This is a surprisingly short novel considering the vastness of its subject matter: right-wing extremism and the banality of evil. But it’s brevity is a tribute to the magnitude o
Five years ago exactly, in the summer of 2016, I wrote a review for these pages of Dulce Maria Cardoso’s first novel in English, The Return. I have never forgotten that novel, an
Set in contemporary Spain, Rabbit Island offers readers a recognisable world, subtly twisted by Navarro’s dark prose. This somewhat nightmarish collection, in an excellent transl
A frequently reiterated question (as this writer can attest) is: ‘When will the Nordic Noir boom be over?’ The answer to that enquiry has to be nuanced – certainly, the kinet
‘It’s the sort of thing that sisters know, I think to myself, how to hurt one another…’ So muses forty-year-old narrator Ida in Grown Ups, the toothsome debut novel by Norw
French writer Laurent Binet’s new novel, Civilisations is fictional history, turning true events upside down. What if a group of Vikings lands in North America and makes it as fa
The sad occasion of Marcel Péricourt’s funeral turns profoundly tragic when his grandson falls from a second-floor window. The child’s injuries are life-changing, and his moth
The Road to the City is, at first glance, shockingly simple. From the first-person narrative voice of the seventeen-year-old Delia, to the novel’s conceit – her journey to adul
This is a beautifully observed ‘roses and thorns’ love story. A bond forged between two children in Bologna cuts across the class divide, defying obstacles and expectations to
Three times I have travelled to Venice. I was teenager the first time and only spent a few evening hours there – I remember darkness, dampness and excitement. The next time was m
