Dottie by Abdulrazak Gurnah
Dottie Badoura Fatma Balfour is seventeen years old and has just become the head of her small family in London. Her mother has just died,...
top of page
literature book reviews book recommendations reading lists
WELCOME TO MY BOOKSHELF
Search
Apr 26, 20222 min read
The Women of Troy by Pat Barker
The Trojan War has left destruction in its wake. The city is defeated, its men have been murdered, and the women enslaved. But the Greek...
Apr 19, 20223 min read
The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante
“Two years before leaving home my father said to my mother that I was very ugly,” is the brutal opening line of Elena Ferrante’s most...
Mar 17, 20223 min read
Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah
Uncle Aziz comes by the house every year. His visits are always a cause for excitement. The wealthy merchant and his men are not only...
Mar 2, 20223 min read
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Holden Caulfield has been expelled from his prep-school. Again. Having failed all subjects but English he now has to pack his bags and go...
Feb 15, 20222 min read
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
It is hot in this 1960s Harlem summer where we meet Ray Carney for the first time. A respectable furniture salesman, Carney is well-liked...
Feb 8, 20222 min read
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
It is a bitter cold winter in Ireland, 1985. We are in a small town, among good Christian citizens and meet Bill Furlong, the coal...
Feb 2, 20222 min read
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
Frances and Bobbi are students at Trinity College, Dublin. They used to be lovers, now they are best friends who perform poetry together....
Jan 25, 20222 min read
Tar Baby by Toni Morrison
L’Isle des Cheavliers is a tropical paradise where the rich American candy manufacturer Valerian Street has chosen to retire with his...
Jan 18, 20222 min read
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal have been best friends since their adventures during World War II, though none of their friends and family...
Jan 4, 20222 min read
Milkman by Anna Burns
In an unnamed city, where two communities live in conflict with each other, where there is a right and a wrong kind of butter, just as...
Nov 2, 20215 min read
The Booker Prize 2021
Tomorrow, the winner of the 2021 Booker Prize will be announced. Over the past few weeks I read my way through the shortlist, and it was...
Oct 5, 20212 min read
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
The family Gifty remembers from early childhood is a family of four, that quickly became a family of three and way too soon was cut into...
Sep 21, 20212 min read
Strange Flowers by Donal Ryan
Moll Gladney is a quiet girl, not known to cause troubles to her devout and hardworking parents. But one night she disappears from her...
Sep 14, 20213 min read
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
Frederic Henry, known simply as “tenente” by most, is an American lieutenant fighting with the Italian Army in World War I. He meets the...
Aug 31, 20214 min read
Famiglia di Natalia Ginzburg
(english version below) Famiglia di Natalia Ginzburg contiene due novelle sulla vita della borghesia romana nella seconda metà del secolo...
Aug 24, 20212 min read
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Desiree and Stella Vignes are identical and inseparable. Only those who know them well will be able to tell them apart: Desiree, the...
Aug 17, 20212 min read
Normal People by Sally Rooney
The social laws of high school dynamics govern Connell and Marianne’s behaviour. He is the popular star of the school’s football team,...
Aug 3, 20212 min read
Grand Union by Zadie Smith
Grand Union is Zadie Smith’s collection of short stories, comprising eleven completely new works as well as eight stories previously...
Jul 27, 20213 min read
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Moscow, 1922. Count Alexander Rostov – member of the Jockey Club, Master of the Hunt – faces a Bolshevik tribunal and the end to life as...
bottom of page