The Amateur by Chris Bohjalian (Hutchinson Heinemann, £18.99)American bestseller Bohjalian deserves to be far better known in the UK, although, as the first line of his 26th novel points out, “It is... Read more »
A stinging dissection of wealth, class and the media, Natasha Brown’s satire begins with a man named Jake gazing at a gold bar he has found at a farm in West Yorkshire.... Read more »
In his opening paragraph, Philip Hensher declares that a novel not only “tells a good story” but is a good story in itself. We could extend that neat formula to include this... Read more »
A novel about rewilding and climate activism in Britain has been named this year’s winner of the Arthur C Clarke award for science fiction. When There Are Wolves Again by EJ Swift... Read more »
Every summer, we long for a much-needed break from daily life, dreaming of self-reinvention in some distant paradise. But really, holidays can be absolute hell. Instead of relaxation we encounter heaving crowds,... Read more »
When I Give You My Silence was published in Spanish in 2023 its author, the Peruvian Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, rightly predicted that it would be his final novel. He died... Read more »
Barack Obama is set to host a podcast about books that have “profoundly shaped his worldview and our society”, from Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by... Read more »
The world of Sky City never quite settles beneath your feet. The action of Jacqueline Crooks’s second novel unfolds in a recognisable 1990s London, yet everything seems subtly untethered from reality: a... Read more »
The Salt King by by Natasha Pulley (Gollancz, £22)The latest from the author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street blends an apocalyptic end-of-the-world tale with folk horror and two slowly developing love... Read more »