A small Californian town is under threat when a mysterious virus starts spreading from the local college; people fall asleep and can’t be woken. Karen Thompson Walker handles the material very efficiently, building up an atmosphere of disbelief that escalates gradually until the town is cut off from the outside world by a ‘cordon sanitaire’. … More The Dreamers: a review
Very different from her usual style of writing, A L Kennedy has written a feminist novella for adults based on St Exupery’s well-loved children’s picture book, The Little Prince. The Little Snake is a fable that gently reminds us that life is more than building great cities and fighting over resources; life can be lived … More The Little Snake: a review
Yoko Tawada’s latest book is a novella set in a dystopian Japan where climate change and disease have forced the country to close its borders – no one is allowed in or out. Even foreign words are banned. Yoshiro is bringing up his great-grandson, Mumei in a world where the old still work and only … More The Last Children of Tokyo: a review
‘They had moved to a place where they would always be side by side seeing the same thing differently… she held the weight of this discovery inside her like a dull, heavy stone.’ … More Separated from the Sea: a review
A fascinating and timely mix of short stories and flash fiction exploring the impact of climate change. Nothing is as it was places established authors alongside newer writers to make a unique and wide-ranging collection of voices. There are apocalyptic visions of a drowning planet or a world about to incinerate. In Lorraine Wilson’s excellent … More Review: Nothing is as it was
A coming-of-age novel set against the relentless modernisation of Singapore, where air pollution is measured daily and reeks of rotten eggs, or burnt barbecue. In Ponti, men are largely absent or feckless. This is a novel about three women and told in three time perspectives. In the early 2000s Szu is sixteen, tall, awkward and … More Review: Ponti
A dying man takes a road trip with his son who has Down’s syndrome; he wants to mark their last few weeks together so becomes a census taker, travelling in an old car where, if there’s nothing better, they spend the night. This structure gives the author the opportunity to link a range of odd … More Review: Census
Sometimes you need to go back to a piece of writing you thought was finished. I completed the nth draft of my first novel about 18 months ago, and my lovely agent sent it out. Some positive comments but no takers. So I worked on my second novel, and then the third. But a couple … More Writing update
Diana Evans’ third novel is bookended by a party to celebrate Obama’s election as the first black president of the USA, and by the death of Michael Jackson. Against this slice of history two relationships in London start to fall apart. The ordinary people of the title are middle class couples facing the strains of … More Review: Ordinary People
Image from Amazon.co.uk A family saga of repeating patterns of illness, loss and immigration. Often moving and funny, this is a novel about destiny and whether we have any control over our lives. Nikesh Shukla has created some wonderful characters: Mukesh arrives in Keighley from Kenya in the 1970s to start a new life in … More Review: The One Who Wrote Destiny
Ali Thurm 