Brutally honest and illuminating, Having and Being Had by Eula Biss is the book we should all be reading, now more than ever. Described as a collection of short, interlinked essays, Biss’ dives into work, possessions, and art are shrewd, funny and yet alarmingly insightful. By aligning these topics with her experiences, Biss acknowledges her
Of Foster Homes and Flies is a Pandora’s Box of emotions; love, loss, despair, fear, abuse, hope, desire and transformation. Once you lift that lid (or cover in this situation) you can’t put those feelings back, however hard you try! It’s a book that explores the darkness of growing up in a house devoid of
Lot by Bryan Washington was my book of the year in 2019 and you can read that review here and I have been eagerly awaiting his novel Memorial for some time, staring wide eyed with delight at the announcements as they etched closer to a release date – and then the day was finally here,
George Saunders, lauded for his short stories and winner of the 2017 Man Booker Prize for Lincoln in the Bardo, has been a teacher on the Syracuse University MFA creative writing program since 1997. This book is based on one of his Syracuse courses on Russian literature. A Swim in a Pond includes seven classic
Here’s an interesting premise for a thriller: three students are brutally attacked and lynched by a mob in the Nigerian university town of Okriki. Everybody knows who did it – the whole thing was captured on social media – but nobody knows why. Dr Philip Taiwo, a psychologist and expert on the behaviour of crowds,
Informative and necessary, Abdulrazak Gurnah uses stripped back prose to tell the stories of Hamza, Ilyas and Afiya in his insightful new novel, Afterlives. It’s a satisfying linear tale, and one that doesn’t need any literary embellishments to bring the narrative to life. Gurnah takes us through the lives of his characters in a simple, effective
What a feast of delights awaits us the reader in this years BBC National Short Story Award 2020 from Comma Press – I’m a huge fan of this series as I’m a huge fan of the short story form and well this year we are treated to some great voices, some old and some new
This Along Could Save Us is a flash fiction collection of 51, yes 51 short pieces of flash. The book is a real quick read and works as a great palate cleanser between larger books, the stories aren’t very deep but are enjoyable with the flow of Prinzi’s prose, but for me, the collection was
T.C. Parker delivers the creeping unease of past masters with a story that is as beguiling as it is terrifying – Salt Blood is a story that keeps on giving from the very first page! Salt Blood is an interesting concept for a book and one that seems far removed from the brooding cover (although
When I first read Kev Harrison earlier this year (The Balance) I was blown away by his offering, and I made it a conscious effort to support and follow this very talented writer, so I was delighted to see that Demain Publishing (who have published him previously – Cinders of a Blind Man Who Could
