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
There is no great mystery at the heart of Jennifer LoveGrove's debut novel. No simple explanation for the way its pages turn, relentlessly. Emily's story is a quiet story, the ground beneath her feet shifting subtly, though inexorably. In relaying her story to readers, Jennifer LoveGrove makes a series of
Everything I know about the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, which precipitated WWI, I learned from fiction. First, Aleksandar Hemon's short story, "The Accordian", which explores the very moment of the shots' impact, inspired by the presence of a bystander. This man seems to be the author's grandfather, standing in the
In bookish synchronicity, when a friend and I met one summer morning to go book-shopping, each of us had begun reading A Beautiful Truth the previous evening. We had both read only about 50 pages, so were hesitant to commit to loving it too soon, but we shared that excitement
An old woman for a travelling companion? You might expect what Iain Reid expected in The Truth about Luck. Second Story Press, 2013 "Lots of strolls, time for reading, cups of tea, ten hours of sleep per night, not too much direct sunlight, three square meals a day."
