International fiction
To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara
This highly anticipated follow-up to 2015’s A Little Life is an epic tour de force. In fact, it’s impossible for me to praise To Paradise enough. Set in an alternative America, this is a novel of three parts, its narratives…
Men in My Situation by Per Petterson & Ingvild Burkey (trans.)
Men in My Situation paints a portrait of the effects of grief upon a fragile psyche, and as you are already guessing, the results ain’t pretty. Our first-person narrator, Arvid, lives in Oslo and his life has come undone with…
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
When I picked up a review copy of Louise Erdrich’s book about a bookseller who is haunted by a particularly annoying customer after she passes, I thought: ‘Fantastic! Finally, a lighthearted, cathartic read for my lockdown-tortured brain, and a break…
Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket by Hilma Wolitzer
Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket is a brilliant collection of short stories spanning Hilma Wolitzer’s entire career. From 1966 to the 2020 pandemic, the stories are largely set in New York City and brim with reflections about…
The Fell by Sarah Moss
It is my belief that Sarah Moss is the undisputed queen of taking everyday stories that seem ordinary at first glance, and stuffing them full of delicious, near unbearable tension. The Fell does not disappoint on this front; I closed…
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
It’s 1954 and Emmett has just returned home from a stint in a juvenile prison. The bank is foreclosing on the family’s Nebraskan farm after his father’s death, and Emmettplans to pack up his little brother Billy and head east…
The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
Benny Oh has lost his father in a terrible accident. Shortly afterwards, something peculiar happens to the grief-stricken teenage boy: he starts to hear objects speaking. Snow globes, scissors, windowpanes, baseball bats and teapots all keep up a constant hum…
Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen
Jonathan Franzen’s latest novel, Crossroads, abandons the overt political messaging of Freedom and the narrative globetrotting of Purity, returning instead to the neurotic dramas of the Midwestern family unit. Franzen’s strength has always been in creating characters whose…
Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout
For me, a new Elizabeth Strout novel is always cause for excitement – she is, after all, one of my favourite authors. Strout has written several novels, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Olive Kitteridge, and Oh William! is her third…
Bewilderment by Richard Powers
Theo Byrne, a rising star in the field of astrobiology, has lost his wife, leaving him the sole parent to nine-year-old Robin. Robin is both a fascinating and a troubled boy. His loveand appreciation of art and nature are boundless…
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