The Tedley family is at the centre of the world for the teenage narrator of Barry Dempster’s novel. “How easy for a bungalow and a Texaco station to become the entire world.” This is Scarborough. This is 1966. But this is not a staid and predictable universe as readers soon
Readers are introduced to Cormoran Strike in a moment of need. His. “A double fee. Strike’s conscience, once firm and inelastic, had been weakened by repeated blows of fate; this was the knockout punch. His baser self was already gamboling off into the realms of happy speculation: a month’s work
Mark Lavorato’s debut novel is aptly titled as the novel is equally divided between these two characters, a young woman who dances on stage and a young man who takes photographs on the streets. Through them, readers experience Montreal of the 1920s, from vaudeville to fascism, and women’s rights to
The Demon Who Peddled Longing is rich with the kind of sensory experience that translates into a reader’s complete immersion into another time and place, allowing them to fully inhabit a 19-year-old boy’s experience in Vietnam. Khanh Ha’s Flesh, a visceral and harrowing read, serves as a brilliant companion for his
As readers will guess from the title, Diane Cook's collection of stories has an archetypal reach. HarperCollins, 2014 These are stories that one can imagine discussing at length in creative writing classes, stories that could nestle into the curricula of English courses which study contemporary American fiction. But there
