Samantha Cox
It Chooses You, by Miranda July
Reviewed on January 18, 2012
It Chooses You – which could act as a companion piece to Miranda July’s recently released second film, The Future – is about as filmic as a book can be. A collection of transcribed interviews and photographs, it’s as eclectic as a short story collection and as unobtrusive as a good documentary. The book details [...]
How It All Began, by Penelope Lively
Reviewed on December 19, 2011
Charlotte, a pensioner with an active mind but an ailing body, sits at her daughter’s house and watches time pass as she recovers from a broken hip. The mugging which has snatched away her independence kicks a host of other characters into new, exciting orbits, from budding romances to career opportunities. As they deal with [...]
Late for Tea at the Deer Palace, by Tamara Chalabi
Reviewed on September 18, 2011
Memoirs of exile tend to be a political as well as a personal project - an attempt to make sense of an individual’s life by untangling their country’s history. Tamara Chalabi’s sensitive and meticulously researched portrait of her Iraqi family is, accordingly, also a portrait of Iraq, a country changed beyond recognition by the changes that [...]
Skippy Dies, by Paul Murray
Reviewed on July 26, 2011
Paul Murray’s Skippy Dies is a rare combination of light and dark: a novel that makes the reader smile with affection and recognition while unpicking unpalatable truths. The novel focuses on a group of fourteen-year-old boarders at a Dublin school for boys, who are teetering on the precipice of adulthood. At its centre are roommates Daniel [...]
The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, by Lola Shoneyin
Reviewed on February 13, 2011
Since independence Nigeria has produced generation after generation of talented writers. Many – including contemporary authors, such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche – have written powerfully and eloquently about the country’s traumatic history and the poverty and corruption that still plague the country. Yet despite these problems, Nigeria remains one of the happiest countries in the [...]
Beer in the Snooker Club, by Waguih Ghali
Reviewed on January 21, 2011
This 1964 novel, recently re-released by Serpent’s Tail, sketches out the concerns of a generation of Egyptians torn between old and new political allegiances. The country’s confusion and contradictions following the 1952 coup d’état are neatly embodied in the novel’s narrator, Ram, who is a product of his time and class but, equally, a typical young [...]
Last Night in Twisted River, by John Irving
Reviewed on November 2, 2010
John Irving’s fans often keenly list the themes that characterise his novels. Bears, absent mothers, wrestling, the state of New Hampshire: these devices all point beyond a single book to the author’s wider body of work. This, coupled with the fact that writers often feature in his novels, means that his books are already very [...]
The Wonder, by Diana Evans
Reviewed on August 16, 2010
In Phillip Larkin’s poem, ‘High Windows’, the speaker looks in on a changing 1960s Britain and finds it impossible to describe the newly-found freedom he witnesses in words. Instead an image comes to mind that is bewildering rather than liberating in its vastness: Rather than words comes the thought of high windows: The sun-comprehending glass, [...]
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The Bookgeeks Interview
Simon Kernick
Simon Kernick is one of Britain’s most exciting new thriller writers. He arrived on the crime writing scene with his highly acclaimed debut novel The Business of Dying, the story of a corrupt cop moonlighting as a hitman. However, Simon’s big breakthrough came with his novel Relentless which was selected by Richard and Judy for [...]
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Latest Competition
Five copies of John le Carré’s Smiley vs Karla Trilogy to be won
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was one of the big film releases of 2011, and to celebrate its release on DVD we have five copies of John le Carré’s Smiley vs Karla Trilogy to be won – consisting of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People.
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