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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FeaturesEver Dundas: The Problems with Gender and Language
In her debut novel Goblin, Ever Dundas takes on the preset gender narratives society imposes on us. Here she discusses the problems language throws up when w... Read more »| 28 Apr 2017 -
Book ReviewsCompass by Mathias Enard
On a single sleepless night in Vienna, musicologist Franz Ritter revisits moments from a life spent studying and exploring the Middle East, winding through m... Read more »| 26 Apr 2017 -
Book ReviewsThe Things I Would Tell You edited by Sabrina Mahfouz
‘Woman like no one is ever going to read you. Woman like you have everything to say.’ In The Things I Would Tell You, edited by Sabrina Mahfouz,... Read more »| 26 Apr 2017 -
Book Reviews
Universal Harvester by John Darnielle
Jeremy works in a video rental store in the small Iowan town he’s lived in all his life when one day his routine is interrupted by the discovery of som... Read more »| 25 Apr 2017 -
Features
César Aira's Literary Toys for Adults
Argentine author César Aira is like nothing you've read before. As a light is shone on a small corner of his work – translations of The Proof an... Read more »| 18 Apr 2017 -
Book ReviewsVoid Star by Zachary Mason
At an unspecified time in the near future, the oceans have risen, implanted chips make infinite memory a possibility and anti-aging clinics offer eternal you... Read more »| 18 Apr 2017
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Book Reviews
Flesh of the Peach by Helen McClory
Helen McClory’s debut novel is an invigorating follow-up to her much-lauded debut: the Saltire Scottish First Book of the Year award-winning On the Edg... Read more »| 17 Apr 2017 -
Features
Poetry News – Scotland, April 2017
We run through the Ted Hughes Award nominees, while Neu! Reekie ask us all a big question Read more »| 17 Apr 2017 -
Features
Victims to Nostalgia: Helen McClory interview
Helen McClory won the 2015 Saltire Society First Book prize for her flash fiction collection On the Edges of Vision. She now makes a narrative jump with novel Flesh of the Peach, and explains this impressive debut's rage and grief, tethered by nostalgia Read more »| 11 Apr 2017 -
Features
Mariana Enriquez: Black Magical Realism
Things We Lost in the Fire could be the most dark and thrilling short story collection you ever encounter, blending the sociopolitical horrors of dictatorshi... Read more »| 05 Apr 2017 -
Book Reviews
Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez
Buenos Aires: a city of ghoulish children with sharpened teeth and murdered teens who return from beneath dark waters. A city of women who see self-imm... Read more »| 03 Apr 2017 -
Book ReviewsHow to Be Human by Paula Cocozza
Paula Cocozza's novel How to Be Human is an arresting, appealing debut, telling the story of its protagonist, Mary, and the fox that visits her East London g... Read more »| 03 Apr 2017 -
Book Reviews
Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist by Paul Kingsnorth
We know from his novels The Wake and Beast that Paul Kingsnorth is a wild and iconoclastic writer. This collection of essays confirms him as a fear... Read more »| 27 Mar 2017 -
Features
Emily Dickinson: More than a feminist hero
As Terence Davies' new film exploring the life of American poet Emily Dickinson reaches cinemas, we consider the innovations in her work – and the limitations of viewing her only as a feminist hero Read more »| 23 Mar 2017 -
Features
Elan Mastai: "Time travel is a very human thing"
Esteemed screenwriter and author Elan Mastai journeys through time in his new novel All Our Wrong Todays. He tells The Skinny what he himself would travel back to fix and why our present is so easily reimagined as a dystopian future Read more »| 21 Mar 2017