Our latest reviews
Adland: Searching for the Meaning of Life on a Branded Planet: James P. Othmer
James P. Othmer worked in advertising for twenty years, working his way from copywriter to creative director at agency giant Young & Rubicam, before leaving, burnt-out, to become a novelist. But he was soon drawn back to research this engrossing…
Impractical Jokes: Charlie Pickering
It was the summer of 1986 when, at what appeared to be a normal barbeque, Richard Opie pushed Ronald Pickering fully clothed into a swimming pool. What happened next would change their lives forever. Fasten your seatbelts and shove your…
The Invisible Bridge: Julie Orringer
The Invisible Bridge is Julie Orringer’s first novel – and it is brilliant. Her short-story collection, How to Breathe Underwater, was celebrated for being ‘fiercely beautiful’ (The New York Times). The Invisible Bridge is also beautifully written…
Anthropology of an American Girl: Hilary Thayer Hamann
Originally self-published, this ‘coming of age’ novel has been picked up by mainstream publishers and promises to become a cult classic.
Narrator Eveline Auerbach is in her final year of high school in East Hampton, New York in 1979. Eveline…
Equator: Wayne Ashton
Reading Equator is like immersing yourself in a performance of a butterfly dance while being mesmerised by history. The characters, Colonel David, Keep Left, Ellie-Isabela, the Mendozas and the Glass-Darlingtons, begin their traversing of time and place in 1947 Spain…
Errol, Fidel and the Cuban Rebel Girls: Boyd Anderson
It’s 1958. Hollywood star Errol Flynn is past his prime, living out life in Jamaica propped up by vodka, morphine and his underage companion, Beverley Aadland. A young Fidel Castro is on the verge of taking power in nearby Cuba…
This Is Shyness: Leanne Hall
Wildgirl is looking to forget, so when she meets Wolfboy she asks him to take her to a place where the sun never rises: Shyness. The suburb of Shyness isn’t a nice place to be after dark (not that you…
Treats: Sleigh Bells
Signed to M.I.A.’s N.E.E.T. Recordings – and careening musically down a similar vocal path, but via noise pop rowdiness instead – the Sleigh Bells are a band that startle on first listen, then quickly become addictive and entertaining. Treats is…
The Finger: Angus Trumble
Wide ranging, and subscribing to the school of ‘curiouser and curiouser’, Angus Trumble’s exploration of the finger is an enjoyable, entertaining book.
The finger is involved in many diverse and fascinating aspects of art, language and cultural practice throughout history…
The Mary Smokes Boys: Patrick Holland
I was once upbraided by a publisher (whose book I can’t have liked particularly much) for “caring about style”, a comment I’ve never really forgotten when it comes to the art of fiction. You go to a solicitor because they…
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