The translator’s art
‘Read slowly, word by word, if you wish to understand what I am saying.’ Despite appearing in Essays Two, the…
We are all mysteries
‘Reading is a celebration of the mystery of ourselves,’ according to Elizabeth Strout, who writes to help readers understand themselves…
Hope springs eternal
What is life if not a quest to find one’s calling while massaging the narrative along the way? This question…
The roots of conflict
The Island of Missing Trees feels like a strange title until you realise how hard Elif Shafak makes trees work…
Peckham wry
Keith Ridgway’s seventh book is a sultry, steamy shock of a novel, not least because nine years ago, despite the…
Encircling gloom
When the unnamed narrator of Sarah Bernstein’s The Coming Bad Days leaves the man with whom she has been living…
