My Book Year

Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil

Graham — Fri, 10 May 2013 20:21:56 +0000

Jeet Thayil’s Narcopolis made it onto the shortlist for the Booker Prize. Set in the drug dens of Bombay through the 1970s and 1980s it is a compelling and disturbing novel. Narcopolis follows the underclass of addicts through the years … Continue reading →

NW by Zadie Smith

Graham — Thu, 02 May 2013 19:50:35 +0000

Zadie Smith’s latest book, NW, which has recently been shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, or ex-Orange Prize, is both fascinating, and complex. NW, standing for the postcode of North-West London is a mix of semi-overlapping stories told in … Continue reading →

A History of the World in Twelve Maps by Jerry Brotton

Graham — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:34:04 +0000

Jerry Brotton’s A History of the World in Twelve Maps has a title which describes itself. It is a serious, academic, and heavily researched (and physically heavy) study of global history illustrated by twelve cartographic examples. The maps selected by … Continue reading →

Bad News by Edward St Aubyn

Graham — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 18:33:07 +0000

Bad News is the second novel in Edward St Aubyn’s Patrick Melrose series of books, following on from Never Mind. In Bad News, Patrick is no longer a child, but a drug-addled man in his twenties. While the monstrous David … Continue reading →

Boxer Beetle by Ned Beauman

Graham — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 21:11:44 +0000

Having read Ned Beauman’s excellent novel The Teleportation Accident I had to go back and read his first book, Boxer Beetle. Falling somewhere in between historical fiction and sci-fi, the novel has one of the most bizarre cast-lists imaginable. There … Continue reading →

Swimming Home by Deborah Levy

Graham — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 20:14:35 +0000

A lot of the attention around the 2012 Booker Prize was focussed on Deborah Levy’s Swimming Home, in part because it was published by the independent, subscription based publisher, And Other Stories. However, it is likely that this novel would … Continue reading →

Spies and Commissars by Robert Service

Graham — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 20:29:01 +0000

Robert Service has written acclaimed biographies of the leading Bolsheviks, Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky. In Spies and Commissars he takes a look at the October Revolution from the outside. In the aftermath of the Bolshevik seizure of power in October … Continue reading →

The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng

Graham — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 08:40:13 +0000

Tan Twan Eng’s first novel, The Gift of Rain, was longlisted for the Booker Prize back in 2007. With his second book, The Garden of Evening Mists, he has gone one better and made the shortlist. Again set in his … Continue reading →

Caribou Island by David Vann

Graham — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 09:57:52 +0000

Ever since reading the shocking and stunning Legend of a Suicide I have been wanting to read David Vann’s recent book, Caribou Island. While his first book was a semi-autobiographical collection of stories/novel about the suicide of his father, Caribou … Continue reading →

The Lighthouse by Alison Moore

Graham — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 20:50:00 +0000

Alison Moore’s short, but ominous novel, The Lighthouse, made it on to the shortlist for the 2012 Booker Prize. It follows the unlikely-named Futh, a recently separated man in his forties on a walking holiday to Germany. While he walks … Continue reading →