Bookclub Reads

Little Novels of Sicily by Giovanni Verga

Review by

Little Novels of Sicily

Bitter lemons

At first glance, the striking cover of Little Novels of Sicily by Giovanni Verga appears to suggest sunshine, lemon groves, perhaps a dash of heartwarming whimsy. But Verga’s Sicily was a 19th-century island of grinding poverty, widespread corruption and disease. In these dozen short stories, first published in 1883, the author draws inspiration from the villages and people of his youth. Each tale is touched with the beauty of the landscape but has a sting in the tail, as clergy, landowners and peasants variously thrive, struggle, revolt, and often succumb to malaria in this superb collection, translated by none other than D. H. Lawrence in 1925 and republished by Pushkin Press Classics.

Read full Review

Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

Review by

Bad Blood

A peek into the dark corners of Silicon Valley

Twenty-one-year-old Stanford drop-out Elizabeth Holmes had a game changing idea for the health care industry, a steely determination and seductive powers of persuasion; she also had an execution problem and questionable ethics. In Bad Blood by John Carreyrou, an investigative journalist at The Wall Street Journal, we get the shocking story of Theranos, the largest health care start-up fraud in recent history. A page turning real-life thriller which has been turned into the highest-grossing US documentary in 15 years just two weeks after it’s release. Read it now, before the rest of the world does.

Read full Review

The Castle- Adventures in a World of Unravelling Men by Jon Ronson

Review by

The Castle: Adventures in a World of Unravelling Men

It’s a mad, mad world out there

Jon Ronson writes books about the same dark corners of the world that Louis Theroux explores in his documentaries. This time, his subject is toxic masculinity, anti-wokeness, shouting on social media, male anger, sexual deviancy and just plain weirdos. The Castle: Adventures in a World of Unravelling Men by Jon Ronson takes us deep into a world whose contours we glimpse in the comments sections on social media. It’s ugly, shocking, utterly mad – and at times, very, very funny.

Read full Review

Matrix by Lauren Groff

Review by

Matrix

The Original Girl Power

At seventeen, Marie is kicked out of Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine’s court in France and exiled to a godforsaken abbey in the English countryside. Deemed too ugly to marry, Marie, an orphaned ‘bastard’ with royal blood, is stowed away for life. There’s far more to Marie than meets the eye, however, and soon enough, she has turned the poverty-stricken abbey into a powerhouse. The question is: how does Eleanor feel about that?  And, anyway, are women really meant to achieve this much? If a story about nuns in a 12th century abbey sounds dull to you, think again; Matrix by Lauren Groff is an absolutely riveting read.

Read full Review

Review by

The Door

Housekeeper from hell?

I’ve been enjoying this very unusual and utterly absorbing (thinly veiled, true) story about a Hungarian writer (the narrator and Magda Szabó herself) and her housekeeper Emerence. It’s a novel about a precarious relationship, mutual respect (and some disrespect), balance of power and the secrets of a remarkable life, all under the magnifying glass.

Read full Review

Summer Light and Then Comes the Night by Jon Kalman Stefansson

Review by

Summer Light and Then Comes the Night

Humanity distilled

Truly original novels are few and far between. All the more reason to hail the wonderfully quirky Summer Light and Then Comes the Night by Jon Kalman Stefansson. It’s the portrait of a remote Icelandic town set in the 1990s and if that fails to excite you, I promise that this unexpected, humorous, warm story is worth reading.  Stefansson describes dreams and aspirations, crushed or fulfilled; love and desire, unrequited or reciprocated. Life, basically. His tone in playful, conversational and above all, funny. A breath of literary fresh air.

Read full Review

Hidden Creatures by Dino Martins

Review by

Hidden Creatures

The thrillingly repulsive world of parasites

One of our favourite books of the year to date, Hidden Creatures by Dino Martins takes us on a journey into the enigmatic world of parasites. These unsettling critters are camping out on practically every square inch of our planet, frolicking in our intestines, gorging on our blood and nibbling away at our animals. We join Dr Martins, often in the company of his eager students, crossing continents and studying them at depth, from the tiniest tick to the largest parasitic worm. Filled with both gloriously poetic descriptions of the natural world and thrillingly repulsive accounts of parasite behaviour, it’s a unique and fascinating read.

Read full Review

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth

Review by

The Plot Against America

Why have I not read this book before?

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth has been around since 2004, been made into a TV series, is widely considered to be a modern American classic and has lingered on my TBR list for a while. Perhaps reading it now, against the backdrop of current American politics, is even more impactful (it’s certainly more frightening). Roth imagines an alternative political reality with the aviation hero and Nazi sympathiser Charles Lindbergh defeating Roosevelt in the 1940 Presidential election. Under the motto ‘America First’, (sounds familiar?), the country takes a sharp anti-semitic turn, threatening democracy and the Jewish Roth family’s peaceful existence.

Read full Review

The Renovation by Kenan Orhan

Review by

The Renovation

Memory and motherland

Dilara is a Turkish exile, living in Italy with her husband and her ailing father, a blacklisted political academic who is gradually succumbing to dementia. Having fled President Erdoğan’s oppressive regime, the three of them have led a comfortably uneventful life for some years. When Dilara hires some builders for a renovation, she is astonished to discover that in place of the expected swish new bathroom, they have installed a Turkish prison cell, a sesame-scented portal to their much missed homeland. A wonderful exploration of memory, captivity and exile. The Renovation by Kenan Orhan is yet another gem on this year’s excellent Booker Longlist.

Read full Review

The Queens of Sarmiento Park by Camila Sosa Villada

Review by

The Queens of Sarmiento Park

Fearless Argentinian tale of exclusion and chosen family

The continuing boom in Latin American literature (LatAm), has introduced us to some amazing writers (we’ve loved recent works by Mariana Enriquez and Dahlia de la Cerda). In common with these and other LatAm writers, in The Queens of Sarmiento Park by Camila Sosa Villada, the author brings us an impassioned and lyrical tale that blends the political and subcultural with a dash of magical realism. Hers is the story of  ‘the queerest boarding house in the world’, the sex workers who live there with the matriarchal Auntie Encarna, and what happens when Auntie finds an abandoned baby and decides to raise him as one of their own.

Read full Review