Category: Review
Here’s what we thought of the Booker shortlist 2018
“The first lesser deWitt” – French Exit by Patrick deWitt
“Where the novel stumbles is in its pacing” – Devil’s Day by Andrew Michael Hurley
‘All manner of tap-tap-tapping on the ceilings and the walls” – The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
“A wry, amusing account ” – The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell
“Firmly in the kooky-annoying camp” – The Changeling by Joy Williams
“Entertaining and affable” – Gloucester Crescent by William Miller
“Wrestles with big topics” – The Devil’s Highway by Gregory Norminton
“Thoughtful perspectives” – Paris Echo by Sebastian Faulks
‘The Restraint of Cowboys, anyone?’ – The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
“A celebration of trailblazers everywhere” – Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
“It’s a gentler read than his other books” – Lake Success by Gary Shteyngart
“Has a lot to offer anyone interested in literature in general” – Late Essays by JM Coetzee
“Distorted reality, broken reality, ugly reality” – Best British Short Stories 2018, ed. by Nicholas Royle
“A lot of kids would get an almighty kick out of this” – Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein by Jennifer Roy
“We have a writer who is carving out an eminent oeuvre” – From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan
“Has much to recommend it” – Normal People by Sally Rooney
“Quiet outrage, humble love” – Sea Prayer by Khalid Hosseini
“Measured and balanced” – 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
“Dead cats, Nazi bombs and spare car parts” – Milkman by Anna Burns
“Scathing and heartbreaking in equal proportion” – Sabrina by Nick Drnaso
“Such a grind” – Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
“Hilarious and depressing and rage-inducing in equal measures” – The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
Books You Really Should’ve Read By Now (no. three million and eleven): The Magic Christian by Terry Southern
“Whimsical, funny, odd, sweet” – Coyote Doggirl by Lisa Hanawalt
“A promising debut” – Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires
“Flawlessly executed, bold and provocative” – The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman
“It just doesn’t work anywhere near hard enough” – Ice Cream Man Vol.1: Rainbow Sprinkles by W Maxwell Prince & Martin Morazzo
