Book Reviews

A very promising premise, interrupted: The Idiot by Elif Batuman
A very promising premise, interrupted: The Idiot by Elif Batuman
The Idiot by Elif Batuman follows a young Turkish-American woman, Selin, during her first year at Harvard University in the 90s. Selin is an aloof, somewhat unremarkable character, often letting... Read more...
A place is nothing without its people
A place is nothing without its people
A review of the Book of Bradford  Read more...
Scent, possession, and death in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Scent, possession, and death in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to literally anyone except children. Whatever you normally like to read, put the next book on your TBR aside and pick this one up... 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 - What is Hell? Or, more specifically, where is Hell? Last week, I realised that Hell for me is the waiting room at the local walk-in... 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...