The great thing about punk and related music from about 1976 to 1982 is that the very best of it reflected difference, whether that difference be race, class, gender, or religion. It challenged, it asked questions and it entertained and excited. Which is …

Although the latest from Clare Clark is a work of fiction, it’s based on true events—principally the deliberate flooding of a Welsh valley in the mid-1960s to create a reservoir to be used by the people of Liverpool. Scores of families were evicted from t…

With no prospects, except for murder mystery evenings, an actor accepts the only role he can get: Black Bag. The job, offered to him by a university professor, requires him to attend university lectures and seminars dressed in a black bag. He must walk ar…

It’s a Wonderful Life’ is film director Frank Capra’s best film, right? Wrong! I must admit, I prefer his screwball comedy ‘It Happened One Night’, a 1934 movie which more or less kickstarted rom-coms as a genre. But Capra is undoubtedly one of the finest…

When you’re ill, do you reach for medication, a hot tea, or your dog? Author of ‘Wild: An Elemental Journey’, argues it should be the latter in ‘How Animals Heal Us’. Jay Griffiths studies a huge number of case studies to explore just how important animal…

Daunt Books is doing a fine job in reissuing Beryl Bainbridge’s novels, all with new forewords (this one’s from Yiyun Li), and ‘An Awfully Big Adventure’ is one of her finest. Set in a drab, post-war 1950s Liverpool, the story follows fifteen-year-old Ste…

This slim novel (which has been translated by Aneesa Abbas Higgins) stayed with me long after I’d finished it, largely because of its indelible imagery and its exploration of family ties and belonging. It sees Agathe leaving New York to return to her chil…

Problem is, if you’ve made a beeswax child with real hair and fingernail parings and a weary view of human life who can seemingly see into the future, (“I saw steam locomotives, the smallest particle split and explode”), and certainly see the present (and…

London Falling is Patrick Radden Keefe’s investigation into the death of a London teenager, Zac Brettler. A teenager who spent the last part of his life pretending to be a Russian oligarch’s son, leading to the inevitable interest from the sort of charact…

Against the Machine? Rage Against the Machine! Why? Ffs, let’s cut to the chase. Surely, in 2026, an editor worth their major publisher salt should read a line like, “Feminism, which began as a movement calling for the equal treatment of women, has become…

Celia Fremlin (1914-2009) was renowned for her suburban tales of psycho-domestic noir, and this collection, first published in 1984, features 13 acid drop-laced tales that really pack a sting. The title story, for instance, begins, “If only she’d known th…

Barbara Kingsolver racked up much critical and commercial success with the wildly entertaining ‘Demon Copperhead’, a novel which gave voice to the under-represented denizens of America. Her latest, once again, is set in rural Appalachia and centres on Liv…

Kate Atkinson is undoubtedly one of the UK’s finest storytellers, whether she’s hitting us up with the latest in the Jackson Brodie series of murder/mysteries, or she’s dipping back into the 20th century for a historical novel. Her latest falls into the l…

There’s always a profound heaviness attached to writing about historical events where so many suffered. Korean author Jiyoung Han handles it skilfully in her debut. Beginning in 1902 on a mountain in the Empire of Korea and ending in 1990’s Tokyo, ‘Honey …

The crashing waves and unforgiving weather of the Isle of Harris provide the perfect backdrop for Douglas Stuart’s latest novel, which explores the relationship between a father and son divided by secrecy and shame. After an unsuccessful post-graduate car…

“I am afraid we are dealing with things well beyond the realms of what men like you and I think possible, and we must adjust our expectations accordingly.” So sayeth a character in Adam Macqueen’s terrific new horror novel, which is being released in time…

When one thinks of a modern-day psychological thriller, one usually thinks of a lurid cover with a neon yellow and teal colour scheme. The book will be called something like ‘I Know What You Did Last Tuesday’, and carried by a switchbacking but unlikely n…

For those expecting a Natalie Portman thirst trap, sorry to disappoint you. For those expecting a coruscating take down of modern fame, sorry to disappoint you. For those expecting a book to replace The Odyssey as the ‘book de jour’, sorry to disappoint y…

In 1939, an Austrian 19-year-old named Hermine Braunsteiner accepted a job as a prison guard in Germany with the hopes of sending more money to her family back home. A decade later, she is known as ‘The Mare’ and is renowned for the brutal violence she en…

In a not-so-far-away future with smart houses, self-stocking fridges, and a society policed by an omnipresent institution called ‘The Grid’, we meet Scout, a Roomba vacuum cleaner who longs for human connection. Scout, along with other sentient appliances…

Although slavery officially became illegal in the United States in 1865, prejudice didn’t end. The world for people of colour changed, but it wasn’t a “new world”—a fact acknowledged in the title of Sebastian Barry’s masterful new novel. It’s a tale narra…

Peter Swanson scored a hit with his previous Christmas tale of murder and mayhem, ‘The Christmas Guest’, and he’s laced his latest literary eggnog with just the right amount of the hard stuff. It concerns Nicholas Child, a struggling mystery writer, who i…

This is the third in William Boyd’s Gabriel Dax series of novels, and like the first two, it doesn’t disappoint. Dax is a travel writer-cum-accidental spy who was co-opted into Britain’s Special Intelligence Service by the enigmatic Faith Green. Along the…

Journey to Nowhere – Shiva Naipaul – Publ. by Outsider Editions - £18.99 If often feels like Shiva Naipaul, maybe in his own mind, is the only truth-teller left during his investigation into the Jonestown massacre, Journey to Nowhere, a brand-new editi…

There’s definitely a great novel to be written about a serial killer and their day-to-day existence (I mean to say, how much of their time can serial killing take up? A fraction of a percent?). Sadly, ‘The Art of Getting Hammered’ isn’t it. Our anti-hero …

I’m quite partial to protagonists who unravel in the most spectacular ways, and with ‘Dad Had a Bad Day’, Ashton Politanoff has given us a real doozy in the shape of Ned. Ned has recently lost his job and spends much of his time looking after his six-year…

This breezy slice of autofiction—which has echoes of works by authors such as Rachel Cusk—sees a writer shacking up in Paris. He’s in a part of the city far removed from the picture-postcard version beloved of ‘Emily in Paris’ or Woody Allen’s ‘Midnight i…

Edwidge Danticat, author of ‘Claire of the Sea Light’, is back with her first novel in over ten years. Dèy is about Magnolia, a Haitian American who works in real estate and has built a life with her husband and young daughter in Miami. She is caught in a…

There’s much to enjoy about this novel from a first-time author, but it does have one serious flaw, which I will get to later. Alicia Upano was born and raised in Hawaiʻi, and that’s where her novel begins—specifically Hilo on the eastern coast. It concer…

In what comedian John Robins dubs his ‘alcobiography’, he examines his life through the twelve drinks that have shaped him and his relationship with alcohol. Among them, there’s the first ‘stubby’ he tried as a scout, which sparked a romanticism for drink…

There’s a killer stalking the streets of Tyneside, but do their “victims” actually want to die? Is ‘The Angel of Death’—as the tabloids are quick to dub them—actually offering a service; a kind of off-book assisted dying scheme for the terminally ill? But…

‘Underdogs’ is the debut novel from Middlesbrough writer Louise Powell, and it captures life on the fringes, particularly among those drawn to the ‘flapping’—or independent greyhound racing—community. Reg is up to his eyes in red letters, but he hopes to…

People are outsiders for all sorts of reasons: class, sexual orientation, political status, but for Polly Barton’s anonymous narrator in What Am I, A Deer? it’s a little more complicated. Outwardly successful, inwardly wondering whether she will always be…

I got two klaxon alerts on reading this debut novel. The gist of the story is that Clare and Phoebe’s relationship is under severe strain when Clare miscarries their baby girl. They up sticks to the countryside (after left a relation’s house in a will), h…

“PG danced a kind of four-step around Jerome’s legs as he phoned his secretary to cancel an invitation to a warlock.” This wonderful novel – first published in 1965 – is tumbling with such sentences, and I hope this reprint from the redoubtable Faber Edit…

Mallory Maddox is an author who, following her wildly successful debut novel, has been stuck in writer’s no-man’s land for years. Her peers used to rave about her talent; now they call her ‘Meek Mal’ owing to her inability to follow through and her stay i…

This ambitious slice of science fiction dystopia deftly balances issues surrounding severe climate breakdown with Deb Olin Unferth’s signature sharp wit. The novel is set on a severely depopulated Earth, sometime in the future, with humanity splintering. …

Following the massive success of novels such as ‘The Marriage Portrait’ and ‘Hamnet’, Maggie O’Farrell returns with a sweeping, multi-viewpoint historical epic set in Ireland. The action begins in 1865, roughly a decade after the devastation of the Great …

Irish writer Paul Murray catapults us right into the centre of a family drama in this novel. The Barnes family are on the cusp of their demise. Dickie Barnes is still grieving the death of his younger brother while facing the closure of the family busines…

So yeah? Yeah? Hugh works for this company in Berlin whose virtual head honcho madman/genius has bought a planet just like earth, only problem is there’s no safe way to travel to it. Hugh’s problem is exactly that problem too, and he fears his space race …

What does the Pacific Northwest produce in the 1970s? Well, among other things, serial killers and serial amounts of deadly pollution. In Murderland, Caroline Fraser suggests that these two facts are not unrelated. “Recipes for making a serial killer may …

Adele Bertei’s memoir isn’t a comprehensive history of the women who played a huge part in the culture of No Wave, but a series of extraordinary snapshots that become a very satisfying whole over this book’s wonderful three hundred pages. Adele Bertei arr…

When George Michael died – nearly ten years ago now – a slew of stories came out about his generosity (he was once watching ‘Deal or No Deal’ on TV, and when a woman didn’t win the £15,000 she hoped, for IVF treatment, Michael gave her the money with the …

In Famesick, writer, actor, and creator of the critically acclaimed television show ‘Girls’ reflects on the 17 years she has lived (often controversially) in the limelight, and the side effects of fame that she was too young to comprehend. Whether it’s an…

India, 2013. Ved has just turned 13 and he lives with his non-biological father – the titular ‘Da’. The pair share a fierce bond – full of tenderness and affection – but it also becomes apparent that ‘Da’ is gay. Ved, who narrates the tale with all the na…

Unlike several of her recent novels, which centred on the recurring characters of Lucy Barton and Olive Kitteridge, the latest from Elizabeth Strout is a stand-alone work that captivates right from the off. The story follows Artie Dam, a high school histo…

Thai writer Pitchaya Sudbanthad is a master at weaving timelines and characters together in this debut novel. It’s a cocktail of historical, science, and climate fiction which sees stories from characters across centuries linked by their relationship to t…

The debut novel from this Uruguayan novelist (translated by Miriam Tobin) is a compelling addition to the New Latin American Gothic genre. Set in the fictional town of Paso Chico, the story concerns Marga, a 13-year-old girl who lives with her grandmother…

Simon Goddard’s latest in his series of brilliant Bowie biogs is set in 1976, when Britain’s long hot summer brought racial tensions to the boil helped by the lies of Enoch Powell and the idiocy of rock stars like Eric Clapton and David Bowie (among other…

Somewhere at the start of this great “anti-memoir”, there’s a line about addiction which is a reminder that bad stuff in the world could be sorted if there was a will to sort it, “The problem with prevention is that it would require a full-scale revolutio…

Agnes Martin (1912-2004) was a Canadian-American painter known for her minimalist abstracts. She did her most famous work while living rather reclusively in the desert environment of New Mexico – in a house she built herself. She never expressed her sexua…

In this follow-up to her highly acclaimed 2017 novel ‘Butter’, Asako Yuzuki is back with another dark story (translated by Polly Barton). ‘Hooked’, like ‘Butter’, is set in Tokyo and revolves around two thirty-year-old women: Eriko is a highly strung perf…

On the coast of present-day Ireland, a family gather to mourn the death of their long-estranged father (or, in the case of Vyonne, her ex-husband). There’s the teen daughter and son, Gemma and Matthew, who are trying to figure out their place in the world…

Scottish-based author Tariq Ashkanani was responsible for one of the best thrillers of 2025 with ‘The Midnight King’ – a twisty (and twisted) new take on the serial killer genre – and he’s followed it up with another doozy. Just as he did with ‘The Midnig…