Half a dozen astronauts circle the planet earth from outer space in this odd, rhapsodic novel about a gravity-free voyage in which the travellers see everything – food, water, cutlery, sleep, sex, toilet arrangements, themselves – from a different angle. In many ways, it’s a story about our planet as seen by outsiders. And, also, … More Orbital – Samantha Harvey
The Only Story, Julian Barnes, Vintage It’s the sixties and Paul is back home in Surrey on holiday from university when he meets and starts sleeping with the much older Susan, whose mastery of the tennis court attracts him almost as much as her wit and lithe figure clad in whites. Ironic, damaged and knowing, … More Telling everyone’s story
One of the worst things about long-term illness can be feeling you’re on your own, despite all attempts by well-meaning friends and family to persuade you otherwise. Hilary Mantel understands the isolation only too well, as she shows in Giving up the Ghost. Bodily failure Zoom and social media are, of course, helping; they connect … More Giving up the Ghost
It took Adam Ross more than ten years to write the novel Playworld and little wonder; the 500pp title is a tour de force, offering acute, compassionate and unparalleled insight into the pain so often involved in coming of age. Although the novel is set in 1980s Manhattan, the story has a universality that will … More Playworld – Adam Ross
While the prose underpinning Gabriel’s Moon has (partly) won me over, I am afraid to report I was not thrilled by the book itself. Don’t get me wrong, Boyd has skill, writing so beautifully that even a description of the rain sparkles in his hands: ‘At Peebles the river was clear, fast and shallow, the … More Gabriel’s Moon
There were times I was uncomfortably aware of the deeper meaning of Cloud Cuckoo Land eluding me as I was reading it, but I eventually managed to work out what was happening. Roughly, anyway. And ironically, last week we ended up having one of our most successful book club discussions in many months about the title, a story that circles around different stories, all of them eulogies to the book. … More Away with the fairies?
I’m almost ashamed to confess it, but I’d never read Heartburn by Nora Ephron until this month. Despite loving her movies over the last forty or so years. But after our local book group chose the title for this month’s discussion, I sat down and raced through the chatty yet heartbreaking pages. Now I wish … More Heartburn
This isn’t a book I’d have normally picked up, but someone suggested the title for our local book group in July and so I duly read it. Part of the fun in book group is discovering new authors, I’ve learnt, and I’ve enjoyed The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez since it’s lifted the curtain on a world that’s largely hidden. Hidden not just for me but also most of Europe. … More The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul
There’s a dreamy, elegiac quality to this novel about Lara, a mature wife and mother coming to terms with her racier past as an actress as she relates carefully selected parts of her life to her three adult daughters. Written during lockdown, the novel itself is actually set during an unspecified pandemic and centres on Lara, her husband Joe and their children. … More Tom Lake
Helen Fowler Writer 