Books
The Skinny book guide – bringing you book reviews, features, events, reviews and author interviews. Find previews and on the ground reporting from festivals of literature and poetry in Scotland and beyond.
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Book ReviewsWeak Teeth by Lynsey May
Lynsey May's debut Weak Teeth is an exercise in voyeuristic pleasure, exploring the way one woman's life falls apart in small and big ways Read more »| 04 May 2023 -
EventsScottish Books Events: May 2023
There's plenty of books festivals this month, as well as book launches for the likes of Kae Tempest and R.F Kuang Read more »| 02 May 2023 -
Book ReviewsOrdinary Notes by Christina Sharpe
Christina Sharpe's experimental visual poetic work Ordinary Notes is a profound rumination on knowledge, loss, Black American life and memory Read more »| 27 Apr 2023 -
Book ReviewsFray by Chris Carse Wilson
Chris Carse Wilson's debut is a beguiling and hallucinatory tale of grief amidst the wilderness Read more »| 27 Apr 2023 -
Book ReviewsEnter Ghost by Isabella Hammad
A woman leaves her home in London to return to her homeland of Palestine in Isabella Hammad's complex, tender meditation on art, family, and resistance Read more »| 26 Apr 2023 -
FeaturesTrue Crime & Smuggling Snails: Alice Slater & Heather Parry in conversation
Authors Heather Parry and Alice Slater sit down over a shared Google Doc to discuss Slater's new book, the power of unlikeable characters, and grossness in fiction Read more »| 26 Apr 2023
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FeaturesAlice Slater on her true crime-inspired debut Death of a Bookseller
We chat with Alice Slater about her fierce, grimy debut Death of a Bookseller and the legacy of true crime in fiction and beyond Read more »| 17 Apr 2023 -
Book ReviewsRadical: A Life of My Own by Xiaolu Guo
Xiaolu Guo's memoir Radical is the story of a search for selfhood and a language that connects her past and present Read more »| 13 Apr 2023 -
Book ReviewsShy by Max Porter
Max Porter's highly anticipated fourth novel Shy is a hallucinatory, fragmentary journey through its eponymous character's internal landscape Read more »| 04 Apr 2023 -
Book ReviewsLinghun by Ai Jiang
The debut novella from speculative short story author Ai Jiang, Linghun is a haunting investigation into home and grief Read more »| 03 Apr 2023 -
EventsScottish Books Events: April 2023
Lots of bookish treats this month, including open mics, queer storytelling, and a magical conversation between Max Porter and Heather Parry Read more »| 28 Mar 2023 -
Book ReviewsNever Was by H. Gareth Gavin
H. Gareth Gavin's experimental novel defies categorisation, exploring the common, queered experience of depersonalisation Read more »| 27 Mar 2023 -
Book ReviewsRadical Intimacy by Sophie K Rosa
Sophie K Rosa's groundbreaking manifesto Radical Intimacy invites us into a politically emancipatory conceptualisation of intimacy beyond capitalism and heteronormativity Read more »| 20 Mar 2023 -
IntersectionsLucky (& Radical) in Love: A first read of Anahit Behrooz's BFFs
There's something truly powerful about female friendships – the intimacy, the joy, the romance. 404 Ink's BFFs by our very own Anahit Behrooz explores all this and more Read more »| 08 Mar 2023 -
FeaturesLeila Aboulela on her latest novel River Spirit
We chat with Cairo-born, Sudan-raised and Aberdeen-resident Leila Aboulela about her latest novel River Spirit, and the importance of re-examining the histories we are handed Read more »| 02 Mar 2023