Category Archives: fiction

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo (Hamish Hamilton)

Posted on November 27, 2019 by drewsmith28

“Amma is walking along the promenade of the waterway that bisects her city, a few early morning barges cruises slowly by…” PLOT? What plot? Themes, yes we have them agogo – mixed race, London, gender, motherhood etc – but no, … Continue reading →

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Strange weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami (Portobello)

Posted on October 26, 2019 by drewsmith28

“His full name was Mr Harutsuna Matsumoto, but I called him Sensei. Not Mr or Sir, but Sensei” THE original title of this off-beat romance was The Briefcase which as I read it is titillating bait. Which way does this … Continue reading →

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The Testament by Margaret Atwood (Chatto & Windus)

Posted on October 8, 2019 by drewsmith28

“Only dead people are allowed to have statues, but I have been given one while still alive. Already I am petrified.” THAT is, perhaps, one of the finest opening lines to a novel I have read, defining, coy, a come … Continue reading →

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Shadowplay by Joseph O’Connor (Harvill Secker)

Posted on August 21, 2019 by drewsmith28

My dearest Ellen, Please excuse this too-long-delayed response JOSEPH, how nice to see you again. Another tome, lovely. A pleasure, I am sure. A treat even. Back in the Ghost Light territory are we? I never connected that Bram Stoker … Continue reading →

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Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain (Gallic)

Posted on July 31, 2019 by drewsmith28

“It happened in the middle of a brightly moonlight night in the Beaujolais vineyards.” ANTOINE Laurain writes the kind of stories that do not seem to get published in Britain – a plot, a gaggle of characters, mostly quite likable … Continue reading →

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Spring by Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton)

Posted on April 30, 2019 by drewsmith28

“Now what we don’t want is Facts” THE first two of this potential quartet – Autumn and Winter –  were pleasant if not totally convincing as the contemporary novel of weight and import. This on the other hand opens with … Continue reading →

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The elegance of the hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (Gallic)

Posted on April 8, 2019 by drewsmith28

“Marx has completely changed the way I view the world,” declared the Pallieres boy this morning, although ordinarily he says nary a word to me.” PERHAPS it is just my personal taste, but it seems as if a new form … Continue reading →

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Milkman by Anna Burns (Faber)

Posted on January 25, 2019 by drewsmith28

“The day Somebody McSomebody put a gun to my breast and called me a cat and threatened to shoot me was the same day the milkman died.” THE prose is wonderfully joyful and rambling. The Guardian refers to this winner … Continue reading →

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How’s the pain? by Pascal Garnier (Gallic)

Posted on November 15, 2018 by drewsmith28

“The sound coming from somewhere in the darkness was barekly audible, but it was enough…   I AM unsure about the title, douleur can be translated as pain, but it also implies grief, soreness, aching, distress and misery as in … Continue reading →

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The gallows pole by Benjamin Myers (Bluemoose)

Posted on October 5, 2018 by drewsmith28

“Soot and ash. Snot and spume. Quag and sump and clotted moss. Loam.” THE opening playful poetry should not distract you… we are off to a flying start, it is 1767, we are on a secret errand, we pass the … Continue reading →

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