Books and Fiction

Is this a golden era for Scottish literature?

Alan Bissett, Helen Fitzgerald and Allan Wilson survey the current literary lansdscape

1 Feb 2012

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

Probably the funniest book that’s ever going to be written about the Holocaust

1 Feb 2012

(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

The crime author is set to appear at three literary events this month

1 Feb 2012

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

Debut author discusses tale of heartbreak and hope set in 1920s Alaska

1 Feb 2012

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

Bombay-centric social drama with tangible atmosphere but little narrative drive

1 Feb 2012

(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

Slightly outdated family drama that retains some timeliness and authenticity

1 Feb 2012

(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 Set in 2003, aspects of This Beautiful Life are outdated, but the key dramatic action of a 15-year-old boy…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

Renton, Sick Boy et al are revisited in this Trainspotting prequel

6 Jan 2012

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

A beautifully written tale of sex and male friendship

5 Jan 2012

(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

The tartan noir author diverges from the Logan McRae series with a compelling and brutal thriller

5 Jan 2012

(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

The writer's debut publication is a set of short stories about hopes, regrets and memories

19 Dec 2011

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

Fantastical modern fable from the author of The Girl With Glass Feet

19 Dec 2011

(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

Charming miscellany of human oddness from the Californian Renaissance Woman

12 Dec 2011

(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

The debut novelist on his collection of vignettes about love, lies, break-ups and betrayal

12 Dec 2011

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

Comically dark short story collection from the Mr Peanut author

12 Dec 2011

(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

Pacy but insubstantial short story collection

12 Dec 2011

(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…

Michel Schneider - Marilyn’s Last Sessions: A Novel

Poorly structured fictional history of star's final sessions on the couch

12 Dec 2011

(Canongate) By including the words ‘a novel’ in his title, Schneider has bought himself a rather enormous caveat. Namely that some aspects of this semi-biographical account of Marilyn Monroe and her psychoanalyst Ralph Greenson are true – others not.

Cargo Publishing launch a new crowd-sourced audiobook

Glasgow-based publishing house use social media to find new readers

25 Nov 2011

Publishing has seen all sorts of breakthroughs in the last few years, with a wide variety of exciting e-book projects springing up. But, as interactive as these projects promise to be, they rarely capture the aural tradition of storytelling, and the…

Stephen King - 11.22.63

The horror writer's time-travelling thriller fails to take full advantage of its premise

15 Nov 2011

(Hodder & Stoughton) There is no doubting Stephen King’s abiding knack for a gripping yarn, but the American author’s latest novel could be doing with a few more thrills. That’s not to say that the plot is lacklustre or lacking in scale, taking a…

Interview: Selma Dabbagh - author of Out of It

The author answers questions about her debut novel, about a family struggling to survive in Gaza

15 Nov 2011

Give us five words to describe Out of It? Girl. Gun. Boy. Sea. Fence. What was the last book you read? I have spent the last three days in the mood of Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton. A brownish, fuggy, alcoholic London novel set in 1939, it…

Top children's books on sale for Christmas

New titles from Jacqueline Wilson, Julia Donaldson, Francesca Simon and David Walliams

15 Nov 2011

While the December market is traditionally slow for adult fiction, when it comes to kids books, it’s a ripe old time of year. This winter there are books from some familiar names and favourite characters which won’t look bad popping out of a woolly…

Sarah Hall - The Beautiful Indifference

The Booker nominee delivers a short story collection with an eye for spectacular imagery

15 Nov 2011

(Faber) Four books into her literary career and a Booker nomination in the locker (for 2004’s The Electric Michelangelo), Sarah Hall is being touted as one of the key British voices of her generation. There is little doubt that she can weave some…

Axel Scheffler (illus.) - The Gloomster

Julia Donaldson's favoured illustrator fails to justify the asking price of this slim poetry adap

15 Nov 2011

(Faber) Any parents out there picking up this book would be forgiven for thinking it was some kind of Gruffalo sequel. Only this time, the central character is seeking therapy rather than a mouse. Translated by children’s author Julia Donaldson, and…

Penelope Lively - How It All Began

The author of the Booker-winning Moon Tiger continues to display a talent for sharp observation

15 Nov 2011

(Fig Tree) It’s been 24 years since Penelope Lively won the Booker Prize for Moon Tiger, but her new novel shows that her writing is still sharp and acutely relevant. On the surface, How It All Began is a light-hearted, sometimes comical drama about…

Don Delillo - The Angel Esmeralda

Challenging but ultimately rewarding collection of short stories spanning the author's career

18 Oct 2011

(Picador) Is anyone ever truly happy in a Don DeLillo universe? As the astronaut narrator of ‘Human Moments in World War III’ puts it, ‘happiness is not a fact of this experience’. The profundities and quandaries of existence weigh down mightily upon…

Padgett Powell, author of You & I - interview

The writer follows up his postmodern 'questions' novel with a book-length dialogue

18 Oct 2011

When Padgett Powell was a boy, he knew little of the settled life. With a trucker father, his family was constantly on the move and he reckons that he attended ten different schools and lived in 17 houses during his perpetual-motion upbringing. Perhaps…

V Campbell, author of 'historical teen action adventure quest' Viking Gold - interview

18 Oct 2011

Give us five words to describe Viking Gold? Historical teen action adventure quest. Name one author who should be more famous than they are now? John Christopher for his young adult sci-fi. My husband and I read his books together and they left us…

Emma Donoghue - The Sealed Letter

Re-issue of a slow-burning Victorian-set drama by the Booker-shortlisted author

18 Oct 2011

(Picador) ‘No corsets, no crinoline’ is the unladylike lot of one who takes up the cause of women’s rights amidst the bustling, vital Victoriana of this reissued 2008 novel from Room author Emma Donoghue. Emily ‘Fido’ Faithfull has matured into just…

Christos Tsiolkas - Dead Europe

Brutally bleak but beautiful novel, re-issued in the wake of The Slap's international success

18 Oct 2011

(Atlantic) The Slap was a major breakthrough for Australian writer Christos Tsiolkas, winning the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in 2009 and becoming an international bestseller into the bargain. In the wake of that success, Tsiolkas’ backlist is…

Ewan Morrison - Tales from the Mall extract

A short snippet from Early Learning Centre, one of 22 short stories collected in Tales from the Mall

19 Sep 2011

To celebrate the fact that Cargo Crate has signed up Ewan Morrison’s print and digital mega-project, Tales From The Mall, The List offer you a sneak peak with an excerpt from the one of the 22 stories, Early Learning Centre One thing disturbed Les…

Robert Harris - The Fear Index

An unexpectedly thrilling mix of science, computers and global economics

16 Sep 2011

(Hutchinson) With its ominous title and opening ‘Frankenstein’ quote, it’s no great surprise to find that The Fear Index is a freaky read. And if you’re a fan of being spooked, then Robert Harris’ eighth novel is a must, as he guides us through a…

Susan Hill - The Woman in Black

Sinister ghost story with an already-established pedigree

16 Sep 2011

(Profile) As the longest running stage production in Britain after Aggie’s Mousetrap, Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black clearly has an icy grip on the theatre-going public. And with news that this classic ghost story will make it onto the big screen in…

Landfall - Helen Gordon interview

The debut author discusses her novel, in which a London arts journalist is stranded in the suburbs

16 Sep 2011

Our debut author Q&As continue with Helen Gordon, whose first book is about a London art magazine writer who returns to her suburban family household and confronts some difficult home truths Give us five words to describe Landfall? Journalist falls…

Alice Hoffman - The Dovekeepers

Overworked historical drama with underdeveloped characters

16 Sep 2011

(Simon & Schuster) Alice Hoffman is one of the big guns of American fiction and an Oprah favourite, but this overworked and overwrought novel rather contradicts that reputation. Set in 70AD in the aftermath of the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans…

EIBF 2011: five lengthy literary works

featuring Adam Levin, Thomas Pynchon, David Foster Wallace, Stephen King and Tolstoy

24 Aug 2011

The Instructions The story of a megalomaniac 10-year-old boy who may or may not be the messiah takes place over the course of just four frenetic days, but Levin’s massive book takes in Israel’s battle for existence and an entire religion’s search for…

Jane Harris

The author of The Observations and Gillespie and I on making Glasgow an evocative character

24 Aug 2011

‘The secret was what I began with,’ says Jane Harris about her most recent work, Gillespie and I. And what a mystery we unravel, as narrator Harriet Baxter reflects on her time in 1880s Glasgow and the consequences of a chance meeting with ‘soulmate…

Rebecca Hunt

The author of Mr Chartwell creates a credible and empathetic vision of illness

24 Aug 2011

One of the most intriguing and delectably-crafted debut novels of the past year is Mr Chartwell by Rebecca Hunt. The black dog of Winston Churchill’s legendary deep depression is brought vividly to life through the eponymous mutt (also known as Black…

Michael Ondaatje - The Cat's Table

An adventurous coming-of-age tale

24 Aug 2011

(Jonathan Cape) ‘Over the years, confusing fragments, lost corners of stories, have a clearer meaning when seen in a new light, a different place.’ From the decks and holds of the Oronsay, as seen by a Michael and his two mischievous young friends…

George Pelecanos - The Cut

An exemplary piece of work from the writer of The Wire

24 Aug 2011

(Orion) George Pelecanos has taken his foot off the novel-writing pedal recently to work in television, most notably on The Wire, but it’s good to have back ‘perhaps the greatest living crime writer’, according to Stephen King. And he’s not wrong…

EIBF 2011: Christopher Brookmyre adopts subtle pseudonym for latest work - interview

Chris, not Christopher, for Where the Bodies are Buried

23 Aug 2011

When Christopher Brookmyre has three syllables thrown at him, he knows he’s done something wrong. Despite his full first-name appearing on every book jacket since his debut novel in 1997, those around Brookmyre have called him Chris for years. ‘I tend…

First Writes: Sunjeev Sahota, author of Ours are the Streets

The debut author discusses his first novel, Edinburgh and some of his favourite novels

17 Aug 2011

Give us five words to describe Ours are the Streets? Fathers. Sons. Responsibilities. Belonging. Home. Which author should be more famous than they are now and why? I don’t know how famous or not she is, but I don’t think I hear that much in the UK…

Jo Nesbø

Crafty Oslo crime scribe brings us his fiendish ’tec

17 Aug 2011

There are many ways to cause a fatality, and crime writers are renowned for finding the most imaginative route to the grave possible. But Norwegian author Jo Nesbø has really outdone himself in his latest novel The Leopard. His serial killer’s…

Darren Shan, Barry Hutchison and Alexander Gordon Smith talk horror

Creating terrifying tales for teenage readers at the EIBF

16 Aug 2011

As far as groundings in the horror business go, young adult writer Barry Hutchison knew exactly what fear was from an early age. ‘I lived in a perpetual state of terror when I was a kid,’ says the Fort William-based creator of the Invisible Fiends…

AL Kennedy - The Blue Book

Surreal drama from the talented comic/author

3 Aug 2011

(Jonathan Cape) Her first novel since 2007’s Day, celebrated Scots miserablist AL Kennedy’s sixth full-length work of fiction attempts to mess with readers’ minds in a way that few other authors might dare. The Blue Book is laced with cryptic…

Mari Strachan - Blow on a Dead Man’s Embers

Historical between-the-wars family drama with an eye for detail

3 Aug 2011

(Canongate) Life, thinks Non Davies, a rural housewife in the mid-Wales of 1920, is like a tablecloth: ‘smooth and rough, worn thin so that it is almost a hole in places.’ It’s a prosaic description from a woman who presents a similarly functional…

Hari Kunzru - Gods Without Men

A centuries-spanning, multi-character masterpiece from Kunzru

3 Aug 2011

(Hamish Hamilton) Not many books start with a coyote smoking pot. But then Hari Kunzru is not your average novelist. His latest endeavour is a dazzling collection of snapshots taken at various points in time between 1775 and 2009, as we dip in and…

Interview: Joe Dunthorne - author of Submarine and Wild Abandon

Edinburgh shows with Unbound, Aisle16, Luke Wright and Tim Clare

21 Jul 2011

The day before our phone interview, Joe Dunthorne was on Radio 4, bantering with Tim Key about the perfect opening line. Chatting to him the next day, it appears the Welsh-born poet, short story writer and novelist has worked out a potential strategy.

Julian Barnes - The Sense of an Ending

Economically-told novella from the master storyteller

21 Jul 2011

(Jonathan Cape) Imprecise memory, lifelong regrets and the inconsistencies between shared histories are at the heart of Julian Barnes’ short and sharp new novella. As a title, The Sense of an Ending refers to the way in which his characters…

Rules of Civility, Queen of Kings, Spartan, The Submission and America Pacifica

Debut novels round-up

21 Jul 2011

Described by David Nicholls as ‘a smart, witty, charming Dry Martini of a novel’, Rules of Civility (Sceptre) veers from a photographic exhibit in 1966 to a jazz bar on the last night of 1937. In this fizzing debut by Amor Towles (pictured), both places…

Jonathan Trigell - Genus

A dystopian thriller that falls short in its attempts to become something more literary

21 Jul 2011

(Corsair) After dealing with child murder in Boy A and a rapist in Cham, for his third novel Jonathan Trigell expands the violence to a massive scale. Set in a dystopian future London, society is segregated along genetic lines: the biologically…

The highs and lows of Harry Potter’s outrageous fortunes

An evaluation of each of the films from the Harry Potter series

28 Jun 2011

Having earned £6 billion worldwide, Harry Potter is the highest grossing film franchise of all time. And while the critical reception hasn’t always matched the commercial one (no Academy Awards yet), the films have been as successful as JK Rowling’s…

Christopher Brookmyre - Where the Bodies are Buried

Author introduces a new cast of characters for latest novel

23 May 2011

Crime fiction thrives on familiarity. The same detectives dashing through the same shady streets to track down the latest stick in their craw. Christopher Brookmyre has given us a few charismatic serial characters over the years – the maverick…

Beryl Bainbridge - The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress

The author's final, unfinished novel is a masterclass in confident prose

23 May 2011

(Little, Brown) Beryl Bainbridge’s editor Brendan King called this final novel by the five-times Booker-shortlisted English author – who died of cancer in 2010 – a flawed masterpiece. And he should know, having remastered the nearly-finished…

Julie Myerson - Then (review)

Apocalypse-set novel offers no respite from its bleak subject matter

17 May 2011

(Jonathan Cape) The apocalypse is cool right now. It’s everywhere in popular culture – as a theme, as a backdrop and in widespread adjectival form – and it’s all over Julie Myerson’s eighth novel, Then. Set in a desperate, ice-covered wasteland that…

First Writes: author Felix Riley discusses his 'Secret Service thriller' The Set Up

13 Apr 2011

This issue’s debut author is Felix Riley, whose novel features a man trying to save the US from a devastating attack. Unfortunately, he’s on the run from the NYPD having been framed for murder Give us five words to describe The Set Up? Break neck…

Jane Harris – Gillespie and I

Fictional memoir combining warm late Victorian detail with well-crafted storytelling technique

13 Apr 2011

(Faber) We first meet Harriet Baxter in 1933 Bloomsbury, as our elderly narrator embarks on her memoir. The focus from the off is on her magical encounter with ‘soulmate’ Ned Gillespie, Baxter soon becoming deeply embroiled in the lives of this…

Denise Mina's 'The End of the Wasp Season' is a worthy addition to the DS Alex Morrow series

13 Apr 2011

(Orion) Denise Mina is one of the most interesting Scottish crime writers, continually fighting the war on cliché in terms of prose, plot and characterisation. This second novel featuring DS Alex Morrow is a consolidation of her recent move towards…

Des Dillon's 'An Experiment in Compassion' is a painful and poignat look at alcoholism

13 Apr 2011

(Luath) It takes one to know one, we’re told, and Des Dillon’s painfully honest account of living with alcoholism certainly seems to bear that out. It’s 20 years since the Coatbridge-born author stopped looking for solace in the bottom of a bottle…

Henning Mankell: The Troubled Man

Long-awaited addition to the Kurt Wallander series is a readable but bleak affair

30 Mar 2011

(Harvill Secker) For fans of Henning Mankell’s Inspector Wallander series, news that the first new novel in almost a decade was on the horizon generated excitement worthy of a Beatles reformation. But such manic anticipation will have been tempered…

Michel Faber interview - The Crimson Petal and the White

The author and his wife Eva Youren on the forthcoming BBC adaptation

24 Mar 2011

‘As consumers of culture, we’re both quite cold fish,’ says Michel Faber, linking eyes over the living room with his wife, Eva Youren. She’s stretched out on a windowseat a few feet away. She nods in agreement. ‘We tend to see what the author or…

Catherine O’Flynn, Rodge Glass and Ewan Morrison remember David Foster Wallace

Publication of US author's The Pale King

24 Mar 2011

Approaching a David Foster Wallace book is akin to launching towards a psychological assault course. His writings included his 1987 debut The Brooms of the System (about a switchboard operator who fears she may not actually exist), his 1999 short story…

Roddy Doyle: Bullfighting

A collection of short stories from the Irish master storyteller

24 Mar 2011

(Jonathan Cape) Having shouldered the full weight of 20th-century Irish history, Roddy Doyle is now almost visibly loosening up. His Last Roundup trilogy may largely have been a thing of literary beauty, but there will be readers relieved to see him…

Miranda France - Hill Farm

Rural drama is a lot better than the blurb would have you believe

15 Mar 2011

‘It was the summer that everything changed’ the dust jacket intones. For farmer’s wife Isabel Hayes (mid-thirties, with three children, adventureless in a small farming community and a stale marriage), something had to give. We are promised ‘a handsome…

The Last Werewolf

Glen Duncan's mystery thriller balances a penchant for culture references with a gripping narrative

15 Mar 2011

(Canongate) Glen Duncan’s The Last Werewolf may be about a supernatural being but this is no ordinary fantasy. The novel is framed as the diary of 200-year-old Jacob Marlowe, the last werewolf on earth, who is pursued by government-sanctioned hunters…

The Death of Eli Gold

David Baddeil's fictional biography returns to his favourite themes of love, sex and commitment

7 Mar 2011

A comic meditation on the death of ‘the world’s greatest living writer’, the destructive selfishness of male desire and the passing of the last ‘great man’ as a species, David Baddiel’s fourth novel further explores his preoccupations with love, sex and…

Super Sad True Love Story - Gary Shteyngart interview

Author of Absurdistan and The Russian Debutante’s Handbook

4 Mar 2011

Gary Shteyngart is on the phone while taking a cab to a meeting at Columbia University, where he teaches writing. He breaks off to pay the driver, whose roots are unclear but, given that this is New York, could be anything from a Berliner to…

Stephen Kelman - Pigeon English

Stephen Kelman's much-vaunted social drama of race and manhood.

4 Mar 2011

Stephen Kelman went from redundant council administrator to becoming the subject of a 12-way publisher bidding war thanks to this exceptional debut novel. Penned with that unburdened lightness of touch perhaps only a writer who never believed his words…

Karen Russell - Swamplandia!

A family drama from author of St Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves

4 Mar 2011

Here comes the debut novel from another one of those clever-clever New Yorker magazine’s ‘20 under 40’ types that we just have to be reading. The premise to Karen Russell’s Swamplandia! is certainly attention-grabbing. Teenager Ava Bigtree has just lost…

Kevin Brockmeier - The Illumination

Kevin Brockmeier's allegorical tale is an enlightening experience

4 Mar 2011

Shining a light on the wounds we bear as human beings, The Illumination is an intriguing third novel from Little Rock, Arkansas writer Kevin Brockmeier. Shot through with chilling and fantastical nuances, this enlightened rumination by Brockmeier…

Robin Robertson

Poet with an impressive range talks about his newest batch

17 Aug 2010

Though widely known as one of British publishing’s finest editors, Robin Robertson is also a highly acclaimed poet. Since his 1997 debut collection A Painted Field, he has been the recipient of numerous prizes, both for books and individual poems. Most…

Lauren St John at the Book Festival

Writing for a more honest and passionate reader

17 Aug 2010

Remember those series of books you would read as a child? Remember how, when you discovered a new one, you’d just have to devour it as quickly as possible, gobbling up boarding-school tales of lacrosse and midnight feasts and adventure after adventure…

Louise Welsh's Naming the Bones

The author's newest novel meanders between boozers and burial grounds

17 Aug 2010

Louise Welsh’s latest novel was inspired during a trip to Germany, but set in her beloved Scotland, though it’s not the reverie of an expat looking through tartan-tinted glasses. Naming the Bones meanders between Edinburgh boozers and Highland burial…

Alice Thompson

The Edinburgh novelist gets used to the spotlight

12 Aug 2010

‘It’s a great honour to be asked to appear at the Edinburgh Book Festival,’ says Alice Thompson. ‘It’s like being knighted.’ And no one deserves it more than this Edinburgh-based author. Her fifth and most recent work, The Existential Detective, finds…

Amy Sackville

Retreating into imagined worlds of the past

12 Aug 2010

Amy Sackville’s debut novel, The Still Point, is an Arctic love story which has already drawn comparisons with Virginia Woolf. Set in modern England, Julia is the great-grand-niece of an explorer whose story fascinates her and she often dreams about the…

David Mitchell

Dreaming up the non-existent

12 Aug 2010

David Mitchell isn’t known for his simple approach to storytelling. His most recognisable work, the Booker-shortlisted Cloud Atlas, was described as having a ‘Rubik’s cube structure’. Ambitious and unconventional, it melted genres of airport…

Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson

Masterful characters discover a world of crime and corruption

12 Aug 2010

Popular private investigator Jackson Brodie makes a dramatic return in Kate Atkinson’s latest offering; as he delves into the past and discovers a world of corruption, killings and cover-ups. Set in Leeds, Started Early, Took My Dog marks another…

Simon Rich

Taking inspiration from the comedy greats

12 Aug 2010

Simon Rich makes his first appearance as a fully fledged novelist at this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival. Although the 24-year-old Harvard graduate has written two anecdotal non-fiction comedy books in the past three years – Ant Farm: And…

Owen Sheers

Covering the poetic landscape of Britain

12 Aug 2010

One of those infuriating people whose expansive CV (poet, novelist, playwright, actor, television presenter) is matched only by their down to earth charm, Wales’ Owen Sheers will be presenting two very different projects at the Book Festival. The first…

Tana French - Faithful Place

Otherwise gripping drama suffers from inconsistencies

12 Aug 2010

As much a sprawling family drama as a crime novel, Tana French’s character-driven mystery has more of the life stuff – heart, family, class – than the average genre work. In following the trials of undercover Irish cop and estranged son, brother and…

Lars Husum and his novel My Friend Jesus Christ

A wild and bizarre slapstick farce

6 Aug 2010

Given that My Friend Jesus Christ reads like a Dogme movie, you can’t help but feel Lars Husum’s time working as a dramaturge at Lars von Trier’s Copenhagen film production company Zentropa fed into his debut novel. ‘It’s not conscious, but I see your…

Emily Woof at the Writer's Retreat

The ex-actress conducts a deep involvement with language

6 Aug 2010

Emily Woof first graced Edinburgh nude and on a trapeze for a trilogy of one-woman Fringe plays, under the Sex umbrella. And throughout The Whole Wide Beauty (the debut novel by The Full Monty and Wondrous Oblivion star), the loss of physical expression…

Garth Nix kicks off this year's Book Festival

What he has in store and why fantasy is making a comeback

6 Aug 2010

Garth Nix, the bestselling Australian author of young people’s fantasy fiction, is both honoured and alarmed that he’ll be kicking off this year’s Book Festival with its very first session. ‘I’m not entirely sure what I’ll be talking about yet!’ Nix…

Philip Pullman - The Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ

'The Most Dangerous Author in Britain' comes to the Book Festival

6 Aug 2010

You will know him by the horns, of course, and the casual air of unholy sin. For Philip Pullman is the anti-God and ‘The Most Dangerous Author in Britain’, according to the modern gospel of The Mail on Sunday. To most of us, however, he is the avuncular…

Laura Barton talks about Twenty-One Locks

The author describes why and how she wanted to write her novel

6 Aug 2010

Born and raised in Lancashire, Laura Barton migrated south a decade ago, and found gainful employment with The Guardian. ‘I started writing a music column [Hail, Hail, Rock ‘n’ Roll] in a style that was quite different to most journalism at the time,…

Alberto Manguel will discuss All Men Are Liars

And why we should step back from the over-reliable narrator

6 Aug 2010

Alberto Manguel’s latest book, All Men Are Liars, is ‘a tribute to falsehood’ in which no one is a reliable source; not the enigmatic figure whose death is being investigated, not those who knew him, nor Manguel himself. It’s a concept that challenges…

Top five Scottish crime writers to catch at the EIBF

The city that embodies vice and virtue welcomes the authors

6 Aug 2010

With its Jekyll and Hyde nature, Edinburgh is the perfect spot for the portraiturists of good and evil to congregate. Here’s a quintet of Scottish scribes to catch this week Tony Black. Gus Drury is Black’s flawed bobby and in Long Time Dead, he’s…

Albanian Ismael Kadare's newest: The Accident

The author obliquely examines his homeland's paradocixal nature

6 Aug 2010

Albania’s foremost literary writer and winner of the Man Booker International Prize has spent his career examining his homeland’s paradoxical nature. This latest offering from Ismael Kadare does the same but more obliquely, with a central premise that’s…

Christos Tsiolkas' The Slap touched a few raw nerves

He tells us how he tackled this multi-story tale.

5 Aug 2010

Judge me once you’ve walked a mile in my shoes, the old saying goes. Well in his latest book, The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas hands us the literary equivalent of eight pairs of walking boots. Set in suburban Melbourne, the novel opens with a chapter devoted…

James Robertson - And the Land Lay Still

One of Scotland's most vital authors tackles our Q&A

5 Aug 2010

James Robertson has been long-listed for the Man Booker Prize of 2006 for The Testament of Gideon Mack and has just published And The Land Lay Still.

Jill McGivering - The Last Kestrel

Novels published, August 2010

3 Aug 2010

(Blue Door) A debut novel about two women, a British reporter who returns to Helmand to search for the truth concerning the death of a friend, and an Afghan determined to protect her only son.

Ian Holding - Of Beasts and Beings

Novels published, August 2010

3 Aug 2010

(Simon & Schuster) A novel about two men in Africa, one having been seized by militia, the other a schoolteacher in a city stricken by fear and intimidation.

Monique Truong - Bitter in the Mouth

Novels published, August 2010

3 Aug 2010

(Chatto) Linda Hammerick is a young woman growing up in North Carolina during the 70s and 80s before escaping to the north in this Southern Gothic tale.

Annabel Lyon - The Golden Mean

Novels published, August 2010

3 Aug 2010

(Atlantic) Canada-based short story writer with a reimagining of the relationship between Aristotle and Alexander, who later had ‘The Great’ added to his name.

Helon Habila - Oil on Water

Novels published, August 2010

3 Aug 2010

(Hamish Hamilton) Two Nigerian journos search for the kidnapped wife of a British oil engineer, and in the process uncover corruption and violence.

Lin Anderson - The Reborn

29 Jul 2010

(Hodder) A baby sliced from the womb in a fairground hall of mirrors; Jeff Coulter, a charming psychopath luring girls into a pact of sex and murder while he creates baby dolls from his prison cell for bereaved parents; dark, disturbing rituals; the…

Howard Jacobson - The Finkler Question

29 Jul 2010

(Bloomsbury) Fans of Howard Jacobson’s skilfully constructed storytelling will not be surprised to hear that his latest work seems to centre around male-female relationships, a theme the London-based writer has explored often. But as The Finkler…

Jeff Lemire - Sweet Tooth

29 Jul 2010

(Titan/Vertigo) It’s hardly surprising that Jeff Lemire’s current ongoing series (the first five issues of which are collected here) should be a bleak, post-apocalyptic yarn that recalls, among other precedents, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Lemire…

Louise Dean - The Old Romantic

29 Jul 2010

(Fig Tree) There’s plenty of mileage to be had, both in terms of pathos and comedy, from the subject matter of death. Sadly, this tepid novel fails to capitalise on its dark premise, being neither moving nor funny, despite trying for both. Ken is an…

Jerry Della Femina - From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor

29 Jul 2010

(Canongate) ‘I know guys who would make you fly Nazi Airlines in a minute or get you to pack your voodoo kit for a little trip to Haiti,’ declares self-styled mad man Jerry Della Femina, in this re-release of the rambling 1970s cult classic. Although…

Ned Beauman - Boxer Beetle

23 Jul 2010

(Sceptre) Not one for the easily shocked, young scribe Ned Beauman subjects the reader to a parade of ghoulish events and ghastly theories throughout his dazzling first novel Boxer Beetle. Admittedly it’s hard work at first, as we’re introduced to a…

Gilbert Shelton - Not Quite Dead: Last Gig in Shnagrlig

23 Jul 2010

(Knockabout) Gilbert Shelton will always be most famous for his irreverent take on hippie culture as beloved by stoners across the world in his Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers strips and its off-shoot, Fat Freddy’s Cat. And among his other achievements…