Nicholas Ruddock's The Parabolist Doubleday, 2010 It's ironic. One of the women in Nicholas Ruddock's novel is thinking about the heroines of Emma Bovary and Anna Karenina. "Look at all those passionate women, the ones in novels, the ones who wore their hearts on their sleeves," she says. "They all
Farzana Doctor's Stealing Nasreen Inanna Publications, 2007 This debut novel opens with an introduction to Shaffiq, a member of the cleaning staff, working the night shift, pulling a photograph torn in two from the garbage can he is emptying. He is fascinated by "clues and curiosities", shares them with his
Arguably the best novel of the trilogy, for having been nominated for Orange Prize in 1996 and having won the Booker that year, there was no question in my mind as to whether I would read on following Regeneration and The Eye in the Door. Despite my habit of resisting war
Penguin, 1993 So you know, from my thoughts on Regeneration, how much of a talking-to I had to give myself to keep reading Pat Barker's brilliant war novels. But as much as I might be a cowardly reader, I'm also a stubborn reader, so I made sure that
Pat Barker's Regeneration (1991) Come on, admit it: you've avoided reading this because it's a war novel. It's okay: you're not alone. And how can a book about the horrors of war compete, when reading time is limited and it would be so much more fun to re-read Miss Pettigrew
