fiction review
BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / ‘Huckleberry Finn’ through the eyes of Jim
Everett’s breezy, fast-moving retelling of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) is about putting in some due respect.
BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / All our heroes end up dead
Review of ‘The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida’ (Sort of Books, 2022) by Shehan Karunatilaka
BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / It’s summer, it’s New York, and the girls are dressed up (and broke)
Happy Hour greeted me like a warm hug. This is definitely one of the sweetest books I’ve read this year, and possibly one of the sweetest books I will ever read.
BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / Agonies of the downtrodden
Anasru Ishwar written by Kazi Labonno is an impressive work of fiction, shedding light on the deepest gloom pervading the remotest corner of society.
BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / Mermaids are real: A story of the Haenyeo
Dear readers. I want you to do something with me. Take three long breaths—as deep as you can. Now hold it for two minutes! How long did you hold? I only survived one minute and 23 seconds. And I’m used to spending time in the water.
BOOK REVIEW : FICTION / Riding the early years of motherhood through ‘Soldier Sailor’
While reading it, one might feel that they are reading a mother’s confessions while she takes care of her son.
BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / A “knockout” debut from Rita Bullwinkel
The eight girls in Headshot clearly hope to escape the chaos of their lives in the ring.
BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / 'Prophet Song': Full of sound, fury, and significance
The 309-page-long dystopian novel is an oppressive account of Eilish who tries to keep her family from falling apart as everything around her crumbles.
BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / Otherness and invisible identities
'The Hippo Girl and Other Stories' holds up a mirror to a society that judges and ridicules those that do not adhere to its shortsighted vision of a homogenised culture.
“Pettiness, Prejudice, and Pets with Panache”
I first came across Anastasia Ryan’s work through my Instagram wanderings and was instantly intrigued by the sound of her recently released novel. Not least by its title, You Should Smile More.
Of losses and languages: reviewing Han Kang’s 'Greek Lessons'
There is a sense of inexorable catharsis, and dare I say— spirituality—when the protagonists begin their journey into one another since they alone embody the ideas and predicaments of the text.
Have you met the ‘Ghost of Fire’?
Given the background of the main characters, Bhooter Agun has a diverse narrative and depicts a world of diverging cultures, traditions, customs, and practices.
Single wife, double life
When DC Clements misses, by just a few hours, the opportunity to recover the abducted Kylie—who was being held prisoner by an unknown captor in the initial period after she disappeared—the police officer becomes obsessed with finding out what actually happened to the missing woman.
Home is where the hurt is
This is a beautiful book about a teenager looking for the answers in life, the joys of found family, and the experience of love in its many forms.
Lovers, liars and lurkers in the library
Hannah's protagonist Freddie is attempting to make progress on her novel by working at the Boston Public Library, when she—along with three of the people she is sharing a table with—are transfixed by the sound of a woman screaming somewhere in the Library.
Exploring nostalgia over coffee
Although the story doesn’t talk about how this particular cafe became a time-travelling spot to begin with, reading through to the last page made me feel that the café was always there-since the beginning of time.
Like father, unlike son: Martin Amis’s place in literature
Perhaps Martin Amis’s works do not grab me for the most part because it veers too far away from the humanism of, say, Saul Bellow—a writer Martin greatly admires and has written about extensively.
Racism and geopolitics in South Africa
Institutional racism in colonies, migration, flawed anti-monarchy sentiments stemming from personal vendettas, and the need for rebellion permeate the lives of these characters.
Flesh in ruins
It is the disease that maintains the upper hand in the plot. A jarring voice of its own, the toxins spilling across the pages in bold, chaotic words.