Author Archives: drewsmith28

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About drewsmith28

Words, words, words...

A spool of blue thread by Anne Tyler (Vintage)

Posted on October 6, 2015 by drewsmith28

“Late one July evening in 1994,  Red and Abby Whitshank had a phone call from their son Denny.” I AM bemused as to what this is doing on the Man Booker 2015 short list. It is a completely different proposition … Continue reading →

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So you don’t get lost in the neighbourhood by Patrick Modiano (Maclehose)

Posted on October 2, 2015 by drewsmith28

“Almost nothing. Like an insect bite that initially strikes you as very slight. At least that is what you tell yourself in a low voice so as to reassure yourself.” THE perfect novel, I might speculate, would be 155 pages … Continue reading →

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The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota (Picador)

Posted on September 30, 2015 by drewsmith28

“Randeep Sanghera stood in front of the green-and-blue map tacked on the wall. The map had come with the flat, and though it was big and wrinkled, and cigarette butts had once stubbed black islands into the mid Atlantic, he’d … Continue reading →

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The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma (One)

Posted on September 22, 2015 by drewsmith28

“We were fishermen. My brothers and I became fishermen in January of 1996 after our father moved out of Akure, a town in the west of Nigeria, where we had lived together all our lives.” LIKE the Seven Killings book … Continue reading →

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A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (Picador)

Posted on September 15, 2015 by drewsmith28

“The eleventh apartment had only one closet, but it did have a sliding glass door that opened onto a small balcony, from which he could see a man sitting across the way, outdoors in only a T shirt and shorts … Continue reading →

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The Illuminations by Andrew O’Hagan (Faber)

Posted on August 19, 2015 by drewsmith28

“Snow was falling past the window and in her sleep she pictured a small girl and her father in a railway carriage”. We have two modern themes here,  dimentia and computer war games in Afghanistan. They are wrapped around a … Continue reading →

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The girl who wasn’t there by Ferdinand von Schirach (Abacus)

Posted on August 14, 2015 by drewsmith28

“On a fine spring day in the year 1838, a new kind of reality was created on the Boulevard de Temple in Paris” That reality was of course photography which is part of the theme here. To those of us … Continue reading →

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Satin Island by Tom McCarthy (Jonathan Cape)

Posted on August 9, 2015 by drewsmith28

  “Turin is where the famous shroud is from, the one showing Christ’s body supine after crucifixion: hands folded over genitals, eyes closed, head crowned with thorns. The image isn’t really visible on the bare linen. It only emerged…” U … Continue reading →

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All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr (Fourth Estate)

Posted on June 23, 2015 by drewsmith28

“Leaflets. At dusk they pour from the sky. They blow across ramparts, turn cartwheeels over rooftops…Urgent message to the inhabitants of this town. Depart immediately to open country.” He is the orphan radio repairer. German. She is the blind daughter … Continue reading →

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Blood, bones and butter by Gabrielle Hamilton (Vintage)

Posted on June 8, 2015 by drewsmith28

“We threw a party. The same party every year, when I was a kid. It was a spring lamb roast, and we roasted four or five whole little guys who each weighed only about forty pounds over an open fire … Continue reading →

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