Nadine Gordimer: July’s People
My previous experience of Nadine Gordimer was with last year’s Booker longlisted Get A Life. That book, to me, was so full of stunted sentences, lacked narrative focus, and was…
Nicola Barker: Darkmans
“If history is a sick joke”, the inside cover of Nicola Barker’s Darkmans says, “then who exactly might be telling it, and why?” It goes on to ask if it’s…
Susan Hill: The Woman In Black
Some books seem to capture the imagination and transcend the boundaries of fiction. Susan Hill’s The Woman In Black would appear to be one such novel, given that it’s been…
Roddy Doyle: The Deportees and Other Stories
The Deportees and Other Stories, began life, as Roddy Doyle notes in the foreword, as a series of fragmented short stories written for Metro Eireann, Ireland’s multicultural newspaper. Restricted to…
Tan Twan Eng: The Gift Of Rain
Given that I had read ten of the thirteen Booker longlistees over a few weeks I didn’t expect Tan Twan Eng’s debut, The Gift Of Rain to take too long…
Warwick Collins: Gents
Since the early nineties, it seems Warwick Collins’ writing career has gone largely unnoticed: most of his novels are out of print and Google returns scant information on him. Last…
Timothy O’Grady, Steve Pyke: I Could Read The Sky
The joy of browsing book shops tends to lead to serendipitous finds and recently I happened across I Could Read The Sky by Timothy O’Grady and Steve Pyke. Now, I…
Paul Auster: Travels In The Scriptorium
My knowledge of Paul Auster and his work is due to the fact that his reputation precedes him. Despite his serious tone, his works are playful and metaphysical; they have…
Michael Redhill: Consolation
Canada’s Michael Redhill was reportedly surprised to find his second novel had been longlisted for the Booker this year. If the content was given over to errors such as the…
Catherine O’Flynn: What Was Lost
Having already been longlisted for one award this year, Catherine O’Flynn’s debut, What Was Lost, has now found its way onto that of the Man Booker, something that will no…