Tag: Fiction

This book went on my “most anticipated” list as soon as I heard its premise: Phoebe’s somewhat settled immigrant life in Copenhagen working on a PhD she no longer cares much about, is upended when her college ex Grace unexpectedly knocks on her door. Often billed as “the first Irish trans novel” (which I cannot…

Constant is my attraction to books that offer a meandering reflection on life, landscape, and communities, particularly with a focus of Irish itinerancy, and therefore I Could Read the Sky has cemented itself as an instant, incomparable favourite. The narrator, in his twilight years, lies in bed in London and begins to see visions of…

“So… is it as good as the first one?” is what everyone asks me when I gush about Brainwyrms. The straightforward reply is “definitely yes,” but I always feel compelled to qualify my answer: “well, yes, though it’s very different.”  You see, while Tell Me I’m Worthless was Rumfitt’s take on the gothic haunted house…

This brilliant short novel is a transporting read.  Based on a true story, we see young Parisian Edmond Charlot open his tiny dream bookshop and publishing house Les Vraies Richesses in Algiers in 1936, and take it through the Second World War and beyond.  A Bookshop in Algiers opens by inviting the reader on a…

Looking for a summer read that will keep you hooked but does not involve gruesome murders or great tragedy? Look no further – The Happy Couple is the one. Effortlessly funny and full of memorable characters, it is just the right length (and size, even as a hardcover!) to be the perfect travel companion. Luke…

I always find that I need to relate to the characters to enjoy a book, and Brian sounded like he could not have been more different from me – him being a middle-aged white man who lives a secluded life without any friends or family. The only thing we seem to have in common was…

In this verse novel, Liz Berry imagines the life of her great-aunt Eliza Showell, who was taken from her home in England at the age of 11 after her mother’s death and forcibly sent to Canada to work as an indentured servant, or “Home Child.” The premise is tragic. Much of the book explores Eliza’s…

The Birthday Party is the third of Mauvignier’s twelve novels to be translated into English, and this International Booker longlist title gained the Fitzcarraldo seal of approval. I’m a fast reader at the best of times, but I can’t remember a book that left me averaging over 150 pages a day; the pacing and gripping…

This year’s International Booker Prize winner is a strangely beguiling work in the tradition of Calvino and Borges, if much less esoteric. Our narrator is a novelist struggling to write meaningfully about memory. Along the way he meets Gaustine, a flaneur doctor-philosopher who decides to set up the clinic of the past, a place that…

Philyaw’s debut short story collection took the world by storm when it was first published in 2020, and I can only hope it does so again now that it’s out in paperback. Comprised of nine stories of varied lengths and structures, the book explores a wide spectrum of emotions, yet remains cohesive in its examination…

In his debut science fiction novel, The Mountain in the Sea, Ray Nayler tells 3 intertwined stories that explore the potential ramifications of technological advances on emotional, social, political and ecological scales. In the main plot, we follow Dr. Ha Nguyen, an expert in octopus biology and psychology, who is sent to a remote Vietnamese…

Ming and Tom meet at a university Pride event and immediately click. Their long-term relationship is loving and profound, but after Ming comes out and begins her transition, their efforts to delay its inevitable collapse threaten to tear them apart beyond repair. I didn’t know exactly what to expect from this book going in, but…

Celebrated Chinese author Yan Ge published her English-language debut, a hard-to-define collection of stories travelling from ancient China to present-day Europe, told through the lenses of vastly different characters. Sailing through different languages, terrains, and time frames, Yan Ge demonstrates her range. She establishes herself as a refreshing voice in diasporic literature, not that of…

“My name is Cara Romero, and I came to this country because my husband wanted to kill me. Don’t look so shocked. You’re the one who asked me to say something about myself.” This first paragraph sets the tone for the whole of Angie Cruz’s latest novel. It swallows you into a prose that is…

Greek Lessons is the story of two people reconciling with loss, both physical and emotional. One is a young woman who, for the second time in her life, is slowly and inexplicably losing her voice. The other is her professor of Greek language, who is trying to disguise his fading eyesight. Beautifully written, this slender…

This is a book of two halves, each as good as the other. In the first, we are introduced to an adventurous woman who takes a job as a cook on a merchant ship. While docked in Chile, she begins a passionate romance with Samsa, who gives her the nickname “Boulder.” In the second half,…