Booker Prize 2023 - If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery
What are you? That’s the question you are asked by everyone from a young age. Because to a society that is built on a clear hierarchy of...
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- Sep 14
- 3 min
Dawn by Octavia E. Butler
As Lilith Iyapo wakes up she knows this was not just a short nap, or even a full-night’s sleep. This was the birth-like experience she...
- Sep 7
- 3 min
When we were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro
Christopher Banks’ life changes over night when shortly after his father’s disappearance his mother goes missing, too. In early twentieth...
- Sep 5
- 4 min
Summer by Ali Smith
I didn’t get around to starting the final book in Ali Smith’s quartet, Summer, until that season had almost come to an end. During these...
- Aug 31
- 4 min
Love by Toni Morrison
May, Christine, Heed, Junior and L – five women bound together by their obsession with one man. Bill Cosey was the owner of the famous...
- Aug 23
- 4 min
Booker Prize 2023 - In Ascension by Martin MacInnes
Leigh grows up in Rotterdam, at 22 feet below sea level, and develops a fascination with the ocean from an early age. When she swims, she...
- Aug 3
- 3 min
Sibir von Sabrina Janesch
English version below 1945. Der zehnjährige Josef Ambacher und seine Familie steigen in einen Zug und treten die Reise in eine ungewisse...
- Jul 25
- 2 min
Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman
We are in the near future. The euro has, for reasons of simplicity, the same value it had in 2022, but everything else is exactly as it...
- Jul 18
- 3 min
Tiepolo Blue by James Cahill
James Cahill’s debut novel Tiepolo Blue enjoyed quite a bit of excitement before its release. I picked it up after listening to a podcast...
- Jul 4
- 2 min
Antarctica by Claire Keegan
“She thought of Antarctica, the snow and ice and the bodies of dead explorers. Then she thought of hell, and then eternity.” Just before...
- Jun 29
- 3 min
The Colour Purple by Alice Walker
Alice Walker’s modern classic The Color Purple portrays the lives and struggles of African American women in the last century, marked by...
- Jun 13
- 6 min
Echtzeitalter von Tonio Schachinger
English version below Till Kokorda ist fehl am Platz. Das elitäre, private Halbinternat, das er besucht, ist voll von Kinder, die mehr...
- Jun 8
- 4 min
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Bell Jar is one of those books that has been sitting on my shelves for ages, that I have always wanted to have read but never ended...
- Jun 6
- 3 min
Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter
“Once upon a time there were two boys who purposefully misremembered things about their father. It made them feel better if ever they...
- Jun 1
- 3 min
The Visibility Trap: Sexism, Surveillance and Social Media by Mary McGill
Whether we like it or not, social media has become an integral part of our daily lives and social interactions. The technologies have...
- May 23
- 3 min
Spring by Ali Smith
It is May, still spring, I‘m sure, and I am ready to discuss the third instalment of Ali Smith’s seasonal quartet. This week, we have...
- May 11
- 3 min
Pew by Catherine Lacey
“The reason churches have so many doors is that people tend to leave churches in groups, in a hurry. It seems people have a lot of...
- May 2
- 3 min
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
Set on a thousand acres of land is the Cook family’s farm, sternly ruled by patriarch Larry who teaches his daughters and their husbands...
- Apr 20
- 3 min
O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker
As a chronic blurb avoider I go into many a book blindly. This is true for Elspeth Barker’s O Caledonia, a 1991 novel I haven’t seen...
- Mar 22
- 4 min
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
"First, I got myself born. A decent crowd was on hand to watch, and they've already given me that much: the worst part of the job was up...
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