by Djamel White
Think the Sopranos set in present day Dublin and you just about have the plot for this novel! The main character is even called Tony! The pace is relentless and the outpouring of anger is written with real intensity.
Surprised to see it on the Booker longlist and it wouldn't make my shortlist, but stranger things have happened. 6/10
by M. John Harrison
A weird book set in a dystopian near future where the economy is collapsed and law and order has broken down. Europe has disappeared although people leave London in boats to try and find it. None seem to come back. Meanwhile, the country seems to have been invaded by some alien life force, or maybe it hasn't. It's a disjointed, shocking and yet strangely compelling book. 7/10
by Rebecca Perry
An interesting book where a nameless curator discovers through a nameless archivist in a nameless palace a nameless medieval king. She is decorating the rooms for a forthcoming exhibition and through her we catch fragments of her life before being plunged into the life of this reluctant king. It is a history built from fragments and never complete. It was at times frustrating, at others fascinating posing questions about how history is built and stories told and where they cross over and merge. 7/10
by Douglas Stuart
A tale of a gay man returning to his family home on the Western Isles and the unravelling of family and community secrets that have been foundational to his life. The story is not only about Cal but about his father John and about the close knit community built around the strict calvinist church.
I was not sure we needed the story of Cal's friend which dragged out the middle of the book but then again maybe we did.
Sad and despairing but offering hope I really enjoyed this. 8/10
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
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
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
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
by John Irving
A sprawling novel of over 700 pages that took me a little while to get into but ended up being totally absorbing. It is set mostly in 1960's New Hampshire at the time of the Vietnam war and two boys, the narrator and Owen Meany grow up together and become best friends, even though Owen manages to kill John's mother at the start of the book with a wild, uncharacteristic swing of the bat in a little league baseball game.
It touches on friendship and faith as the narrator looks back from twenty years hence when he is living in Canada. It is sad and moving in places but also has one of the funniest passages I have read as the 1953 christmas pageant unfolds. 9/10
by Maggie O'Farrell
Set in Ireland this book follows the fortunes of Tomas and his wife and family, together with the land they inhabit. It starts in 1865 when Tomas, working for the british as a cartographer has a quasi religious experience in a wood on the West coast. It will change him and those close to him forever. It is an absorbing book and has some great characters in it from a slimy priest to a faithful irish wolf hound. 8/10
by M. C. Dulac
A gothic page turner which starts in current day Paris but then takes us back by way of a diary to strange happenings in a house in Paris. Can alchemists make gold or extend life, and what happens if they can. All will be revealed. Fun holiday read 7/10
by Georges Simenon
A policeman gets shot and Maigret is pulled into the art world and the lives of the rich Europeans who operate there. 7/10
by Deborah Levy
The narrator (called Deborah Levy) goes to Paris to write an essay on Gertrude Stein. She falls in with two women, Fanny and Eva. Eva is Swedish but has a husband in America who she hasn't seen for a couple of years-other than their weekly facetime call. Fanny is in finance and has three lesbian affairs going at any one time. The book quotes a lot from Gertrude Stein but the writing is clever, funny and pulls you along at a cracking pace. A cat also features throughout but I must not give too much away! 9/10
by Giuliano da Empoli
A strange book in many ways and supposedly modeled on a real character, Vadim Baranov works as a key advisor to Putin. He uses his background in reality TV to great effect in setting Kremlin goals and political outcomes but eventually he wants out.
The book never quite worked for me but it was apparently turned into a 2025 film which I may have to watch 5/10
by Victor Mallet
Victor Mallet is an FT journalist and makes it clear from the beginning that he is writing with his journalist hat on. That makes this book very readable and it is very current. He looks at how the RN has moved from the fringes of politics in the days of Jean-Marie Le Pen to being the most popular party in France today. He describes how Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella have made themselves and the party so popular, how far left and far right have much in common but also how so much of their policy may not stand up to the realities of government. I found this a very informative and balanced book which is great to read going into the Presidential race next spring. 8/10
