Here and Now collects the correspondence between Paul Auster and J.M. Coetzee, two writers who occupy similar constellations in the literary imagination, written between 2008 and 2011. After meeting for the first time in 2008, Coetzee proposed to Auste...
Sun 21 Apr 2013 by Daniel Davies | Read more »
The Childhood of Jesus is a book that represents a significant divergence from the rest of Coetzee’s oeuvre. Instead of a bleak, dystopian tale, this is a perversely comic, intellectually profound and obscurely allegorical novel. Protagonists S...
Sun 21 Apr 2013 by Vivek Santayana | Read more »
Amit Chaudhuri’s new travelogue-cum-autobiographical tale is a remarkable feat. On the surface it's a poignant personal narrative that takes the reader on a journey across the city. But it's also a uniquely heartfelt reflection on the proces...
Thu 21 Mar 2013 by Vivek Santayana | Read more »
Mon 04 Mar 2013 by Jennifer Taylor | Read more »
In November 1989 The Sun ran a two-page news story: "STRAIGHT SEX CANNOT GIVE YOU AIDS – OFFICIAL". It was the beginning of a concerted campaign to discredit the discovery of the HIV-AIDS link; an attempt to propagate the subliminal message that...
Sun 03 Mar 2013 by John Hewitt Jones | Read more »
Edinburgh as a subject poses a challenge for poets. Like Venice, it’s all-too-easy to resort to superlatives and depict a city that slops around in its own mawkishness. It’s an irony to which Magicians of Edinburgh commonly falls foul. Fro...
Sun 03 Mar 2013 by Alex Howard | Read more »
Wed 20 Feb 2013 by John Hewitt Jones | Read more »
Tue 19 Feb 2013 by Stefani Millar | Read more »
Wed 06 Feb 2013 by Dr Andrew Taylor | Read more »
Of the list of useless books to have on your shelf, The Horlogicon should be at the very top. It’s a scintillating exploration of language, sallying through an eclectic variety of words in the order that you might use them during the day. Who wou...
Wed 06 Feb 2013 by Jon Vrushi | Read more »
Wed 06 Feb 2013 by John Hewitt Jones | Read more »
Wed 23 Jan 2013 by John Hewitt Jones | Read more »
The archetypal cold war spy novel, Le Carré balances the subterranean world of 60’s espionage, with a compelling human narrative of gripping intensity. After a network of agents in Berlin is seriously compromised, Alec Leamus finds himsel...
Wed 23 Jan 2013 by John Hewitt Jones | Read more »
This is an early, easily overlooked McEwan novel. With a slow beginning and unconvincing chunks of dialogue, it may not have the polish of his later books, but it’ll leave an impact through a dramatic denouement that’s as gruesome as it is ...
Wed 23 Jan 2013 by John Hewitt Jones | Read more »
Alan Furst’s gripping espionage-thriller follows Colonel Jean-François Mercier as he runs a precarious operation to gather intelligence on the eve of the German invasion of France; a relentless game of deception and subterfuge between agen...
Wed 23 Jan 2013 by Vivek Santayana | Read more »
Sun 20 Jan 2013 by Aideen Herron | Read more »
A celebration of faith in its many forms, Life of Pi tells the remarkable story of young Pi Patel, a boy from Pondicherry, India. Growing up near his father’s zoo, Pi’s early life is one of discovery of both the natural and the spiritual. T...
Tue 15 Jan 2013 by Jennifer Taylor | Read more »
Wed 21 Nov 2012 by Lorne Jackson | Read more »
Wed 21 Nov 2012 by John Hewitt Jones | Read more »