The Islamist (2007)
Ed Husain
Penguin Books, 286pp
Part memoir and part debate on the causes and rise of radical Islam in Great Britain, Ed Husain’s The Islamist is revealed to be essential reading. His erudition and honesty form the backbone to this compelling and stimulating story of his involvement with Islamic fundamentalists in London mosques as [...]
Archive for May, 2009
Husain, Ed (2007) The Islamist
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Ed Husain, The Islamist on May 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Bolaño, Roberto (1997, 2001) Last Evenings on Earth
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged 2666, chris andrews, last evenings on earth, roberto bolano, The Savage Detectives on May 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Last Evenings on Earth (1997, 2001)
Roberto Bolaño
Vintage, 277pp
Translation by Chris Andrews
Roberto Bolaño’s reputation has, in the time since his death, rocketed. Two of his novels, The Savage Detectives and 2666 (both previously reviewed on this blog) have been highly and justly praised. In the wake of such interest in his work, publishers have [...]
Murakami, Haruki (2004) Afutãdãku (After Dark)
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged After Dark, Afutãdãku, Duke Ellington, Haruki Murakami, Hikikomori, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running on May 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Afutãdãku (After Dark) (2004)
Haruki Murakami
Vintage, 201pp
Following my reading of Haruki Murakami’s 2008 memoir of running, reviewed previously on this blog, I retrieved from my ever-growing ‘to read’ pile, this short novella from 2004. After Dark is slight – though the Vintage edition just fills 200 pages, it could easily lose another forty if all the [...]
Franzen, Jonathan (2002) How To Be Alone
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Harper's Essay, How To Be Alone, Jonathan Franzen, Oprah Winfrey Book Club, Perchance to Dream on May 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
How To Be Alone (2002)
Jonathan Franzen
Fourth Estate, 278pp
Jonathan Franzen is one of the wunderkinds of modern American letters. Justly praised for his 2001 novel, The Corrections, he nevertheless became the subject of much criticism when that novel was selected for the Oprah Winfrey book club only to have his inclusion rescinded when he expressed doubts [...]
Dickens, Oliver (1837 – 1839) Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Artful Dodger, Bill Sikes, Carol Reed, Charles Dickens, David Lean, Fagin, Freidrich Engels, George Cruickshank, Nancy, Nicholas Nickleby, Oliver Twist, The Parish Boy's Progress, Working Class in England in 1844 on May 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress (1837 – 1839)
Charles Dickens
Wordsworth Classics, 506pp
And so we come to Charles Dickens’s most famous work. Oliver Twist was serialised in Bentley’s Miscellany beginning in February 1837 and ending in April 1839 and it introduced some of Dickens’s best loved and known characters, from the titular Oliver, to [...]
Shamsie, Kamila (2009) Burnt Shadows
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Anita Desai, Burnt Shadows, Kamila Shamsie, Michael Ondaatje, Orange Prize for Fiction on May 9, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Burnt Shadows (2009)
Kamila Shamsie
Bloomsbury, 363pp
Nominated for the 2009 Orange Prize for Fiction, Kamila Shamsie’s fifth novel, Burnt Shadows, explores the way in which histories shape one another, and of how people, caught up in events beyond their control, manage to find humanity even in the darkest of days.
It reveals its epic scope quickly, with a [...]
Roth, Philip (2007) Exit Ghost
Posted in Uncategorized on May 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Exit Ghost (2007)
Philip Roth
Vintage, 292pp
I’m a late arrival to the cult of Roth. I read Everyman when that came out in 2006, and then enjoyed American Pastoral. Recently I picked up his 2007 Nathan Zuckerman novel Exit Ghost, along with his next published novel, Indignation. I like his style, though I wonder if he is [...]
Smith, Tom Rob (2008) Child 44
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Child 44. Tom Rob Smith, Leo Demidov, The Secret Speech on May 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Child 44 (2008)
Tom Rob Smith
Pocket Books, 470pp
Tom Rob Smith’s debut thriller, Child 44, received much media attention when it was long-listed for the 2008 Man Booker Prize, the first mainstream novel to have done so in some time. It did not make the shortlist but it did go onto the Costa First Novel Award [...]
