American Literature

The Silver Book by Olivia Laing

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The Silver Book

Celluloid dreams in 1970’s Italy

It’s the tail-end of an Italian summer in 1974, and English art student, Nicholas, is sketching the churches of Venice. He has the looks of a Renaissance angel and an obvious artistic flair, irresistible to the wandering eye of Danilo Donati, celebrated costume and set designer. Donati is in need of an apprentice (and another lover is always welcome). In The Silver Book by Olivia Laing, real-life people and events meld artfully with fiction, as Nicholas is invited into the decadent world of 1970’s Italian cinema and the lives of directors Federico Fellini and Pier Paolo Pasolini. Through the prism of the cinematic arts and its legendary characters he bears witness to a turbulent Italian era.

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So Long See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell

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So Long See You Tomorrow

The classic you didn’t know you should read

An absolute gem of a book, So Long See You Tomorrow by Willam Maxwell had never been on my radar of books to read until I stumbled upon it in a scantily stocked airport bookstore. It’s a novel of two loosely connected stories: the narrator who looks back at his childhood in Lincoln, Illinois and the devastating loss of his mother and the parallel tragedy of his friend Cletus’ family. Maxwell’s evocative yet sparse writing is nothing short of genius.

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The Rest of Our Lives Ben Markovits

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The Rest of Our Lives

Getting through unscathed

Shortlisted for The Booker Prize 2025, The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits is a perceptive and beautifully understated novel of midlife reevaluation, relationships and identity. Not your average road trip tale, it tells the story of 55-year-old law professor, Tom, who drops his daughter off at university for the first time and keeps on driving, away from his home, wife Amy, and job. A dozen years previously, Amy had confessed to an affair, leading to the embittered but ever pragmatic Tom vowing to leave her once the kids left home. Now that time has come, Tom reflects on what he once graded a ‘C-minus marriage’ and the decisions he must take.

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Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

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Revolutionary Road

The crumbling of an American Dream

Frank and April Wheeler seemingly have it all: good looks, cute kids, a respectable job, a white picket fence house in Connecticut. Cracks are starting to emerge, though. Is this really the life they wanted? Whatever happened to their youthful dreams? A drastic plan emerges, but what exactly are they fleeing from? Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates is an enduring American classic dealing with marriage, expectations and dreams. As relevant today, as it was in 1961 and a very good read.

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The Princess of 72nd Street by Elaine Kraf

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The Princess of 72nd Street

A New York radiance

It’s 1970’s New York, and 72nd Street is a vibrant enclave of arty types, one of whom is struggling artist, Ellen, an abstract expressionist in more than one sense. Sometimes Ellen thinks all she needs is a solvent and dependable husband, but then the ‘radiance’ will arrive, a period of euphoric mania, and her alter-ego Princess Esmerelda takes over. At such times, bedecked in flamboyant outfits, she steps out amongst her people, in search of adventure. First published in 1979 and ripe for rediscovery, The Princess of 72nd Street by Elaine Kraf is a wryly astute exploration of notions of female propriety and soundness of mind.

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Bad Nature by Ariel Courage

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Bad Nature

Bold, bizarre debut novel of revenge and resistance

Possessed of a murderous streak, Hester has always known that one day she’ll kill her father. When her 40th birthday is marked by an oncologist’s diagnosis of terminal cancer, she decides to walk away from her outwardly successful life and take a road trip to California: final destination Dad’s house, to deliver a bullet to his treacherous brain. In the fabulous debut, Bad Nature by Ariel Courage, we join Hester on a chaotic journey, accompanied by hitchhiking eco-activist, John, a man intent on saving the world while Hester turns a blind and indifferent eye. Read full Review

Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

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Farenheit 451

Scarily prescient sci-fi

Enormous TV screens airing game shows all day, a robot with a mind of its own, persecuted academics, banned books, school shootings, communication through earpieces – sound familiar?  Written in 1953 during the dark days of McCarthyism, American classic Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a scarily prescient sci-fi novel that will leave you gobsmacked.

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North Woods by Daniel Mason

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North Woods

Fortunes and misfortunes in Massachusetts

What happens to a plot of land over time? How does it change? Who lives and dies there? How do they live and die there? In North Woods by Daniel Mason, we are brought to a forested corner of Northern Massachusetts and, over four centuries, follow the fortunes and misfortunes of the people who inhabit a little yellow house on a small piece of land. Now this might sound like a disjointed premise for a good novel, but trust me when I say that Mason magically turns this hard-to-nail down idea into an highly addictive read.

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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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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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