Category Archives: Biography

My brilliant friend by Elena Ferrante (Europa)

Posted on February 25, 2016 by drewsmith28

“This morning Rino telephoned. I thought he wanted money again and I was ready to say no.” WE start with a mystery, a disappearance. And also a set of family trees, in case you might need to flip back quickly … Continue reading →

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In the cafe of lost youth By Patrick Modiano (MacLehose Press)

Posted on February 18, 2016 by drewsmith28

“Of the two entrances to the cafe, she always used the narrower one, the one they called the shabby door.” CLEVER, this. Modiano drills down into a euro-psyche of paranoia, of living in a world of secret policemen, of secrets … Continue reading →

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The wallcreeper by Nell Zink (Fourth Estate)

Posted on January 27, 2016 by drewsmith28

“I was looking at the map when Stephen swerved, hit the rock, and occasioned the miscarriage.” A WALLCREEPER is a small, blue grey mountain bird, similar to a nuthatch except it has striking crimson wings which only show in flight. … Continue reading →

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Intermission by Owen Martell (Windmill Books)

Posted on January 18, 2016 by drewsmith28

“It was late in the evening, after dinner and Debby, before Harry got a chance to open the paper.” OWEN Martel told me that Dylan was probably not the greatest Welsh writer called Thomas, but only the second, or perhaps … Continue reading →

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Into the wild by Jon Krakauer (Pan)

Posted on January 7, 2016 by drewsmith28

“Greetings from Fairbanks. This is the last you shall hear of  me Wayne”. JON Krakauer wrote one of the great Everest books Into Thin Air, which I have not included here because it was written in 1997. This work is … Continue reading →

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The lady in the van by Alan Bennett

Posted on December 21, 2015 by drewsmith28

“I ran into a snake this afternoon,’ Miss Shepherd said. ‘It was coming up Parkway. It was a long grey snake – a boa constrictor, possibly…’” POSSIBLY, is one of Miss Shepherd’s trademark conversational gambits in this miniature masterpiece, a short … 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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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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The Gathering by Anne Enright (Vintage)

Posted on June 1, 2015 by drewsmith28

“I would like to write down what happened in my grandmother’s house the summer I was eight or nine, but I am not sure if it really did happen.” THE back cover copy on my edition says that this 2007 … Continue reading →

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Three Brothers by Peter Ackroyd (Vintage)

Posted on April 30, 2015 by drewsmith28

“In the London borough of Camden, in the middle of the last century, there lived three brothers…”  HISTORIANS should always write at least one novel set in their own era. They have the training for detail to record the now. … Continue reading →

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