by Nadifa Mohamed
Based on a true story about a Somali Man, Mahmood, who is accused of killing a shopkeeper. He protests his innocence throughout.
He is a rogue but not a killer and the book catches that perfectly. At times, it meanders and gives a lot of padding (too much?) to the characters but a good read. 8/10
by Laura Elkin
A short book of notes made on a mobile phone while commuting in Paris.
Sharp and witty, as well as melancholic in places. Reaction to Bataclan is caught in how I recall the time, shock, despair, defiance. 7/10
by Sunjeev Sahota
A book set in India and the UK across two different times. A young second generation British Indian is trying to kick an opium addiction and is goes back to family in India to try and help.
His great grandmother was one of three girls married to three brothers at the same time, but none of the brides knew who their husband was. She is compromised by a series of misunderstandings and the story gradually unfolds for both her and the narrator.
I really enjoyed this book and would have liked to see it make the Booker shortlist. The judges felt otherwise! 8/10
by Mary Lawson
Set in a town in the far North of Canada the story is told through the eyes of three characters linked in tenuous ways but brought together by an old house and a cat and two traumatic events 30 years apart.
I really enjoyed this book and the balance between the narrators worked well. A special mention to Moses the cat! 9/10
by Karen Jennings
A short book and not one I found that interesting. The hero(anti-hero) Samuel, tells his life story from an island he lives on alone, and which is disturbed by the arrival of a washed up refugee. 5/10
by Damon Galgut
This could have a subtitle of 4 funerals and no wedding (or at least not one we are invited to.
This book traces the fortunes of the Swart family over 30 years by dropping in on various deaths in the family. I started reading this fearing the worst but the book grew on me as it went along. 8/10
