Social drama

George Pelecanos - The Way Home

11 Jun 2009

SOCIAL DRAMA Having long since established his credentials as a chronicler of life on the mean streets of Washington DC, George Pelecanos more recently broadened his fanbase as screenwriter and story editor on The Wire, the Baltimore-based TV show…

Colm Tóibín: Brooklyn

14 May 2009

Times are tough in Enniscorthy, a small job-scarce town in the south-east of Ireland where idle gossip and parish dances are the only entertainment on offer for the young and restless. Instantly likeable leading lady Eilis Lacey’s life is turned upside…

Darin Strauss - More Than It Hurts You

5 Feb 2009

SOCIAL DRAMA If you’re in the mood for a brisk, entertaining read, More Than It Hurts You isn’t it. If your interests lie in the inner workings of individuals and relationships, however, this is an in-depth study of exactly that. Josh, Dori, and…

Claude McKay - Banjo

11 Dec 2008

SOCIAL DRAMA ‘A story without a plot’ is not the most promising strapline for a novel you’ll ever come across, but there’s enough character, spice and joie de vivre in this deceptively intelligent meander to pull the reader through. Serpent’s Tail…

Charlie Owen - Bravo Jubilee

27 Nov 2008

SOCIAL DRAMA Copper-turned-crime writer Charlie Owen’s third novel is another retro-fitted 1970s police procedural set in a grim Manchester overspill named Handstead aka Horse’s Arse. Picking up the year after the previous book, Foxtrot Oscar, this…

Chris Cleave - The Other Hand

14 Aug 2008

SOCIAL DRAMA (Sceptre) After the success of his 2005 debut novel The Incendiary, Chris Cleave turns his attention from terrorist attacks to the equally provocative issue of immigration. Written as a first person narrative, The Other Hand describes the…

James Frey - Bright Shiny Morning

7 Aug 2008

SOCIAL DRAMA (John Murray) Contrary to the promise of its title, Bright Shiny Morning will not lighten up your day. The thought of reading it will not fill you with delight, nor with longing to live the lives of those between its covers. None of which…

Rodge Glass - Hope For Newborns

22 May 2008

SOCIAL DRAMA (Faber) After the success of debut No Fireworks, Rodge Glass returns to themes of lapsing Judaism, focusing on what it means to be British in an age where homeland pride is a misty-eyed memory, and an anomaly to third generation…

John Burnside - Glister

8 May 2008

SOCIAL DRAMA (Jonathan Cape) It’s safe to say this latest novel from Fifer John Burnside won’t be sparking a tourism boom on the east coast anytime soon. But his bleakly beautiful tale digs beneath the surface of the everyday to do what he does best…

Rebecca Miller - The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

27 Mar 2008

SOCIAL DRAMA (Canongate) At first, a novel about the awakening of a woman who has spent her life subjugated to a famous, powerful man seems almost quaintly anachronistic in today’s heady post-feminist climate. But then you remember that the novelist…

Mary Gaitskill

15 Nov 2007

SOCIAL DRAMA Veronica (Serpent’s Tail) Mary Gaitskill rarely shies away from the violence of inner life. S&M, self-harm and bad sex torment characters as they struggle to define themselves and the world and new novel Veronica is no different. Alison…

Nathan Englander

(Faber)

23 Aug 2007

Nathan Englander, the New York-born author of For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, makes a confident leap from critically acclaimed short story writer to novelist with the audacious The Ministry of Special Cases. It's set in 1970s Buenos Aires during…

Now is the Hour

16 Jul 2007

SOCIAL DRAMA TOM SPANBAUER Now is the Hour (Jonathan Cape) With a flower in his hair, 17-year-old Rigby John Klusener is hitching his way to San Francisco, reciting an abbreviated litany of the chain of events that forced him to come out…

The Virgin of Flames

Chris Abani

23 Apr 2007

SOCIAL DRAMA Los Angeles, California. Black is a busy man. By day he collects racist and sexist jokes from toilets for his mural (one from Buckingham Palace via Sharon Osbourne), while being stalked by Archangel Gabriel, and obsessing over…

Ghosts

More4, Tue 17 Apr, 10pm

9 Apr 2007

SOCIAL DRAMA When you think about Nick Broomfield and his work, you probably don’t think grimy, subtle and slow. Though, you might conjure up an image of a posh guy with a camera upsetting all manner of ruthless crooks and political outcasts with his…

Emily Maguire

The Gospel According to Luke (Serpent’s Tail)

12 Mar 2007

SOCIAL DRAMA Acclaimed Australian author Emily Maguire’s latest book is nothing if not topical. It centres on Luke, a young Pastor of the Christian Revolution in Sydney, full of God and staunchly opposed to the sexual health clinic across the street.

Mohsin Hamid

The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Hamish Hamilton)

26 Feb 2007

SOCIAL DRAMA Mohsin Hamid’s spare, haunting second novel takes the form of a one-sided conversation struck up between a bearded Pakistani man and an American tourist in a restaurant in Lahore. Changez was once top of his graduating class at Princeton…

Niall Griffiths

Runt

15 Feb 2007

What a courageous writer Niall Griffiths is. In the seven years since his debut Grits - an ambitious and occasionally brilliant study of modern hedonism in West Wales - he has divined, deviated and experimented with a bravery that is only really…

Niall Griffiths

Runt (Jonathan Cape)

29 Jan 2007

SOCIAL DRAMA What a courageous writer Niall Griffiths is. In the seven years since his debut Grits - an ambitious and occasionally brilliant study of modern hedonism in West Wales - he has divined, deviated and experimented with a bravery that is…

Niven Govinden

Graffiti My Soul (Canongate)

12 Jan 2007

SOCIAL DRAMA When a book claims that in its setting that ‘nothing bad ever happens’, you can rest assured that many different variants of excrement will be hitting the fan. With Niven Govinden’s zingy second novel, the disaffected youth of Surrey are…

Roddy Doyle

Paula Spencer (Jonathan Cape)

12 Oct 2006

SOCIAL DRAMA Epic historical trilogies must be a hell of a grind. So, you can forgive Roddy Doyle for taking his eye temporarily off the ball of his Last Roundup series (two down: A Star Called Henry and Oh, Play that Thing, one to come in, probably…

Maggie O'Farrell

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox (Review)

1 Sep 2006

SOCIAL DRAMA The parameters of mental illness have shifted over the years, but not so long ago young women could be sectioned simply for being what most parents term ‘a handful.’ The eponymous heroine of Maggie Farrell’s heartbreaking new novel is…