The Abundance by Amit Majmudar, first published in 2013, is a lovingly bittersweet story of first generation immigrant parents living in the American mid-west, and their strong ties to Indian culture that their children and grandchildren are trying to leave behind. Very early in the book you hear of the mother’s terminal illness and […]
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Twenty years in preparation Hall brings us a story of Helm, the only named wind in the UK. Naturally, this prompts the question, ‘Know any other winds?’. I had thought about Scirocco, the Mediterranean southerly that is also synonymous with Volkswagen’s squashed Beetle. But of course, there are others less tied to consumerism. Many of
In publishing it has been a year for highlighting the importance of rivers and water, from Robert Macfarlane’s Is a River Alive? to the release of the paperback edition of Elif Shafak’s There Are Rivers in the Sky. Joining these works in a triumvirate is Saraswati, the debut novel from award-winning short story writer, Gurnaik
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‘The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite’ Piranesi is the second novel from Susanna Clarke following Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004). Published in 2020, Piranesi is a swirling puzzle of a book. Written in diary form, the story is set in the mysterious House: there is only Piranesi and ‘The Other’
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We are well and truly into the 2025 Booker Prize season. What better way to recognise the literary quality that this prize highlights than to mention Small Things like These by the masterful short story writer, Claire Keegan. Published in 2021, Small Things like These won the 2022 Orwell Prize, as well as being shortlisted
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It is perhaps worth mentioning that I started writing this review on the 4th of July, American Independence Day; a day when Americans threw off British control. To some, this was a liberation. But for many, independence was theoretical, and merely marked the start of a long battle for equality and justice: through the Civil
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The Trees was first published in 2021 and subsequently shortlisted for 2022’s Booker Prize as well as winning the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize that same year. So, depth and humour. Everett’s 22nd novel is set in the modern day during the first Trump administration, in Money, Mississippi. Whilst the outer world is circa 2016-2020, Money,
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Published in 2024, The List of Suspicious Things is the wonderful debut novel from Jennie Godfrey. It’s a story uncovering a mystery, filled with heartwarming characters, but also violence against women; hearing the story through Miv, a teenage girl, allows you to follow the story through innocent yet inquisitive eyes. The story is set
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Fundamentally is Younis’ debut, published in February this year. The work is already attracting a heap of positive attention: Younis has been selected as part of this year’s line-up of debut authors to watch by the Guardian and Fundamentally is currently shortlisted for 2025’s Women’s Prize. A brilliantly sharp and moving work, Fundamentally follows Nadia,
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The Color Purple was first published in 1982 and won critical acclaim with the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. It was later adapted into a film with the same name in 1985 and 2023 and has been regularly debated due to the themes of violence and domestic abuse, and
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