The Garden of Evening Mists (2012) – Tan Twan ENG
I read Tan’s first novel, The Gift of Rain, when it was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2007, and loved it. The evocation of Malaysia after the Second World […]
Tag Archives: World War 2
The Buddha in the Attic (2011) – Julie OTSUKA
The first chapter of The Buddha in the Attic was printed in Granta 114 (a seriously excellent collection, by the way), and the second in Granta 115. At the time, […]
The Third Reich (2010) – Roberto BOLAÑO
The danger with previously unpublished works being published posthumously is that there may well have been a good reason they weren’t published while the author was alive. Because of the […]
The Amazing Adventure of Kavalier and Clay (2000) – Michael CHABON
I have a great deal of respect for the person Michael Chabon, born mainly out of the fact that he understands the importance of genre fiction, and the role it […]
Half Blood Blues (2011) – Esi EDUGYAN
With the announcement of the 2011 Man Booker Prize looming, I’m still trying to work my way through the novels on the longlist that interest me. My sure-fire bet, The […]
The Makioka Sisters (1948) – Junichirō TANIZAKI
For someone who intends to do an honours degrees in minority Japanese literature, I have recently realised I am woefully poorly read when it comes to mainstream Japanese literature. As […]
Brideshead Revisited (1945) – Evelyn WAUGH
It’s been a while since I read Evelyn Waugh – though the first few novels I read were from his earlier period, when he was still writing satire about the […]
The Glass Room (2009) – Simon MAWER
Ah, accidently buying books. Is there anything greater? I picked this off the shelf at work, to see what it was like. I made the mistake of eating pizza for […]
The General of the Dead Army (1963) – Ismail KADARE
And so my slight obsession with Albanian literature continues. Well, I say Albanian – I really mean Ismail Kadare. I don’t know what it is about him that I keep […]
A Good School (1978) – Richard YATES
What with the hype surrounding Richard Yates’ more famous first novel, Revolutionary Road, and the film of the same name, I thought I might see what all the fuss was […]
