The Renovation

 by Kevin Orhan

This novel, like many it appears on this year's longlist, throws you off kilter when early on our central character Dilara discovers that builders have installed a Turkish prison cell instead of the expected ensuite in her bedroom. Not only that, but the cell leads to an actual Turkish prison even though she lives in Italy!

Crazy as this sounds, this is an absorbing novel about homeland and belonging but also about love and loss and the pain of loss when drawn out and gradual-her father has dementia and is living with them. 8/10

Helen of Nowhere

 by Makenna Goodman

A professor is looking for a new house having been kicked out of his university. This novel is told in the form of six acts featuring four characters. It is a great set up and starts well but it gets weirder as it goes on. Does the professor end up as a dog? and why? He wasn't the most likeable but even so. 5/10

The Shadow of the Object

 by Chloe Aridjis

Starting with a dog bite in Mexico and a friendship formed in hospital with an older German lady called Wilhelmina the narrator is drawn into a world unknown to her. 

On the death of Wilhelmina she returns to London to meet her son, bringing with her a magic lantern and the ashes. This is a gentle tale that is mesmerising and a love story to magic lanterns and illusion where we are always having to fill in the gaps. I really enjoyed this and would read it again. 8/10

Black Bag

By Luke Kennard

A very quirky readable book which has an out of work actor taking a job being a black leather bag in a lecture theatre for one term. Along the way it examines what masculinity is in today's western society and whether an anonymous black bag can offer sexual fulfilment. It has a take on how to make money in digital world and a talking dog! It is very funny in places. I enjoyed it. 8/10

The Palm House

By Gwendoline Riley 

This is a well regarded author but I could not get into this book. The characters I found impossible to find a connection with or anything remotely interesting about them.

I enjoyed the occasional bit of humour but otherwise left me cold 4/10

The Things We Never Say

By Elizabeth Strout

I did not expect to enjoy this novel as much as I did. It follows Artie Dam, a popular and successful teacher who life finally overwhelms as he descends into loneliness and depression. Sad, it is but engaging and touching the nerve endings of people of my age I suspect. It asks the question of whether it is true that no man is an island. It doesn't really answer the question. 9/10

Poulenc a biography

 by Roger Nichols

An interesting biography of one of the key French composers of the first half of the twentieth century. He comes across as a complex figure but whose musical stature grew and endures. The biography has definitely coaxed me into listening to more of his music which has been a good experience 7/10