About the Book: Winner of the Prix Eugène Dabit There are no monsters. Only humans. Anna and Constant Guillot and their two daughters live in the peaceful, remote mountain village of Carmac. Everyone in Carmac knows each other, leading simple lives mostly unaffected by the outside world – that is until Bakary and Sylvia Langlois … Continue reading Book Review: People Like Them by Samira Sedira (trans. Lara Vergnaud)
Bloomsbury Publishing
Book Review: Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri
About the Book: The new novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning, Man Booker Prize-shortlisted author: a haunting portrait of a woman, her decisions, her conversations, her solitariness, in a beautiful and lonely Italian city. The woman moves through the city, her city, on her own. She moves along its bright pavements; she passes over its bridges, … Continue reading Book Review: Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri
Book Review: The Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell
The Shape of Darkness… About the Book: As the age of the photograph dawns in Victorian Bath, silhouette artist Agnes is struggling to keep her business afloat. Still recovering from a serious illness herself, making enough money to support her elderly mother and her orphaned nephew Cedric has never been easy, but then one of … Continue reading Book Review: The Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell
Book Review: No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
No One Is Talking About This… About the Book: SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE 2021 A woman known for her viral social media posts travels the world speaking to her adoring fans, her entire existence overwhelmed by the internet – or what she terms 'the portal'. Are we in hell? the people of the portal … Continue reading Book Review: No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
Book Review: Bright Burning Things by Lisa Harding
Bright Burning Things... About the Book: Being Tommy's mother is too much for Sonya. Too much love, too much fear, too much longing for the cool wine she gulps from the bottle each night. Because Sonya is burning the fish fingers, and driving too fast, and swimming too far from the shore, and Tommy's life … Continue reading Book Review: Bright Burning Things by Lisa Harding
Book Review: The Haunting of Alma Fielding by Kate Summerscale
The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story... SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2020 About the Book: London, 1938. Alma Fielding, an ordinary young woman, begins to experience supernatural events in her suburban home. Nandor Fodor – a Jewish-Hungarian refugee and chief ghost hunter for the International Institute for Psychical research – begins … Continue reading Book Review: The Haunting of Alma Fielding by Kate Summerscale
Sunday Splendour – Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser
Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser... About the Book: Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland is a cultural phenomenon. First published in 1865, it has never been out of print and has been translated into 170 languages. But why does it have such enduring and universal appeal for both adults and children? This book explores the global impact … Continue reading Sunday Splendour – Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser
Book Review: Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski
Swimming in the Dark... About the Book: Poland, 1980. Anxious, disillusioned Ludwik Glowacki, soon to graduate university, has been sent along with the rest of his class to an agricultural camp. Here he meets Janusz - and together, they spend a dreamlike summer swimming in secluded lakes, reading forbidden books - and falling in love. … Continue reading Book Review: Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski
Book Review: You Have to Make Your Own Fun Around Here by Frances Macken
You Have to Make Your Own Fun Around Here… About the Book: Katie has always been content to exist in the shadow of her intoxicating best friend Evelyn. In their small Irish village, Evelyn's confidence and glamour are enough to make up for her haughty, unpredictable character, and Katie never questions that their friendship will … Continue reading Book Review: You Have to Make Your Own Fun Around Here by Frances Macken
Book Review: Tsarina by Ellen Alpsten
Tsarina… About the Book: Lover. Murderer. Mother. Meet TSARINA, the most powerful woman history ever forgot. Spring 1699: Illegitimate, destitute and strikingly beautiful, Marta has survived the brutal Russian winter in her remote Baltic village. Sold by her family into household labour at the age of fifteen, Marta survives by committing a crime that will … Continue reading Book Review: Tsarina by Ellen Alpsten
Theresa Smith Writes 