Books, Issue 648

Dan Rhodes - Little Hands Clapping

(Canongate) Dan Rhodes is a wonderful writer who seemed to spring from the ether a few years ago as a fully formed storyteller par excellence, a purveyor of the bleakest, funniest black comedy around, and an author with no obvious peers. Little Hands…

Chris Kent - Medusa

(Graphite Fiction) Borders-based artist and writer Chris Kent has produced a strong piece of complex work for his debut comics project. Using collage, photo and painted art Medusa has a unique look for a haunting tale of lose and longing. Following…

Have meat, can eat

Just when you thought it was safe to crack open your haggis... BURNS IS BACK. Yes, no sooner has the Year of Homecoming been safely consigned to the tartan time capsule than Burns Night 2010 rolls around, with the usual mix of traditional suppers…

Simon Lelic - Rupture

(Picador) Simon Lelic’s debut novel is certainly timely. His story about a massacre in a north London school would appear to symbolise our so-called ‘Broken Britain’. But the fact that the shooting of three students and a teacher during a morning…

Edward Ross - Filmish

(Chiaroscuro) Edinburgh-based cartoonist, comic writer and filmmaker Edward Ross releases this sharp and wryly amusing ‘wee collection of comic book essays on film theory’. This isn’t hard academia (and doesn’t pretend to be) but an engaging look at…

Before the Gods - KS Turner interview

From the moment you pick up Before the Gods, with its tantalising mix of fantasy, science fiction, psychology, mythology, existential questioning and spirituality, it’s clear that we’re dealing with no ordinary fictional debut. But with its lofty title…

Willy Vlautin - Lean on Pete

(Faber) To date, Willy Vlautin has written about ordinary American drifters careering from one dead end job to another on lonely roads, escaping something dark from their past and desperately seeking hope in an uncertain future. Lean On Pete offers…

Jon McGregor - Even the Dogs

(Bloomsbury) On a cold, miserable day between Christmas and New Year, a dead junkie’s body is found in the cold, miserable flat which used to be the warm loving home where Robert and his wife raised their daughter Laura. But one day they left and his…

David O'Doherty, Claudia O'Doherty and Mike Ahern - 100 Facts About Pandas

(Square Peg) Did you know that an administrative error resulted in the panda being classified not as a mammal but as a nut? Were you aware that the original Concorde had an in-flight panda called Mr Nougat who snuggled up to passengers having…