New York City, 2020. Darla Jacobson and her husband Theo Harper are about to leave their Brooklyn apartment building to spend the summer...

Great Granny Webster is a great little novel by Caroline Blackwood. In 1977, it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and legend has it...

A young woman falls in love, marries, starts her career, becomes a mother, experiences the joys and challenges of parenthood with her...

I loved  The Bee Sting , which I read when it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2023, and when my manager at the bookshop in Dublin...

“Joey felt that his romance with Daisy might ruin his life, but that didn’t stop him.” This line from the story Daisy’s Valentine opens...

Martyr!  is the debut novel by Iranian-American poet Kaveh Akbar and was one of last year’s buzzier books. I’m always curious about...

Aboard a space ship a crew of six astronauts, two women and four men, circle planet earth sixteen times in twenty four hours – and repeat...

There was always going to be only one theme with which I could start my reading year in 2025: motherhood. Or, even more fittingly,...

I feel somewhat rusty writing reviews, and  The God of Small Things  isn’t the most straightforward book to get back into it. But reading...

Shirley Jackson’s  The Haunting of Hill House  stands as a paragon of the horror genre, masterfully blending supernatural elements with...

Alasdair Gray's  Poor Things  is a literary marvel that effortlessly blends surrealist playfulness with a profound commentary on society...

Yewon, a young woman lost in a society that doesn’t know what to do with itself and its young, dreams of a hotel with infinite keys to...

In an underground bunker, in an unknown location, silent and armed men guard a cage that is home to thirty-nine women and one young girl....

I usually try to steer clear of such generalisations, but Irish literature holds a special place in my heart. I fell in love with it,...

Percival Everett is definitely one of my favorite discoveries of the past few years, and I am glad I only came to his writing with The...

On Christmas Eve 1617 a storm descends over the coast of Vardø, Noway’s far north and within the blink of an eye kills most of the...

It has been a good while since I have found the time to sit down and write up my thoughts on a book. So the books I want to review keep...

Roland Mitchell‘s life can only be described as dull. He has dedicated his life to studying Victorian poet Randolph Ash, without making...

Isn’t it wonderful to have these authors you just feel entirely safe with? I can open any Toni Morrison book and I know for sure that I...

Gilead, 1956. John Ames is dying. In his seventies, the preacher knows his time on earth is coming to an end. He should be ready to meet...

It’s always nice to look back over another year’s reading and try to pick my favourite books of the year. There is usually some Booker...

After weeks and weeks of reading through and reviewing the Booker longlist, I spent a couple of weeks away from new literary releases and...

For nine months now, Tom Kettle has got to enjoy the quiet solitude of retirement after ending his career with the garda. From his rented...

Sunday has quiet day and currently eats only white foods. She cannot drink anything that is not fizzy and feels best burying her hands in...

Penang, 1921. Lesley and Robert Hamlyn are expecting an important visitor. “Willie” Somerset Maugham, who has been travelling through...

Nigeria – a country marked by extreme poverty and breath-taking wealth – is home to Eniola and Wúràolá, the two protagonists of Ayọ̀bámi...

Now that Gopi’s mother has died, it is up to her and her sisters to try and keep their father from falling apart. The only thing he still...

For some reason I expected not to enjoy this novel. Based on some blurb or review, I’d saved it in a similar category to Study for...

In the fictional town of Emory, Eoin takes a walk with his 13 year old son Jamie who can’t stop talking for a second, filled with...

A young woman moves to an unnamed Northern country to stay with her older brother as a housekeeper. Here she faces not only the strange...

I finished Prophet Song by Paul Lynch a few weeks ago, but I could not sit down and write up my thoughts about this novel right away,...

“Elegance is saying just enough. And I do believe that the reader completes the story.” If that is true, Claire Keegan has to be the most...

Rarely do I sit down to type up my review with no idea how to begin. But first things first: I loved The Bee Sting. There is so much...

I am sad to report that this was quite a disappointing read for me. Not because it was bad but I had such high expectations and it just...

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...

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...

Christopher Banks’ life changes over night when shortly after his father’s disappearance his mother goes missing, too. In early twentieth...

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...

May, Christine, Heed, Junior and L – five women bound together by their obsession with one man. Bill Cosey was the owner of the famous...

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...

English version below 1945. Der zehnjährige Josef Ambacher und seine Familie steigen in einen Zug und treten die Reise in eine ungewisse...

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...

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...

“She thought of Antarctica, the snow and ice and the bodies of dead explorers. Then she thought of hell, and then eternity.” Just before...

Alice Walker’s modern classic The Color Purple portrays the lives and struggles of African American women in the last century, marked by...

English version below Till Kokorda ist fehl am Platz. Das elitäre, private Halbinternat, das er besucht, ist voll von Kinder, die mehr...

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...

“Once upon a time there were two boys who purposefully misremembered things about their father. It made them feel better if ever they...

Whether we like it or not, social media has become an integral part of our daily lives and social interactions. The technologies have...

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...