Books, Issue 694
19 articles
Sorted by popularity / date
Mark Millar & Leinil Francis Yu - Superior
16 Mar 2012
The Kick-Ass creator's latest ponders what superpowers would mean to those who needed them most
(Titan) Glasgow writer Mark Millar has really picked up the pace on his creator-owned series over the last few years, but what’s more remarkable is how high the quality has remained. Wanted, Kick-Ass and Nemesis were action blockbusters but Superior…
David Kushner - Jacked
16 Mar 2012
An entertaining, if hyperbolic, 'unauthorised' history of Grand Theft Auto
(Collins) After a similar book on Doom, journalist David Kushner returns to familiar ground with Jacked. This ‘unauthorised’ history of Grand Theft Auto traces the game’s development from its early beginnings in Dundee to become one of the highest…
Peter Carey - The Chemistry of Tears
16 Mar 2012
Moving portrait of grief and genius from the twice Booker-winning author
(Faber) Grief haunts the pages of Peter Carey’s new novel, the twice Booker-winning author painting a compelling picture of all-consuming love in the 19th and 21st centuries. Catherine Gehrig is an horologist turned museum conservator who, following…
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…
StAnza 2012 international poetry festival opens
16 Mar 2012
Opening event explores Philip Larkin's relationship with jazz
Stanza, the St Andrews-based international poetry festival, has opened its doors for the fifteenth year, bringing together poetry, art and music leavened with learning, humour and good performances. Having earned a reputation for tight adherence to…
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…
On the Road trailer unveiled
12 Mar 2012
Jack Kerouac's road novel adapted for the screen by Walter Salles, starring Sam Riley
The trailer for Walter Salles' On the Road has been unveiled, featuring Control's Sam Riley, Tron: Legacy's Garret Hedlund and Twilight's Kristen Stewart. The original novel was written by Jack Kerouac, and is seen as a definitive text for the beat…
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).
Author and broadcaster Bidisha on Angela Carter
28 Feb 2012
Unique author the subject of Aye Write event on her life and work
Within the many pages of Angela Carter’s fiction the ancient and the utterly innovative engage in a fast, sexy pas de deux. Myths, legends, folklore, ancient creatures, seemingly timeless impulses, transgression and dynamics are broken down…
Robert Aldrich - Gay Life Stories
28 Feb 2012
Fascinating insight into the lives of gay men and women throughout history
(Thames & Hudson) Gay rights have made huge strides in the West in the past couple of decades and with that has come an increase in the numbers of openly gay celebrities from across the spectrum of public life. But what of the many unsung heroes of…
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…
Aye Write! 2012 - highlights
28 Feb 2012
Seven of the best events at Glasgow literary festival, including William McIlvanney and William Boyd
William McIlvanney The Saltire and Whitbread-winning author from Kilmarnock reflects on a distinguished literary career which kicked off in 1966 with Remedy is None. Was he the man who began the Tartan Noir phenomenon? 9 Mar, 6pm, £8 (£7). Janice…
StAnza 2012 international poetry festival highlights
28 Feb 2012
Appearances include Jackie Kay and Joe Dunthorne
It always helps a festival event to have some kind of theme in order to bring together many different strands and give the whole shebang a proper focus. Perhaps spoilt for choice, the organisers of StAnza (aka Scotland’s Poetry festival) have gone for…
City of Literature enLIGHTen project
28 Feb 2012
Quotes from Scotland's finest Enlightenment minds to illuminate the capital
Back in 2010, a City of Literature initiative used Edinburgh as the backdrop to the Carry a Poem campaign. On Valentine’s Day that year, arm-in-arm lovers and single folks mooching around the centre of town on their tod were stopped in their tracks by a…
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…
Scottish Children's Books Awards 2011 winners
23 Feb 2012
Ross Collins, Ross MacKenzie and Nicola Morgan win award judged by 24,000 children
Ross Collins, Ross MacKenzie and Nicola Morgan have been announced the winners of the Scottish Children's Books Awards 2011. The contestants of the awards were judged and voted for exclusively by young readers from all over Scotland, 600 of whom…
From the Margins – William Letford and Roddy Woomble
21 Feb 2012
Writers pick the other artists they'd reclaim from the margins
William Letford, writer, poet, roofer Which artist, writer, musician, filmmaker would you reclaim from the 'margins'? Jack Gilbert published his first collection of poems, Views of Jeopardy, in 1962. This won him the Yale Series of Younger Poets…
