I did not expect to read this book untouched, given it is about a brilliant, gentle, and unconventional man and father, David Sibelius, who is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s when his daughter, Ada, is just twelve. Having majored in mathematics, at...
After her Booker Prize winning The Inheritance of Loss in 2006, the world had to wait almost 20 years for Kiran Desai’s next novel – also shortlisted for the 2025 Booker. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny are about these two...
Over the years, I have followed the development of Tash Aw’s oeuvre, enjoying a lot of his writing but also sometimes persevering with others which I was only lukewarm towards, perhaps because he is a Malaysian writer (living in London)...
This nearly 500 paged book stuffed with information and concepts and history is not going to be easy to review comprehensively. This review will just highlight a few key ideas and topics that rise to the forefront of my mind...
Our protagonist is Zelu, a 2nd generation Nigerian American (Najiamerican) paraplegic woman, who no longer has use of her legs after she fell out of a tree at 12 years old. At the start of the novel, 34 year old Zelu...
A little gem. What else could I call this half length novel? (It’s only about 165 pages) As it says on the tin, the whole story happens within three days in June, the day before the wedding of the protagonist’s...
The first chapter blew me away. It was, bucking current trends and seeming more like an E.M Forster novel or something from that era, a chapter devoted entirely to description. No dialogue, no plot, pure description. It takes a very...
It is difficult to know how to review this book, because while it reads easily enough, it doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere. Perhaps it is more a case of travelling backwards in memories in order to figure out how...
This book does exactly what it says on the tin! It is hard to classify this book, fiction of course, but what kind of fiction? A devotional is exactly the right description. Our protagonist – I don’t think she is...
This is a novel filled with love for the ocean and everything in it, plus all its unknowns and mysteries and magic. It is, like so many of other Powers novels, also a clarion call to conservation. The novel is...
Being a wuss, I was put off reading Catton’s Booker Prize winning, 800+ paged The Luminaries because it seemed too lengthy, but now I suspect I should just bite the bullet and try it out. Simply because her latest, Birnam...
This novel is by no means unique in writing about what happens after the death of someone who has been important in the lives of those they left behind. Recently, by chance, I was reading Anna Quindlen’s After Annie, where the...
This is not one of Quindlen’s lovely novels, but a non-fiction where she writes her thoughts on life and life’s lessons. It was a highly enjoyable read because I relish her writing voice, its clarity and charm, and also enjoyed...
Having read a few less than glowing reviews of this Patchett novel, I admit I approached it with low expectations. Perhaps that was part of the reason I found it unexpectedly enjoyable. (I have mostly enjoyed all Patchett’s other novels,...
Set in what was then the Malayan Peninsula (now Malaysia) at the time of the Japanese occupation (1940s), unusually, the protagonist is a Eurasian, Cecily. Eurasians are a minority community in Malaysia, but in the time of the British occupation,...
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