Book Reviews

"Long after one has forgotten what a woman wore, the memory of her perfume lingers": Scent, Possession, and Death in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind
"Long after one has forgotten what a woman wore, the memory of her perfume lingers": Scent, Possession, and Death in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind
words by Jocelyn Howarth   There is a widely circulated myth that we, as humans, only use 10% of our brains and that the remaining 90% holds immense untapped potential.... Read more...
Place and Person: Exploring Identity in Amanda Smyth’s Look At You
Place and Person: Exploring Identity in Amanda Smyth’s Look At You
Once in, it’s hard to get out of this book, so absorbing is every aspect of Look at You, so tender and personal and rich is the tapestry Amanda Smyth... Read more...
Calling All Complaints! Review of Sara Ahmed's No is Not a Lonely Utterance
Calling All Complaints! Review of Sara Ahmed's No is Not a Lonely Utterance
Sara Ahmed’s No is Not a Lonely Utterance has the potential to generate real change. In a world that is so turbulent and unpredictable, this book is the hope that... Read more...
Becoming Everything: Arundhati Roy and the Art of Happiness and Survival
Becoming Everything: Arundhati Roy and the Art of Happiness and Survival
Reading The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is like having a bird's-eye view of a world so vast that it overflows the limits of the page. And of course, it is... Read more...
Redefining the Mother in Saba Sams’s Gunk
Redefining the Mother in Saba Sams’s Gunk
words by Jocelyn Howarth   The traditional nuclear family consists of an adult man and woman who are married, and who have at least one child between them. Over the... Read more...
Finding Resilience amidst the Ruins of World War II: A Review of Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale
Finding Resilience amidst the Ruins of World War II: A Review of Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale
words by Katerina Ouzoni | photo courtesy of The British Library   Much has been said about the new literary masterpiece by acclaimed American author Kristin Hannah—the historical novel The... Read more...
Devotion, denial and the devastation of dying in Hanne Ørstavik’s Ti Amo
Devotion, denial and the devastation of dying in Hanne Ørstavik’s Ti Amo
words by Ellie johnson | photo by Leonardo Cendamo   Despite its brevity, Ti Amo (2020) by Hanne Ørstavik is a work that finds a thousand different ways to say ‘I... Read more...
What would you go to Hell for? Review of R.F. Kuang's Katabasis
What would you go to Hell for? Review of R.F. Kuang's Katabasis
words by Jocelyn Howarth | photo by Tony Luong   What is Hell? Or, more specifically, where is Hell? Last week, I realised that Hell for me is the waiting... Read more...
What Happens When People Open their Hearts? A Review of Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
What Happens When People Open their Hearts? A Review of Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
words by Katerina Ouzouni   Haruki Murakami, a writer celebrated for his surreal and critically acclaimed fiction, crafted Norwegian Wood (1987) as a departure — a deeply realistic and poignant... Read more...
The Marmite Effect - Review of Clarice Lispector's The Hour of the Star
The Marmite Effect - Review of Clarice Lispector's The Hour of the Star
Ellie Johnson explores the use of metafiction in Clarice Lispector's The Hour of the Star (1977) to conclude this is a novella that won't leave anyone indifferent. Readers will either... Read more...
Atmosphere Over Substance? A Review of Yōko Agawa's 'The Memory Police'
Atmosphere Over Substance? A Review of Yōko Agawa's 'The Memory Police'
words by Millie Harris On a nameless island, objects vanish one by one — perfume bottles, calendars, even body parts… and with them fades every trace of their existence, memory... Read more...
"In the end, all they have is a handful of dust": A Review of Evelyn Waugh’s Masterfully Satirical Novel
"In the end, all they have is a handful of dust": A Review of Evelyn Waugh’s Masterfully Satirical Novel
Evelyn Waugh's satirical novel A Handful of Dust tackles the no uncommon topic of failing marriage and separation with an approach not as often seen as the theme. The story is... Read more...