Helping everyone to read more books.
Little Fires Everywhere is a story of families and motherhood - particularly mother daughter relationships. As a novel it is domestic but complicated. At first it seems like it might be a bit predictable: Affluent suburban family meets bohemian single mum and daughter who are new in town. But Ng nicely develops out the female characters … Continue reading Little Fires Everywhere – Celeste Ng
Nutshell is a dark comedy, a Hamlet-story narrated by an unborn baby yet to avenge his father. Our womb-based narrator is smart, witty and worldly. He has learned by listening to his mother's radio programs and doesn't hold back sharing his views on the state of society at large. “However close you get to others, … Continue reading Nutshell – Ian McEwan
The Sympathizer is an absolutely fascinating story of a double agent at the end of the Vietnam war. “I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces. Perhaps not surprisingly, I am also a man of two minds.” Dark humour pervades this novel as our main character, the Captain, tells his … Continue reading The Sympathizer – Viet Thanh Nguyen
The English Patient is enchanting. A profound and captivating Booker Prize winning novel. The story brims with sensuality and meanders through beautifully written words, ultimately searching for the identity of all involved - not just the mysterious patient in the bed upstairs. This is no straightforward plot. Each of the four main characters has their … Continue reading The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje
Amsterdam is basically a story about middle age men coming to terms with their lives - their work, their legacy, their meaning, their morality. None of the characters are particularly likeable, but then I think that's the point. Amsterdam is extremely well written and witty. Some people don't get it or like it - but … Continue reading Amsterdam – Ian McEwan
The Golden House is a modern family saga set in New York and Mumbai. Written by award-winning author Salman Rushdie so expectations obviously start high. The story runs deep in its quest for finding self-identity and morality, as well as defining the current state of American culture. It is full of literary allusions, film and pop … Continue reading The Golden House – Salman Rushdie
Brown University, 1982. Madeleine Hanna, dutiful English student and incurable romantic, is writing her thesis on Jane Austen and George Eliot - authors of the great marriage plots. As Madeleine studies the age-old motivations of the human heart, real life, in the form of two very different men, intervenes.. Another coming of age novel from … Continue reading The Marriage Plot – Jeffrey Eugenides
We are our stories. We tell them to stay alive or keep alive those who only live now in the telling. Bed-bound in her attic room beneath the falling rain, in the margin between this world and the next, plain Ruth Swain is in search of her father. To find him, enfolded in the mystery … Continue reading History of the Rain – Niall Williams
Set across Istanbul and Oxford, from the 1980s to the present day, Three Daughters of Eve is a sweeping tale of faith and friendship, tradition and modernity, love and an unexpected betrayal. Peri, our main character, is prompted by an old polaroid photo of 3 young women and their professor, to reminisce about her time at … Continue reading Three Daughters of Eve – Elif Shafak
When he falls ill on his way home from school, fifteen-year-old Michael Berg is rescued by Hanna, a woman twice his age. In time she becomes his lover—then she inexplicably disappears. When Michael next sees her, he is a young law student, and she is on trial for a hideous crime. Set in post-war Germany, … Continue reading The Reader – Bernhard Schlink