Category: Book Reviews
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“Toffee” by Sarah Crossan
In this stunning verse novel from Carnegie Medal winning YA author Sarah Crossan we meet Alison, a young woman on the run from a difficult situation at home. She ends up in a bleak seaside town. Alone, and with nowhere else to sleep, she hides out in the shed of an abandoned house. It soon…
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“Malcolm Orange Disappears” by Jan Carson
Summarising a book you’ve written yourself is a difficult and quite disconcerting thing to do. Malcolm Orange Disappears was my first published novel and, whilst I’m still quite fond of it and certain characters who appear within its pages, six books later, I can definitely see where it could be improved. The story focuses upon eleven year…
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“This Excellent Machine” by Stephen Orr
This Excellent Machine is the first volume in an anticipated trilogy of childhood novels by Australian writer, Stephen Orr. Set in a single neighbourhood of a small Australian town in 1984 it is narrated by seventeen year old Clem who lives with his mother, his sister, Jen and his Pop, Doug. Pop has been a surrogate…
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“The Old King in His Exile” by Arno Geiger
Translated from the German by Stefan Tobler I’m beginning to notice something of a trend in my reading. Writers who have a parent living with Dementia will often take the opportunity to write about the experience. Many of these books are much more interesting and, dare I say it, better written than the regular Dementia…
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“Wrinkles” by Paco Roca
There are so many ways to tell a story and just as many avenues for engaging a reader. An issue as diverse, wide-ranging and various as dementia will require the whole gamut of an artist’s creative ability as they seek to find effective means of telling a story that isn’t their own. Spanish author, Paco…
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“The Madonnas of Leningrad” by Debra Dean
Debra Dean’s beautiful novel, The Madonnas of Leningrad is one of a handful of key texts we’ll be exploring as part of our research project. We’ll be sharing and discussing extracts from the novel during our forthcoming reading groups. The story shuttles between a wedding on an island in contemporary America and the autumn of 1941 where…
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“Hour of the Bees” by Lindsay Eagar
Hour of the Bees is Utah-based YA writer, Lindsay Eagar’s debut novel. It’s a captivating story about a family spending a summer together on the sprawling sheep ranch which has been in their family for generations. The story centres around twelve year old Carol. At first Carol isn’t at all keen to give up her…
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“The Vanishing Half” by Brit Bennett
I’ve been in two minds as to whether I should include Brit Bennett’s bestselling second novel, The Vanishing Half in my list of Dementia fiction narratives. The greater part of the novel does not touch upon the subject of Dementia. It’s an engaging, and incredibly timely, exploration of race issues in North America. Twins, Stella and Desiree…
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“I Remain in Darkness” by Annie Ernaux
Translated from the French by Tanya Leslie This slim volume was my first experience of the French author Annie Ernaux, a writer I’ve been intending to read for quite some time. This particular book has been namechecked in so many essays and articles I’ve read in the last few weeks it felt like the perfect…
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“There but for the” by Ali Smith
In true, and glorious, Ali Smith style, There but for the is a novel narrated from multiple perspectives, seamlessly weaving various timeframes, memories and characters together as their stories pivot around a central linked point. The pivotal point here is a dinner party gone dreadfully wrong. One of the guests, an almost stranger named Miles,…