International fiction
The North Wind (The Four Winds, Book 1) by Alexandria Warwick
Wren of Edgewood lives in a world perpetually in winter. An orphan hardened by the inherent powerlessness of her situation and the struggles of being the sole provider for herself and her sister, she has always sought to protect her…
Antiquity by Hanna Johansson & Kira Josefsson (trans.)
Our narrator – lonely, introspective, of uncertain reliability – is on the Greek island of Ermoupolis, drawn there by her adoration for and desire to please an older woman, Helena. However, Helena’s younger daughter, Olga, provides at first a source…
The Coast Road by Alan Murrin
Izzy Keaveney is in an unhappy marriage; her friend Colette Crowley ruefully observes, ‘So what if your husband’s a bit of a bully, they all are in their own way.’ It’s 1994 in a small coastal town in County Donegal…
Long Island by Colm Tóibín
Colm Tóibín’s new novel, Long Island, reunites readers with Eilis Lacey, the heroine from his wildly successful novel Brooklyn, published in 2009. It is a favourite of mine and many Readings customers, too. I was excited not only…
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
Commander Graham Gore, inquisitive and stubborn explorer of the arctic, was supposed to die in 1847. Instead, a mysterious government ministry selects him, alongside a small handful of other individuals from different times throughout history, to be brought forward into…
Table for Two by Amor Towles
The television adaptation of Amor Towles charming bestseller, A Gentleman in Moscow, has just started streaming. I’m not sure how it will translate, for Towles’ writing exhibits a style and panache that sits so comfortably on the page. These…
Parasol Against the Axe by Helen Oyeyemi
To those reading this review, I first ask you to imagine a city in your mind. It can be any city in the world, maybe your favourite one, or the one you’ve most recently travelled to. Now I want you…
Caledonian Road by Andrew O’Hagan
I found Mayflies, Andrew O’Hagan’s last novel, such a cosy read about youth, music, and everlasting friendships. Here, in Caledonian Road, he tackles similar themes, but ‘cosiness’ is not an adjective to use for this story. Instead, I…
Whalefall by Daniel Kraus
‘Whale fall’ is the term used when the carcass of a deceased whale settles on the ocean floor at a depth greater than a kilometre. It’s there that the body is consumed by all manner of deep-sea scavengers, sometimes over…
The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes
Caoilinn Hughes is touted as a major new literary voice and from the very first page of reading The Alternatives it is apparent as to why. Her prose is exciting and original and while I don’t usually like to compare…
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