Category Archives: fiction

The bird tribunal by Agnes Ravatn (Orenda)

Posted on January 13, 2017 by drewsmith28

“My pulse raced as I traipsed through the silent forest. The occasional screech of a bird, and, other than that, only naked, grey deciduous trees, spindly young saplings and the odd blue-green sprig of juniper in the muted April sunlight.” … Continue reading →

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Days without end by Sebastian Barry (Faber)

Posted on November 29, 2016 by drewsmith28

“The method of laying out a corpse in Missouri sure took the proverbial cake.” ELENA Ferrante took four books to portray her Neapolitan chronicles, so Sebastian Barry follows the fortunes of the McNulty family in different, self standing tomes, just … Continue reading →

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His bloody project by Graeme Macrae Burnet (Contraband)

Posted on October 16, 2016 by drewsmith28

“I am writing this at the behest of my advocate, Mr Andrew Sinclair, who since my incarceration here in Inverness, has treated me with a degree of civility I in no way deserve.” GOOD writing is like singing, you hit … Continue reading →

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Gilhead by Marilynne Robinson (Virago)

Posted on October 6, 2016 by drewsmith28

“I told you last night that I might be gone sometime, and you said, Where, and I said, To be with the Good Lord, and you said, Why, and I said, Because I am old, and you said, I don’t … Continue reading →

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Cry, mother Spain by Lydie Salvayre (Maclehose)

Posted on September 27, 2016 by drewsmith28

“In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. A ceremonial ring on his venerable hand, the Most Reverend Archbishop of Palma pointed at the chests of the ‘guilty poor’, singling them out to … Continue reading →

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Irene by Pierre Lemaitre (Maclehose)

Posted on September 20, 2016 by drewsmith28

“Alice, he said, looking at what anyone else would have called a young girl”. THIS first in a trilogy translated from the French is as brilliant as it is grotesque. Crime writing splits between those trying to do outdo each … Continue reading →

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The story of the lost child by Elena Ferrante (Europa)

Posted on July 4, 2016 by drewsmith28

“From October 1976 until 1979, when I returned to Naples to live, I avoided resuming a steady relationship with Lila. But it wasn’t easy.” OF COURSE,  it was not easy. Lila “remained the same restless creature with an irresistible force … Continue reading →

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The vegetarian by Han Kang (Portobello)

Posted on June 18, 2016 by drewsmith28

“Before my wife turned vegetarian, I had always thought of her as completely unremarkable in every way.” HAD this abrasive exercise in misogynic chauvinism, puppet women, mad dreams, bizarre pornography been written by a man I wager it might have … Continue reading →

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Grief is the thing with feathers by Max Porter (Faber)

Posted on June 13, 2016 by drewsmith28

“There is a feather on my pillow.” THERE are only three characters here, the crow, the dad and twin boys sharing the grief after their mother dies. Each has their perspective. The dad: ‘wondering what to do. Shuffling around‘. The … Continue reading →

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Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift (Scribner)

Posted on June 9, 2016 by drewsmith28

“Once upon a time, before the boys were killed and when there were more houses than cars, before the male servants disappeared and they made do, at Upleigh and at Beechwood, with just a cook and a maid, the Sheringhams … Continue reading →

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