One might say that the narrator of Margaret Drabble's novel is an anthropologist of sorts. Perhaps that would be misleading, however: "Anthropology is full of strange spirit stories, about shamans and witchcraft and night ridings and animal shape-shiftings, stories which hover between myth and fairytale and religion and tribal memories
So many of my favourite writers will be appearing at this year's International Festival of Authors. Over the years, the festival and reading series have involved over 8,000 authors (from more than 100 countries), and the names below are certainly not the only authors appearing at this year's festival. These are
Rupert Thomson's Secrecy is suffused with deliciously disturbing images and scenes. A thin, dark ribbon of sky. Bared teeth with clumps of hair. A dead bird that dangles from a girl’s first like a flower needing water. A snake skin shed in a doorway. A secret passage. A stabbed countess. A
Perhaps it's only to give readers an idea of how special it all was to Charlie. "I suppose what I'm trying to say is that the writing of a man's life at least gives you an idea of just how special it all was to him the first time around."
When I pointed out Matadora to a friend in a bookstore last weekend, she scrunched her nose. "Who wants to read a book about bullfighting?" Well, readers might turn to Elizabeth Ruth's third novel for many other reasons. (So, if you're scrunching your nose too, please read on.) First, she was mentored
