Reviews

Jean by Madeleine Dunnigan

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Jean

Impressive debut outsider novel

A sultry debut novel for our sizzling summer, Jean by Madeleine Dunnigan is an absorbing story of alienation, longing and the search for self. Set in England, during the famously long, hot summer of 1976, it tells of Jean, a 17-year-old scholarship boy at a bohemian boarding school for challenging boys. An angry and solitary soul, Jean feels ill at ease and unwelcome in this monied environment. As exams loom and Jean trembles on the brink of an uncertain future, Dunnigan takes us into his mind, past and present, and his growing attraction to a boy named Tom, sportsman, temptation and catalyst.

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I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal

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I Served the King of England

A compelling Czech modern classic

A 1971 Czech gem from the distinctive Vintage Classics list, I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal gives us the tumultuous life story of Ditie, hotel waiter, entrepreneur and lover. Hung up on his stature (both physically and socially), but with the loftiest of ambitions, Ditie chronicles his life, a rise from impoverished beginnings in pre-war Prague to self-made millionaire, before losing it all again. In Hrabal’s humorous, often bawdy, philosophical tale, the events in Ditie’s life are inextricably linked to the years encompassing the Nazi annexation and Soviet communist occupation of his homeland. His journey from wily youth to chastened reflection is a remarkable one.

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London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe

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London Falling

A visit to London's underworld

You might have heard about 19-year-old Zac Brettler’s death falling from a Thames luxury apartment block. Police ruled it to be suicide – MI6 surveillance cameras from across the Thames showed he jumped. Zac’s parents were not so sure. Determined to find out what happened and with the help of an investigative journalist, they start digging. What they unearth will leave you gobsmacked. London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe is a gripping non-fiction book: well-researched, well-written, an almost unbelievable story and, ultimately, deeply sad.

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The Correspondent by Virgina Evans

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The Correspondent

The lost art of letter writing

Just in time for summer, Women’s Prize for Fiction has picked The Correspondent by Viriginia Evans as their 2026 winner. A perfect beach read, both light-hearted and serious, the novel is a series of letters, sent and received by the septuagenarian Sybil Van Antwerp. Sybil beautifully masters the art of letter writing and makes us all yearn for the days we wrote and received them ourselves. Through 11 years of correspondence with family, friends and a selection of random people, we get to learn about the ups and downs of Sybil’s life. A lovely, moving and melancholic book.

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Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer

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Villa Coco

A zest for life

Happily destined for the Summer Reads bestseller lists, Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer seems at first glance to follow the well-worn literary path of an American innocent abroad. It tells the story of an initially unnamed young man, a recently graduated archivist, hired to catalogue the artefacts and treasures of a grand Tuscan Villa. Upon arrival, however, he is plunged into a world of bizarre characters and strange events orchestrated by his employer, 92-year-old Coco, the Baronessa. Coco instantly nicknames him ‘Giovedì’, and along with her kooky companions, lights his way to a life well lived in Greer’s luminous tale of friendship, abiding secrets and sheer zest for life.

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Dead Lucky by Connor Hutchinson

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Dead Lucky

Inspired debut novel of addiction and confession

The most original debut we’ve read this year, Dead Lucky by Connor Hutchinson tells the story of twenty-something Jamie, a funeral embalmer leading a chaotic double life in a Manchester suburb. Although dedicated to his job and in love with his fabulous girlfriend, Rebecca, Jamie is harbouring a secret which threatens to capsize his life. Addicted to gambling, on the edge of financial ruin and under pressure from Rebecca to purchase their first home together, Jamie needs to pull off a major win. By turns darkly funny and affecting, Dead Lucky invites us into the mind of a young man, who unable to share his troubles with those who love him, tells them to the corpses on his embalming table instead.

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Strangers by Belle Burden

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Strangers by Belle Burden

The shock of abandonment

On the face it, the premise of Strangers by Belle Burden might repel some readers. A Waspy, privileged, New York woman is suddenly left by her successful, hedge fund husband. What’s new? you might think. That was my reaction too, however, as I started reading I was won over by Burden and her portrayal of grief, confusion and loneliness. Sure, millions of women around the world have been in a lot more dire straits than Burden, but the trauma of being abandoned is universal.

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The Writer's Room by Katie da Cunha Lewin

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The Writer’s Room

Reimagining writers’ spaces

When asked to conjure a mental image of writers at work, what do we see? Perhaps a book-lined study, tasteful art pieces, the writer toiling away at their desk, a solitary soul summoning the magic. The Writer’s Room by Katie da Cunha Lewin takes us on an absorbing and wide-ranging journey, beyond the rarified spaces of the preserved writer’s house and ‘exit through the gift shop’ vibe to the aspiring novelist typing into their phone on the bus to their day job, the harassed parent scribbling away between baby’s feeds, and the new writing spaces carved out by and for the 21st century writer.

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Ladies of the Rachmaninoff Eyes by Henry Van Dyke

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Ladies of the Rachmaninoff Eyes

Laughing through the tears

We’re devotees of the excellent Faber Editions series, dedicated to resurrecting radical novels of the 20th century. New to the list is an American gem, Ladies of the Rachmaninoff Eyes by Henry Van Dyke. This distinctly offbeat 1950s-set drama is told through the eyes of Oliver, a young, gay Black man, who lives with his elderly aunt, Harriet, and her employer of thirty years , Mrs Etta Klein. In a tale that ranges from farce to tragedy (with lashings of rum), Oliver uncovers the truth behind a Klein family suicide, in the company of a sex-mad maid, a shady psychic, and his own beloved volume of Baudelaire’s poems.

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Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushima

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Territory of Light

A quietly powerful story of separation

Our nameless narrator’s husband has just announced he is leaving her. Adrift with a three-year old daughter she attempts to rebuild a life, but 1970s Japan is an unforgiving place for divorced women and shame, sadness and responsibility weigh heavily on her. Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushima is a strange little book; its quietly powerful, sparse language perfectly captures despair and isolation in the wake of separation.

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