Money to Burn by Asta Olivia Nordenhof

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Money to Burn

The cost of capitalism

Garlanded with glorious reviews and European literary awards, Danish publishing sensation, Money to Burn by Asta Olivia Nordenhof, is a strikingly unique proposition. The first in a planned septology, this ambitious and courageous novel is essentially a denunciation of late capitalism, told through the prism of a real-life tragedy (The 1990 arson attack on the Scandinavian Star ferry, which killed 159 people but was never satisfactorily explained). In this inspired tale, Nordenhof imagines the lives and loves of a middle-aged Danish couple, interlaced with a journalistic dissection of the disaster. How the two may be connected makes for galvanising reading.

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The Visit of the Royal Physician by Per Olov Enquist

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The Visit of the Royal Physician

The madness of King Christian VII

There’s something special about novels based on real events, particularly when the story is crazy as that of the The Visit of the Royal Physician by Per Olov Enquist. It’s the late 1700s and the time of absolute rulers. In Denmark, a German doctor is hired to take care of the 16-year-old mentally disturbed King Christian VII. Within months, Struensee becomes the Queen’s lover and de-facto sovereign while living alongside King Christian. How was this possible? And was this Struensee’s intention all along? A wild journey into the madness of 18th century court life, revolutionary ideas and an absolute treat of a novel. Read full Review

Ex-Wife by Ursual Parrott

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Ex-Wife

Brilliantly pithy observations of 1920’s American womanhood

It’s the Roaring Twenties and Patricia is living the Jazz Age dream in New York. Hers is a cosmopolitan life of smoky nightclubs and cocktail parties, with the added bonus of a sexually liberated husband. But at the age of just twenty-four, Patricia finds herself unglamorously dumped, after her ‘theoretically modern’ husband, Peter leaves her. Apparently, any agreed sexual freedoms had applied only to him, and so, when Patricia reveals an amorous liaison, she is spurned and forced to build a new life as a not-so-merry divorcée. Labelled scandalous and sensational upon publication in 1929, Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott portrays a generation eager for a permissive society but mired in double standards.

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Eurotrash by Christian Kracht

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Eurotrash

Filthy lucre and edelweiss

Originally published in German in 2021, it’s taken years for Eurotrash by Christian Kracht to make it into English translation, and mere weeks to bag a place on The Times Best Books of 2024 list. Witty, reflective, and frequently disturbing, Kracht’s semi-autobiographical tragicomedy stars the man himself, as a middle-aged Swiss writer embarking on a road trip around Switzerland with his elderly mother. Recently released from a mental institution, and potentially on her last legs, it could be both their final holiday together, and Kracht’s only chance to get her to confront the implications of their family’s Nazi past.

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Record of a Night Too Brief by Hiromi Kawakami

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Record of a Night Too Brief

A mind-bending treat for Kawakami completists

One for Japanese literature obsessives, the fabulously titled Record of a Night Too Brief by Hiromi Kawakami is a trio of increasingly trippy stories, centred on women undergoing transformative (to say the least) life experiences. Originally published in 1996, Kawakami’s rising stardom blessed us with an English translation in 2017. In this gem from the Pushkin Press Japanese Short Story Collection, Kawakami considers convention and tradition alongside the strangests of plots, her seemingly everyday women plunged into surreal tales involving unending night, shape-shifting, and a family whose members are prone to vanishing.

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The Book Lover's European Bucket List by Caroline Taggart

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The Book Lover’s European Bucket List

Inspiration for your very own literary grand tour

How better to while away the lazy days of Twixmas than planning adventures for the coming year? The Book Lover’s European Bucket List by Caroline Taggart is a wonderful gift for wandering bibliophiles, a combination of practical guide and paean to European literature. One hundred literary landmarks are explored, from the heart of Shelley’s Rome to the contemporary Stockholm of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy. Meticulously researched and littered with writers’ quotes, Taggart whisks us away to a continental idyll, where you can ‘linger over a coffee or a cognac and imagine you are waiting for Simone de Beauvoir’.

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Christmas 2024

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Our Favourite Books of 2024

2024 has been a good pretty good year for books. We’ve enjoyed a few blockbusters and some experimental fiction, fallen in love with a couple of short-story collections, been educated by non-fiction and travelled back to our younger selves while searching for our favourite children’s books.  We’ve pulled out our top reads and hope this will inspire you to spread the joy. You’ll find the full review by clicking on the titles. Happy reading and Merry Christmas!

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Open Throat by Henry Hoke

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Open Throat

The nature of the beast

From the outset, Open Throat by Henry Hoke promises to be a wild ride, its eye-popping first line, ‘I’ve never eaten a person but today I might,’ spoken by a queer, non-binary mountain lion, who has made their home alongside the legendary Hollywood sign overlooking Los Angeles. The lion is desperately hungry and spends their days covertly watching the locals, torn between curiosity about human life and the desire to shred passers-by and eat them for lunch. In this razor-sharp allegorical novella, the lion considers modern American society and its impact on the marginalised, whilst being dangerously tempted to join the club.

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Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst

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Our Evenings

Tame Hollinghurst

Growing up mixed-race, gay, with a single mum in 1960s rural England leaves a lot to be desired. Yet, that’s the reality of English-Burmese actor David Win, the protagonist of In Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst. David looks back and reflects on life at his scholarship funded boarding school, his gay love affairs and budding acting career, all seeped in homophobia, snobbery and racism. Despite these explosive subject matters, I’m sorry to report that I found the novel lacking. I never expected to use the word ‘tame’ and ‘Hollinghurst’ in the same sentence, but that, Hollinghurst fans, is, unfortunately, what we have here.

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Though the Bodies Fall by Noel O'Regan

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Though the Bodies Fall

The salvation of lost souls

Flanked by the Atlantic Ocean on the Kerry Head peninsula, Micheál lives in his childhood home, a picture-postcard bungalow which is the final dwelling before the rugged rocks of the headlands. With his sisters flown the nest and his parents dead, Micheál’s solitary life is dedicated to continuing his parents’ work, saving the ‘lost souls’ who attempt to commit suicide by leaping from the clifftops. In Though the Bodies Fall by Noel O’Regan, Micheál’s story of trauma and duty, and his attempt at reconciliation with the past, is told in an atmospheric and strikingly unique Irish debut.

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