Books and Yasmin Sulaiman

Michael Frayn - Skios

An astute and entertaining comic novel from the erstwhile playwright

24 Apr 2012

(Faber) Michael Frayn’s new novel is a farce of Carry On proportions. Awkward sexual encounters, mistaken identities and buffoonish caricatures of powerful men and women litter the plot of this engaging, occasionally bawdy comedy. To many, Frayn is…

Sophie Hannah - Kind of Cruel

The seventh Zailer and Waterhouse murder mystery zips along but falters at the end

27 Jan 2012

(Hodder & Stoughton) Kind of Cruel is Sophie Hannah’s seventh release to feature police duo and dysfunctional couple DS Charlie Zailer and DC Simon Waterhouse, recently brought to life on ITV by Olivia Williams and Darren Boyd. This taut, nightmarish…

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…

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…

David Almond

Crossing the divide from children’s books to adult fiction

19 Aug 2011

Since penning his first children’s novel, 1998’s Whitbread Award and Carnegie Medal-winning Skellig, David Almond has been lauded as one of the UK’s greatest authors for younger readers. In 2010, the Skellig prequel, My Name is Mina, had critics falling…

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…

Nicole Krauss - Great House

More conventional in its prose than priot work but equally rewarding

11 Feb 2011

Like her last novel, The History of Love, Nicole Krauss’ new offering spans time and geography, introducing her readers to a multitude of characters that are inevitably connected to one another by an object: this time, a desk. Great House, though, is…

Stage musical The Secret Garden stars Siobhan Redmond

Cross-generational appeal of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel makes for ideal festive show

23 Nov 2010

It’s a century since the publication of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden, but this seminal work of children’s literature has only grown in stature through time. The tale of Mary, an orphaned girl who seeks refuge in a blooming hidden garden…

India Knight - Comfort and Joy

Humour and musings on the redemptive qualities of Christmas

19 Nov 2010

Upon the release of her lauded first novel My Life on a Plate in 2000, India Knight was hailed by critics as the natural heir to Helen Fielding in the still relatively new genre of chick-lit. Ten years later, the sequel to her debut is being released…

Simon Garfield's Just My Type explores typography

‘A fairly jaunty, easy read on subject that might be daunting’

27 Oct 2010

To date, Simon Garfield’s books have covered topics as diverse as the World Wrestling Federation, the history of Radio 1, World War Two diaries, and the colour mauve. Continuing this trajectory of unrelated subjects, the journalist and non-fiction…

Meg Rosoff, John Green, Tohby Riddle and Cathy Cassidy at the Edinburgh Book Festival

Writers doing it for the big kids

15 Jul 2010

Meg Rosoff might be known as a successful author for young adults, but it’s not necessarily a category with which she’s comfortable. ‘Recently, I re-read To Kill a Mockingbird for its 50th anniversary,’ she says. ‘If that was published now, it would be…

Adam Ross - Mr Peanut

3 Jun 2010

(Jonathan Cape) A terse thriller, Mr Peanut pivots along three narrative threads, each of which takes a look at the sinister side of marriage, and two of which end in murder. That they do not become entangled is a testament to the skilfulness with…

Benjamin Markovits - Playing Days

28 May 2010

(Faber) Though not explicitly billed as a memoir, Benjamin Markovits’ new novel appears to be largely autobiographical. A college graduate with literary ambitions, its narrator takes up a spot on a second division German basketball team, in a move…

Lola Shoneyin - The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives

30 Mar 2010

(Serpent’s Tail) In her debut novel, Lola Shoneyin presents us with an engrossing portrayal of a polygamous household, in which four wives fiercely compete for their husband’s affections and go to great lengths to bear his children. The emotional…

Jonathan Safran Foer - Eating Animals

4 Mar 2010

(Hamish Hamilton) Jonathan Safran Foer’s new book – a thoughtful and vigorously researched survey of US farming practices – may seem at odds with his previous works, but there are striking similarities. Like his lauded novels, Everything is…

Tiffany Murray - Diamond Star Halo

7 Jan 2010

(Portobello) Inspired by her own upbringing at Monmouthshire’s Rockfield Studios – the world’s first residential recording studio whose alumni include Queen, Iggy Pop and Oasis – Tiffany Murray’s second novel is part dysfunctional family drama, part…

Cathi Unsworth - Bad Penny Blues

4 Dec 2009

(Serpent’s Tail) The raw materials of its storyline may sound well-worn, but there’s something about the textured layers of Cathi Unsworth’s third novel that effortlessly draw the reader into the dark and disturbing environment she creates. Using…

Michael Crichton - Pirate Latitudes

19 Nov 2009

(HarperCollins) The first of two books to be published posthumously, Pirate Latitudes was found as a complete manuscript after Michael Crichton’s death in November 2008. Set in the volatile colonial Caribbean in 1665, it details British privateer…

Jealousy by Catherine Millet

15 Oct 2009

The success of her 2002 memoir, The Sexual Life of Catherine M, propelled French art critic Catherine Millet into the spotlight as one of Europe’s most celebrated contemporary sexual libertines. Indeed, this blisteringly honest dissection of her…

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffeneger

Disappointing ghost story from The Time Traveller's Wife author

17 Sep 2009

Like her debut novel The Time Traveller’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger’s new offering requests from her readers some suspension of disbelief. When bookseller Elspeth dies, she leaves her plush Highgate flat to her American twin nieces, the daughters of her…

Adam Thirlwell's latest novel - The Escape

23 Jul 2009

There’s a scene at the end of Adam Thirlwell’s The Escape in which its British Jewish protagonist Raphael Haffner attempts to explain the concept of a draw in cricket to an American friend. This idea acts as a neat allegory of the book’s plot, in which…

Anne Berry - The Hungry Ghosts

11 Jun 2009

FAMILY TALE Don’t be fooled by the title: The Hungry Ghosts is more family drama than spooky story. Yet its epoch-hopping tale – in which brutally murdered Lin Shui hangs on to the scraps of life by latching her spectre onto Alice Safford, the…

Lorraine Mariner - Furniture

2 Apr 2009

(Picador) POETRY COLLECTION It’s a far cry from Bridget Jones, but there’s still something about Furniture that is likely to appeal to the chick-lit generation. British poet Lorraine Mariner’s first full-length poetry collection is suffused with…

Mari Strachan

5 Mar 2009

From The Catcher in the Rye to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, literature in English is littered with novelists attempting to capture the bold yet naive voice of adolescence. In her debut novel, The Earth Hums in B Flat, Welsh writer…

Kitty Sewell - Bloodprint

22 Jan 2009

PSYCHODRAMA Kitty Sewell’s second novel is decked out in the same suspense-fuelled livery as Ice Trap, her internationally successful debut. The often melodramatic storyline crams in tropical hurricanes, Eastern European gangsters, brutal sexual…