Click here to read my review in the Guardian of Fiona Benson’s new poetry collection, which I expect to be one of the most praised and talked-about of the year.
Henry Eliot (ed.): The Penguin Classics Book
Click here to read, just in time for last-minute present-buying for bookish friends, my review in The Spectator of The Penguin Classics Book, a beautiful, sumptuous, detailed and shaming history and catalogue of perhaps the only classics publisher in the UK that is a genuine household name.
Lucia Berlin: Evening in Paradise / Welcome Home
Click here to read my Irish Times review of two new Lucia Berlin books: Evening in Paradise (more stories, following from A Manual for Cleaning Women) and the memoir/photos/letters collected as Welcome Home.
Mariana Enriquez: Things We Lost in the Fire
If you’re squeamish, close your eyes now. Click here to read my paperback review of Mariana Enriquez’s very disturbing but compelling collection of stories. (You can open them again.)
Roland Buti: Year of the Drought
Click here to read my short review, in The Guardian, of Roland Buti’s engaging and surprising coming-of-age novel.
Anna Burns: Milkman
Click here to read my review of Anna Burns’ Booker-shortlisted novel Milkman, in Literary Review magazine. This is a novel that’s had a lot of praise, on my Twitter timeline at least, so my lukewarm response may show the unconvinced that they’re not alone.
Yoko Tawada: The Last Children of Tokyo
Click here to read my capsule review in The Guardian of Yoko Tawada’s The Last Children of Tokyo (translated by Margaret Mitsutani).
There wasn’t room in my review to comment on this, but I noticed that the title of the US edition is The Emissary. This seems to me somewhat closer to the original (Kentoshi) and more in keeping with the spirit of the book, whereas the UK title goes for a more eye-catching take on the underlying premise of the plot. I prefer the US version.
