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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FestivalsEdinburgh Book Festival unveils 2017 programme
This year's Edinburgh International Book Festival features authors from over 50 countries Read more »| 13 Jun 2017 -
FeaturesA new Cold War: Hwang Sok-yong on a divided Korea
Hwang Sok-yong has been silenced through censorship, exile & prison walls, yet his voice is widely considered the most important in Korean literature. As Familiar Things publishes in translation, he talks about his life, his writing and his divided nation Read more »| 12 Jun 2017 -
News
Listen to Salena Godden's anti-Theresa May punk poem
Salena Godden shares a blistering "punk rant" about why she'll never vote for Theresa May Read more »| 07 Jun 2017 -
Features
Scottish Poetry News: June 2017
The Skinny's regular poetry column speaks with a fresh and exciting voice – Kayo Chingonyi – about his new collection Kumukanda. We also visit Babbity Bowster on 25 June to experience quality poetry while raising money for refugees Read more »| 31 May 2017 -
Features
A cultural call to arms: Rebel Inc. 25 years on
Author Jenni Fagan recalls revolutionary 90s publisher Rebel Inc. exactly 25 years on, speaking with the key architects & authors it bore – Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner, Laura Hird. This is also a cultural call to arms. What better use to make of the past? Read more »| 31 May 2017 -
Book ReviewsMen Without Women by Haruki Murakami
Nothing to learn but plenty to love about Murakami's latest anti-machismo collection. Read more »| 25 May 2017
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Book ReviewsFlights by Olga Tokarczuk
Flights sets out as a dissection of modern travel, and becomes a diagnosis of the ancient human compulsion to move about. It is a loose travelogue, a collect... Read more »| 24 May 2017 -
Features
Cities in Literature: Reading the Queer City
As a new book is published on the topic, we take a look at the idea of the city in the queer canon: often presented as a place of freedom and emancipation, but at other times an enforcer of social constructs Read more »| 24 May 2017 -
Book ReviewsYou Don't Know Me by Imran Mahmood
You Don’t Know Me is a sharp, enticing, and thought provoking debut novel. The book begins with the evidence in a court case against a young male from ... Read more »| 24 May 2017 -
Features
The Handmaid's Tale, Dystopia & Life Imitating Art
As The Handmaid's Tale reaches our screens and the book tops bestseller lists, we look at why dystopias such as this and 1984 are connecting so strongly in t... Read more »| 23 May 2017 -
Book Reviews
Sorry to Disrupt the Peace by Patty Yumi Cottrell
Patty Yumi Cottrell’s stand-out debut novel opens with our protagonist, Helen, receiving a new IKEA sofa alongside the news that her adoptive brother h... Read more »| 23 May 2017 -
Book Reviews
Gravel Heart by Abdulrazak Gurnah
Gravel Heart, Abdulrazak Gurnah’s ninth novel, fits neatly into the author’s established oeuvre, as he returns to familiar themes of immigration,... Read more »| 16 May 2017 -
Features
Dark Fantasy: Ever Dundas on debut novel Goblin
Goblin, the debut novel from Ever Dundas, blurs the lines between fantasy and reality but also between genders, questioning the roles imposed upon us from bi... Read more »| 10 May 2017 -
Features
Emma Cline on The Girls
Emma Cline's debut novel The Girls, in which teenager Evie Boyd becomes drawn into a Manson-like cult, was published to much acclaim last year. As the paperback hits shelves, we asked Cline about the book's origins and her future plans Read more »| 05 May 2017 -
Features
Scottish Poetry News – May 2017
Our columnist updates you on all things poetry for May, including a chat with Ted Hughes Prize winner Hollie McNish and the best words being offered on page and stage around Scotland Read more »| 03 May 2017