never burgled a house. Held up a liquor store. … But here I am, in the cavernous chambers of the Supreme Court …
Revisiting old favourites
A few years ago, a friend challenged me to post a photograph of my 10 favourite books on this blog. The list took a while to put together, and I finally came up with 15. I’m an inveterate list maker, so I tend to keep running lists in my head of my 10 (or 15 …
Ghost Stories: E.F. Benson (selected and introduced by Mark Gatiss)
Published by Penguin / Vintage, 1931, 362 pages. This collection comes with an introduction by Mark Gatiss, best known for playing Mycroft in the TV series, Sherlock. I discovered that Gatiss and I share a love of Victorian ghost stories: he made a documentary on the life of the greatest of them, M.R. James, a …
Continue reading Ghost Stories: E.F. Benson (selected and introduced by Mark Gatiss)
To the Back of Beyond: Peter Stamm
Translated from German by Michael HofmannPublished by Granta, 2017, 140 pages. Original version published in 2016. What happens when a man walks out of his seemingly perfect life? Thomas and Astrid live in a village in northern Switzerland. Thomas has a steady job, they have two children, a nice house and a marriage that seems …
Behold the Dreamers: Imbolo Mbue
Published by Penguin / HarperCollins / Fourth Estate, 2017, 400 pages. How many people have travelled to the United States over the centuries, hoping to live the American dream? It is the Holy Grail for so many, and often as unattainable as the pot of gold at the rainbow’s end. Jende Jonga and his wife …
Harilal & Sons: Sujit Saraf
Published by Speaking Tiger, 2017, 528 pages. Beginning in 1899 when India was still under British rule, this sprawling narrative takes us through the country’s independence and partition in 1947 and ends in 1972, following the creation of Bangladesh. At the centre of the story is Harilal, a Marwari[1] merchant. When the story opens, Harilal …
Into the Water: Paula Hawkins
Published by Doubleday / Black Swan, 2017, 448 pages. “There are people who are drawn to water, who retain some vestigial, primal sense of where it flows. I believe I am one of them. I am most alive when I am near the water, when I am near this water.” Nel Abbott was fascinated by …
Shadowless: Hasan Ali Toptas
Translated from Turkish by Maureen Freely and John AnglissPublished by Bloomsbury, 2017, 320 pages. Original version published in 1995. I am honestly not sure what to make of this strange, hallucinatory book. Reading it is like wandering into a dream where not everything makes sense. In spite of its title, it is full of shadows …
Talking About Books 