Book Reviews
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Book ReviewsThe Last Tiger by Tony Black
The premise at least is intriguing: a family relocates from Lithuania to Tasmania in 1910. The father is a shepherd, but he’s adept at hunting Tasmania... Read more »| 02 Jun 2014 -
Book ReviewsThe Wherewithal by Philip Schultz
Henryk Wyrzykowski, 'Head Clerk of Closed Files' at a San Francisco welfare office, is translating his mother's diaries while evading the Vietnam War. An acc... Read more »| 07 May 2014 -
Book Reviews
The Quick by Laura Owen
Lauren Owen’s debut novel is an enjoyable and sometimes gripping read, set against the Gothic backdrop of Victorian England. The story begins at a... Read more »| 05 May 2014 -
Book Reviews
Caught by Lisa Moore
Lisa Moore turns the law on its head, inviting us to empathise with David Sanely, a criminal on the loose. Her novel Caught is an elaborate cat and mouse cha... Read more »| 05 May 2014 -
Book ReviewsLexicon by Max Barry
Great sci-fi has often traded on the genre’s potential for making abstract ideas real: Philip K Dick made the question of ‘what makes us human?&r... Read more »| 02 May 2014 -
Book ReviewsSally Heathcote: Suffragette by Mary M. Talbot, Kate Charlesworth and Bryan Talbot
The latest venture from Costa Award-winning scholar and graphic novelist duo Mary and Bryan Talbot, Sally Heathcote: Suffragette is a fast-paced romp through... Read more »| 01 May 2014
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Book Reviews
Who is Tom Ditto? by Danny Wallace
What did Danny Wallace’s Shortlist paymasters think of his swipe here at damagingly aspirational men’s mags?It’s one attempt of many to ske... Read more »| 01 May 2014 -
Book ReviewsLeaving the Sea by Ben Marcus
The human condition is too grand and vague, so Ben Marcus writes about the human disease instead. Many of the characters in these short stories are sick, or ... Read more »| 01 May 2014 -
Book Reviews
Five Came Back by Mark Harris
According to Mark Harris, Frank Capra once made Oscar nominees stand on the stage together before he announced the winner. The five film directors that ... Read more »| 29 Apr 2014 -
Book Reviews
Other People’s Countries: A Journey into Memory by Patrick McGuinness
Far removed from the current trend in celebrity biographies, Patrick McGuinness’ memoir is an unusual and striking foray into the past. The book is a collection of Proustian pieces, varying in length from a paragraph to a few pages Read more »| 02 Apr 2014 -
Book Reviews
Gutter 10
Scotland’s leading literary magazine has marked its fifth birthday with a new layout, another fine selection of new Scottish writing, and an interview with Alan Bissett Read more »| 02 Apr 2014 -
Book Reviews
Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
Boy is a beautiful, contrary young woman who runs away from her abusive rat-catcher father in New York and ends up at the end of the line in Flax Hill, an idyllic town where everyone is a specialist – whether that be in cake-making, jewellery or teaching Read more »| 02 Apr 2014 -
Book Reviews
Indecent Acts by Nick Brooks
Opening Nick Brooks’ third acclaimed novel, Indecent Acts, you are immediately struck by the fragmented patois on the page. These are the semi-illiterate ramblings of Grace, the lovable yet simple protagonist and narrator of this novel Read more »| 02 Apr 2014 -
Book Reviews
Trying Not to Try by Edward Slingerland
Though marketed as broad Gladwell-ish pop psychology – with some self-help thrown in – Trying Not to Try is actually a lot narrower and deeper th... Read more »| 17 Mar 2014 -
Book Reviews
Bedlam by Christopher Brookmyre
Brookmyre's no slouch when it comes to fast-paced plots, pithy Scottish humour and ribald banter, and indeed the creation of compelling, put-upon, no-hoper a... Read more »| 04 Mar 2014