Books, Fiction
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First Writes: Catriona Child, author of Trackman
16 Mar 2012
Novel's lead character's life changed by a homeless man’s MP3 player
Give us five words to describe Trackman? Music, Edinburgh, memories, love, loss. Name one author who should be more famous than they are now? Brian McCabe. When I first started to take my writing seriously, I went to his writer’s workshop. He was…
Juli Zeh - The Method
16 Mar 2012
A riveting intellectual and emotional thriller set in a dystopian future
(Harvill Secker) German author Juli Zeh’s translated 2009 novel is an Orwellian vision of the near future in which civilisation adheres to the stark principles of The Method. Priority is given to physical health over mental freedom of the mind with…
Decembrists singer Colin Meloy writes children's book Wildwood
9 Mar 2012
The novel is the product of collaboration with his wife Carson Ellis
Wildwood is the debut illustrated children's novel from husband-and-wife creative double act Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis. Meloy is probably best known as the lead singer of US indie-folk group The Decembrists (for whom Ellis supplies album artwork).
Jo Nesbø - Phantom
28 Feb 2012
A new, hard-hitting instalment of the Norwegian author's Harry Hole series
(Harvill Secker) Like all great fictional detectives, Harry Hole is always one step ahead. Not only of us, the reader, but those around him. Which, when you’re trying to solve a crime, is a definite bonus. Less so when it comes to affairs of the…
First Writes: Lisa O'Donnell, author of The Death of Bees
28 Feb 2012
The first-time writer on Glasgow set tale of young orphaned girls
Give us five words to describe The Death of Bees? Contemporary. Dark. Comic. Social. Loud. Name one author who should be more famous than they are now? Katherine Dunn who wrote the amazing Geek Love. She’s written other things, mostly about boxing…
Tom Perrotta - The Leftovers
28 Feb 2012
The measured delivery of this fantastical story results in impeccable satire
(Fourth Estate) Tom Perrotta’s measured new novel proves that even with the most fantastical story, you don’t have to be flashy to hit your nail right on its head. The Leftovers is about a half-cocked Rapture in which believers and atheists alike…
John Lanchester - Capital
28 Feb 2012
A well-observed ensemble story that lacks momentum
(Faber) Pepys Road is the setting for a slowly unfurling whodunit, where residents of the posh London suburb must work out who is harassing them. It begins with an innocuous postcard, stating, ‘We Want What You Have’. Things get progressively more…
Johanna Skibsrud - This Will be Difficult to Explain and other stories
28 Feb 2012
Short story collection fails to meet the medium's strict demands
(Heinemann) Time is not on the short story’s side. There are no leisurely chapters in which to manufacture a slow build to a devastating denouement; no space to take us on a character’s full-length journey. To succeed, therefore, a short story has to…
John O'Farrell - The Man Who Forgot His Wife
28 Feb 2012
Mildly diverting rom-com novel from the Spitting Image writer
(Doubleday) What would we make of our partners if our memories were wiped and we spied them anew? This question loiters, doe-eyed, at the heart of John O’Farrell’s retrograde amnesia rom-com, The Man Who Forgot His Wife. It’s a light-hearted…
Crime books round-up – March 2012
17 Feb 2012
Doug Johnstone, Alex Gray and Mari Jungstedt deliver new crime novels this month
As if to show that fiction readers love a good bit of murder and mystery, death and deceit, blood and booze, there’s acres of it about to be scattered around the nation’s book shelves. Doug Johnstone (of this parish) parks his Hit and Run (Faber) at our…
Is this a golden era for Scottish literature?
1 Feb 2012
Alan Bissett, Helen Fitzgerald and Allan Wilson survey the current literary lansdscape
Alan Bissett The contention is that Scottish literature – due to a combination of factors, including centralised buying by book chains and a backlash against post-Trainspotting fiction – has undergone a difficult time of late, but that the tide is…
Shalom Auslander - Hope: A Tragedy
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1 Feb 2012
Probably the funniest book that’s ever going to be written about the Holocaust
(Picador) This is probably the funniest book that’s ever going to be written about the Holocaust. But then Shalom Auslander has previous experience of laugh-out-loud writings about Jewish guilt, paranoia, misery and self-loathing. His short story…
Profile: Louise Welsh, author of The Cutting Room and Naming the Bones
1 Feb 2012
The crime author is set to appear at three literary events this month
Ever since she exploded onto the Scottish literary scene in 2002 with her literary detective novel The Cutting Room, Louise Welsh has proved to be an astute explorer of human frailty. She describes her quartet of acclaimed novels as quests in which an…
Interview: Eowyn Ivey - author of The Snow Child
1 Feb 2012
Debut author discusses tale of heartbreak and hope set in 1920s Alaska
Give us five words to describe The Snow Child? Alaskan. Wild. Magical. Rugged. Tender. Name one author who should be more famous than they are now? M Allen Cunningham. His novel The Green Age of Asher Witherow is one of the finest I have ever…
Jeet Thayil - Narcopolis
1 Feb 2012
Bombay-centric social drama with tangible atmosphere but little narrative drive
(Faber) Narcopolis begins and ends with the word ‘Bombay’. Although several individuals vie for centre stage in poet Jeet Thayil’s debut novel, the main character here is India’s most densely populated city. Viewed as a solemn and dangerous hive…
Helen Schulman - This Beautiful Life
1 Feb 2012
Slightly outdated family drama that retains some timeliness and authenticity
(Atlantic) With frightening believability, New York novelist Helen Schulman depicts a single, unthinking mouse-click tearing a family apart. Set in 2003, aspects of This Beautiful Life are outdated, but the key dramatic action of a 15-year-old boy…
Preview of 2012 - Irvine Welsh's Skagboys
6 Jan 2012
Renton, Sick Boy et al are revisited in this Trainspotting prequel
Wonder how Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and co got to be the drugged-up life-rejecting Leith loons in Trainspotting? Well, wonder no more, as the publication of Skagboys brings us a bit more background on the individual and social circumstances revolving…
Edmund White - Jack Holmes and His Friend
5 Jan 2012
A beautifully written tale of sex and male friendship
(Bloomsbury) Edmund White has never shied away from putting himself on the page, scribing autobiographical fiction and memoirs for over 30 years. Jack Holmes and His Friend is no exception. White attended boarding school in the American Midwest…
Stuart MacBride - Birthdays for the Dead
5 Jan 2012
The tartan noir author diverges from the Logan McRae series with a compelling and brutal thriller
(HarperCollins) A standalone diversion from his Logan McRae series of novels, Stuart MacBride once again demonstrates how he puts the grit into the Granite City. That said, Birthdays for the Dead isn’t set in Aberdeen, instead the action shifts to…
Interview: Lucy Wood, author of Diving Belles
19 Dec 2011
The writer's debut publication is a set of short stories about hopes, regrets and memories
Give us five words to describe Diving Belles? Short stories reimagining Cornish folklore. Name one author who should be more famous than they are now? I think everyone should read George Mackay Brown’s fiction and poetry, for his evocation of…
Ali Shaw - The Man Who Rained
19 Dec 2011
Fantastical modern fable from the author of The Girl With Glass Feet
(Atlantic) After the success of The Girl With Glass Feet, Ali Shaw sticks to his penchant for penning fables with a folklore-filled romance set in a small, superstitious American town. But Thunderstown is not as it first appears when Elsa Beletti…
Miranda July - It Chooses You
12 Dec 2011
Charming miscellany of human oddness from the Californian Renaissance Woman
(Canongate) It’s OK to be a bit weird around Miranda July. Or have anxieties, or a tendency to procrastinate, or a habit of lying in order to be polite. It’s all fine with her; in fact, she’d probably prefer it. July created her first play as a…
Interview: Allan Wilson - Wasted in Love
12 Dec 2011
The debut novelist on his collection of vignettes about love, lies, break-ups and betrayal
Give us five words to describe Wasted in Love? Raymond Carver shagging Arab Strap. Name one author who should be more famous than they are now and why? Agnes Owens. Funny, tender and honest, her writing is about the lives of everyday, working…
Adam Ross - Ladies and Gentlemen
12 Dec 2011
Comically dark short story collection from the Mr Peanut author
(Jonathan Cape) In spite of the dark, comically cruel note struck by this short story collection, Ladies and Gentlemen makes surprisingly quick and easy reading. As with his 2010 debut novel, Mr Peanut, Adam Ross suffuses his prose with compelling…
Douglas Coupland & Graham Roumieu - Highly Inappropriate Tales for Young People
12 Dec 2011
Pacy but insubstantial short story collection
(Heinemann) For anyone who has a glance at the cover of this book and believes that all they have spied is a cute illustration aimed at kids might want to take a closer look. It suggests that reading this collaboration between Generation X writer…
