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'Beasts of No Nation' by Uzodinma Iweala 4 Apr 2012 | 07:58 am
A book about a child soldier in an unnamed west African state sounds a lot like like a book you ought to read rather than one you'd want to. But Nigerian writer Uzodinma Iweala avoids this problem by ...
'Exile' by Jakob Ejersbo 9 Dec 2011 | 12:07 pm
"It has to be deeper, otherwise the dogs will get her," Dad says. Doesn't he realize they already have me? 'Exile' was a pure impulse buy for me. I think it attracted my attention simply by its autho...
'The Redbreast' by Jo Nesbø 6 Sep 2011 | 07:57 am
A book about neo-Nazis and psychotic gunmen running around Oslo was a disconcerting thing to be reading on the 22nd of July, 2011, as Anders Breivik went on the rampage. Despite how this sounds, Nesbø...
'The Motel Life' by Willy Vlautin 25 Jul 2011 | 10:16 am
Willy Vlautin was originally best-known as the lead songer of alt-country group Richmond Fontaine, but has recently won serious plaudits for his third novel, 'Lean on Pete'. Being a forager in the Hod...
'Swamplandia!' by Karen Russell 7 May 2011 | 05:37 am
Karen Russell first attracted attention a couple of years ago for her debut short story collection St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised by Wolves. Needless to say, I haven't read it. But there was somethi...
'The Thing Around Your Neck' by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 1 Mar 2011 | 01:16 pm
A few years back Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie came to a secondary school I was teaching in at the time to do a reading and Q&A session for the senior students there. I hadn't read anything of hers at that...
'In a Strange Room' by Damon Galgut 17 Jan 2011 | 10:01 am
Damon Galgut achieved a new level of fame last year when In a Strange Room made it onto the Man Booker Prize shortlist. But he had been there before, a few years back, with a very fine book called The...
'The Secret History' by Donna Tartt 8 Jan 2011 | 04:37 pm
"The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation." It's all there in the opening line, really: Bunny is go...
'There Are Little Kingdoms' by Kevin Barry 17 Dec 2010 | 02:40 pm
Were I a more prolific reader and book-blogger I would no doubt be inclined at this time of year to wax lyrical about my favourite book of the year. But I'm not, so I can't. Paul Murray's Skippy Dies,...
'The Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ' by Philip Pullman 9 Nov 2010 | 09:00 am
Before getting down to the nitty-gritty, a small qualm I have with this book: the 245 pages of the paperback edition contain some of the widest margins I have ever encountered, with a full inch to eit...
