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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EventsScottish Books Events: September 2023
The festivals may be over but the book events continue, with a plethora of gorgeous launches and poetry nights across Glasgow and Edinburgh Read more »| 29 Aug 2023 -
Book ReviewsThe Baudelaire Fractal by Lisa Robertson
Poet Lisa Robertson’s debut novel uplifts the starving artist cliché with effortless, crystalline prose Read more »| 23 Aug 2023 -
Book ReviewsBut The Girl by Jessica Zhan Mei Yu
Jessica Zhan Mei Yu’s debut novel is a delicate investigation into intergenerational immigrant subjectivities Read more »| 09 Aug 2023 -
FeaturesDevorah Baum, Alva Gotby and Sophie K Rosa on what radical love looks like
Ahead of their event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, we ask authors Devorah Baum, Alva Gotby and Sophie K Rosa about their most utopian imagination of what love can look like Read more »| 09 Aug 2023 -
Book ReviewsTraces of Enayat by Iman Mersal
In Iman Mersal's Traces of Enayat, the poet and scholar blends biography, memoir, and literary criticism to recover the story of forgotten Egyptian writer Enayat al-Zayyat Read more »| 03 Aug 2023 -
FeaturesCamilla Grudova on Children of Paradise and The Coiled Serpent
We chat to Camilla Grudova, author of the creepy Children of Paradise and upcoming short story collection The Coiled Serpent, about capitalist horror, British class politics, and why people can't flush the toilet Read more »| 03 Aug 2023
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Book ReviewsI Will Greet the Sun Again by Khashayar J. Khabushani
In Khashayar J. Khabushani's debut, a young boy navigates a queer coming-of-age against the backdrop of pre-9/11 America and post-revolution Iran Read more »| 31 Jul 2023 -
EventsScottish Books Events: August 2023
Edinburgh Book Festival returns, as does Book Fringe, while in not-Edinburgh there are chances to hear from William Keohane, Jenni Fagan and John Niven Read more »| 28 Jul 2023 -
Book ReviewsTrouble by Lex Croucher
Lex Croucher's new queer Regency rom-com continues to break the rules of both propriety and gender norms Read more »| 26 Jul 2023 -
Book ReviewsA Little Luck by Claudia Piñeiro
An investigation into the limits of narrative, Claudia Piñeiro's latest cements the writer as a giant of Argentine literature Read more »| 11 Jul 2023 -
Book ReviewsYou, Bleeding Childhood by Michele Mari
You, Bleeding Childhood is the first English translation of Italian novelist Michele Mari, and a love letter to a childhood told through literature Read more »| 11 Jul 2023 -
Book ReviewsRental Person Who Does Nothing by Shoji Morimoto
Shoji Morimoto's unique memoir tracks the author's life as he refuses work and rents himself out as a passive companion Read more »| 06 Jul 2023 -
FeaturesSarah Bernstein on new novel Study for Obedience
Canadian-born, Highlands-based author Sarah Bernstein unpacks her second novel Study for Obedience, a gothic tale of power and complicity Read more »| 03 Jul 2023 -
Book ReviewsBellies by Nicola Dinan
Nicola Dinan's powerful and vulnerable debut Bellies marks a watershed moment in British trans fiction Read more »| 29 Jun 2023 -
FestivalsEdinburgh International Book Festival 2023: The programme
The Edinburgh Book Festival returns to the Edinburgh College of Art this August for its 40th year – here's a look at the 2023 programme Read more »| 14 Jun 2023