Broken by Jón Atli Jónasson – blog tour

Translated by Quentin Bates A first novel in translation by an award-winning Icelandic screenwriter, Broken is a police procedural that’s the beginning of a trilogy – translated by Quentin Bates for Corylus Books: it sounds like a winner… It begins with a teenager going missing on a school trip. There’s no-one else available, so Dóra Read More

Invisible Kitties by Yu Yoyo, #ReadingtheMeow2025 #20BooksofSummer2025

Translated by Jeremy Tiang It’s great to be able to cover two challenges with one book – as well as being one of my 20 Books of Summer, Invisible Kitties is also for Mallika’s Reading the Meow 2025, the third year of her feline reading challenge, and what a super book I picked! I really had my Read More

Six Degrees of Separation: All Fours by Miranda July

First Saturday of the month and time for the super monthly tag Six Degrees of Separation, which is hosted by Kate at Booksaremyfavouriteandbest, Six Degrees of Separation #6degrees picks a starting book for participants to go wherever it takes them in six more steps. Links to my reviews are in the titles of the books chosen. The starter Read More

Oleander, Jacaranda: A Childhood Perceived by Penelope Lively – Book Group report and #20BooksofSummer2025 -No 2

When our Book Group, which is picking flora or fauna related titles at the moment, didn’t pull this one out of the hat for ‘J’, we recycled it for ‘O’! Published in 1994, Lively’s memoir centres on her childhood in Egypt in the 1930s. Her father worked for an Egyptian bank in Cairo; her mother Read More

Dinner Party: A Tragedy by Sarah Gilmartin – #20BooksofSummer2025 no 1

I read Irish author Gilmartin’s second novel, Service, a couple of years ago, which featured a three part #MeToo storyline involving a chef/patron of a top-end Dublin restaurant, his wife and one of the waiting staff, taking narration duties in turn. I enjoyed it a lot, planning to return to her first novel, which I’ve Read More

Red Water by Jurica Pavičić – blog tour

Translated from Croatian by Matt Robinson Earlier this month I read my first novel by a Bulgarian author, now I can add Croatia too to my European lit list with this multi European prize-winning novel. Pavičić’s bio says he is ‘known for hjs unorthodox thrillers and crime novels which mix social analysis with deep insights Read More