Gemma Amor: The Folly
Morgan never believed her father killed her mother. She spent the last six years of her life actively campaigning for his release, which eventually resulted in a mistrial ruling and his subsequent...
View ArticleSaraid de Silva: Amma
Amma (2024) by Saraid de Silva is a time-hopping, peripatetic debut novel that explores the matrilineal line of a single family over three generations. Though it chronologically runs from 1951 through...
View ArticleColin MacIntyre: When the Needle Drops
Musicians penning novels is nothing new. Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave have done it to considerable acclaim. Morrissey’s “unpolished turd” took a beating while Pete Townshend’s recent effort was seen to...
View ArticleJon Fosse: Boathouse
“I don’t go out anymore, a restlessness has come over me, and I don’t go out.” is how Baard, the narrator of Jon Fosse’s Boathouse (1989, tr: May-Brit Akerholt, 2017), begins his minimal account of...
View ArticleMark Valentine: Lost Estates
Mark Valentine’s collection of short stories, Lost Estates (2024) is bookended by two long tales that begin with journeys through an England abundant in history and arcana and ultimately end in the...
View ArticleRamsey Campbell: Demons by Daylight
Demons by Daylight (1973) was Ramsey Campbell’s second collection of short stories, following on from The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants (1964). Truth be told, I’ve never really got...
View ArticleSian Northey: This House
The titular abode of Sian Northey’s This House (2011, tr: Susan Walton, 2024) is Nant yr Aur, a solitary cottage somewhere in rural North Wales. As a young girl, Anna Morris was fascinated by the...
View ArticleRita Bullwinkel: Headshot
Headshot (2024) is Rita Bullwinkel’s first novel, following on from her 2022 collection, Belly Up. It’s an exciting, somewhat experimental tale delivered in the structure of a boxing tournament for...
View ArticleR.B. Russell: Fifty Forgotten Books
Fifty Forgotten Books (2022) by R.B. Russell is as enjoyable as browsing in a dusty old book shop on a rainy day. Much of the book mirrors that experience, as Russell, the protagonist, takes us back...
View ArticleAlain Claude Sulzer: A Perfect Waiter
The role of a waiter is to perform unseen, to serve people and, barring the occasional nod or small talk, to be both discrete and unmemorable. They must give nothing of themselves away while attending...
View ArticleMark Morris (ed): After Sundown
After Sundown (2020) is the first from an annual non-themed horror anthology by Flame Tree Press. With no particular focus, editor Mark Morris has cast the definition of horror wide, ensuring that the...
View ArticleAsta Olivia Nordenhof: Money To Burn
The Scandinavian Star was a passenger ferry that, in the small hours of April 7th, 1990, went up in flames, killing 159 people. Generally considered an insurance job, given the dodgy dealings...
View ArticleJ.M. Walsh: A Journal
A Journal (2020) by J.M. Walsh is an experimental account of April 2017 through to the end of March the following year. Each entry, though undated, is identifiable by a very specific constriction: the...
View ArticleDavid Barnett: Withered Hill
Withered Hill (2024) is the first foray into folk horror for David Barnett, having previously written, among other things, romantic comedies. One could wryly say this novel, drawing slightly on that...
View ArticleR.D. McLean: The Friday Girl
The city of Dundee sits on the banks of the river Tay before it opens out into the North Sea. Once the city of jute, jam, and journalism, it’s now branded the City of Discovery, its fortunes having...
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