International fiction
Booth by Karen Joy Fowler
Karen Joy Fowler has ruined the next few books for me – whatever I pick up next, it can’t possibly measure up to the sprawling, ambitious, captivating saga of her latest novel,Booth. Fowler is the bestselling author of…
Vladimir by Julia May Jonas
To fellow fans of the campus novel, particularly the subcategory of campus novels set in university English and creative writing departments, and even more specifically, thesub-subcategory featuring plots that focus on the faculty staff of said institutions, Vladimir is your…
When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo
It begins with the tale of Port Angeles, a bustling city that now rests upon an ancient but forgotten place. A place of violence, buried deep down beneath its concrete surface, from a time when animals could speak, and humans…
The Colony by Audrey Magee
In the previous issue of our August newsletter one of my dear colleagues wondered if his reading year had peaked after finishing Hanya Yanagihara’s newest book. The very same notion has crept over me in these last few days as…
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
‘“What you have to understand,” she says “is that things can thrive in unimaginable conditions. All they need is the right sort of skin.”’
I first encountered Julia Armfield’s enormous aptitude for storytelling when I read her short story ‘The…
Joan Is Okay by Weike Wang
Joan is okay. At least as far as she is concerned. She’s in her thirties, with a successful career as an ICU doctor at a busy New York City hospital. She has fulfilled the American Dream that her parents left…
Free Love by Tessa Hadley
Tessa Hadley’s fine new novel opens on a late summer evening in comfortable suburban London. It’s 1967. Phyllis Fischer, 40, lives with husband Roger, who fought in World War II and now serves with the Foreign Office, and their children…
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
Black Cake is an expansive, engrossing, multi-layered story, encompassing multiple generations of a broken family. Estranged siblings Benny and Byron are reluctantly brought back together in their deceased mother’s home to hear a voice recording she made shortly before her…
A Very Nice Girl by Imogen Crimp
The last time I read a book that happened to have ‘girl’ in the title, things didn’t pan out too well for the main character. But that was a crime fiction book, and A Very Nice Girl is literature, although…
Love Marriage by Monica Ali
At the heart of Monica Ali’s latest novel is, as the title suggests, the universal story of love and marriage. Those who have read Ali’s 2003 Booker-shortlisted novel Brick Lane will recognise her themes of displacement, family dynamics and the…
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