#RivetingReviews: February 2022. Introduction by Alice Banks

In a stormy month for all in the United Kingdom, this collection of reviews takes us on another whirlwind. This time a more pleasant one – through a selection of books from the Czech Republic, Russia, Spain, France, Iceland and Germany.

We begin in the Czech Republic, where Rosie Eyre examines an unsettling novel that provides an intriguing and disturbing take on what a ‘New World’ in which men’s sexual ideals are drilled out of them would be like.

Jumping from one regime-like world to another, Fiona Graham reviews a chilling crime novel set in 1930s Leningrad, in which a staunchly by-the-book detective surrounded by corruption struggles to get to the bottom of a murder.

Things take a more introspective turn with Dymphna Flynn’s review of Prosopagnosia, an unusual story of body image and self-deception.

Max Easterman takes us to Paris, a city we all associate with romance and exciting affairs, where he reviews a book that deals with quite the opposite: heartbreak and the despair of dealing with a lost love. 

Then we move on to Iceland, where Paul Burke reviews an ambitious novel that deals with memories and their loss, a book that quite ironically is ‘unforgettable’.

Finally, we end in Germany, where Becky Danks reviews a novella that offers readers a glimpse into the lives of a kaleidoscope of characters from an eclectic East Berlin district that has witnessed huge social change. 

We hope this month’s brilliant selection of reviews will inspire you to add a few more books to your to-be-read pile, and see you into a slightly less breezy spring! If you like the sound of any book, please do buy them via our dedicated Bookshop.org page. 

If you’d like to review a book for us, please read our guidelines, check on our website to see if the book hasn’t already been reviewed and then contact us at reviews@eurolitnetwork.com. 

—Alice Banks