An A-Z of Novellas for #NovNov25

I have shamelessly stolen this idea from the lovely Simon at Stuck in a Book as a curtain-raiser to Novellas in November hosted by Rebecca and Cathy. So, here is my A-Z of novellas and short NF all under 200 pages worth reading from recent years – and no, I couldn’t find an X one either! (Links to the reviews are in the titles).

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A is for The Ascent of Rum Doodle by W E Bowman – a delightful spoof of gentlemen adventurers setting out to climb the highest mountain in the Himalaya.

B is for Barbara Isn’t Dying by Alina Bronsky – Walter Schmidt wakes up to find his wife Barbara on the bathroom floor, and for the first time in his life finds himself the carer. A cleverly constructed and witty, yet moving and poignant story.

C is for A Cellarful of Noise by Brian Epstein – The Beatles’ manager’s short memoir may be buttoned up in terms of his personal life, he was quietly gay, but he does admit to the stresses and strains of management, and to being lonely. Overall, it is an affectionate portrait of how he looked after all his boys, and girl (Cilla).

D is for Dickens & Prince by Nick Hornby – As you’d expect of Hornby, his research is impeccable, and he tells the two icons’ stories with great wit and insight into the creative mind. Both were driven from an early age, hungry workaholic consumers as well as producers of content. Completely absorbing as well as very entertaining

E is for Eurotrash nby Christian Kracht – I didn’t expect a work of metafiction based on the author’s own life, .this isn’t obvious from the blurb. The main theme is mothers and sons involving a road trip, with a strong sideline in bad family history.

F is for Foster by Claire Keegan – The story is simple. One summer, a child is taken by her father to live at her uncle and aunt’s farm. Her mother is pregnant again and with a new baby due, it’s simpler to send this child away. She spends the summer with the Kinsellas on their farm. Perfect.

G is for The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress by Beryl Bainbridge – I had to get one Beryl in! Her last novel is, like all of her later work, based on the grain of a true story – that of Senator Robert Kennedy’s murder, and the presence of a mysterious girl in a black and white polka dot dress.

H is for Heritage by Miguel Bonnefoy – Bonnefoy was inspired to write this novella by his own father’s family line. He was born in France to a Venezuelan mother and Chilean father, he takes the reader from France to Chile and back through several generations of the fictional Lonsonier family..

I is for The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas – written in 1963, it describes the friendship between two young girls, outsiders, then one goes missing. Vesaas’ writing about the Norwegian winter, the ice and snow is simply beautiful, magical and magisterial even, it is so evocative, you can imagine you’re there.

J is for The Judge & his Hangman by Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1950) – Dürrenmatt was well known for his dislike of the conventional mechanics of crime novels, and certainly there is little of that here. His inspector doesn’t ever feel compelled to explain his actions, even if they appear absurd. That’s the way Dürrenmatt liked it! 

K is for Kleinzeit by Russell Hoban (1974) – Hoban’s second adult novel is just pure Hoban! Kleinzeit goes into hospital and has an experience. It’s mad, it’s complicated, it’s hilarious, it’s also touching in places, it’s about creativity, and the wordplay is delicious.

L is for Liminal by Roland Schimmelpfennig – Describing this novella as Berlin-noir doesn’t do it justice, ecstasy-arthouse-noir would give a nod to its dreamlike qualities and filmic vision of the playwright author. the Berlin it portrays is not the Bauhaus-bright capital city, but the darker world of underground clubs and drugs, seen through the eyes of a disgraced cop.

M is for Maigret’s Pickpocket by Georges Simenon (1967) – I picked a Maigret I’d re-read recently which is one of his best.

N is for Never Mind by Edward St Aubyn – The first part of St Aubyn’s wonderful Patrick Melrose series of novels. It’s the mid-1960s, Patrick is born to an American heiress and a never-quite-made-it-at-anything upper class British father who were never really there for him, except when they were – and that was never good. Even when his father is abusing his son, St Aubyn’s mordant wit continues unabated throughout, forcing us to laugh behind our shielded faces. I’ve never read as funny a novel that is also so sad and made me squirm so much, especially knowing that it is based on the author’s own childhood.

O is for Oleander Jacaranda by Penelope Lively – 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 socialised. Young Penelope was left in the care of Nanny Lucy, who stayed until Penelope returned to England and boarding school in 1945 aged twelve. It was an isolated childhood with the class system ensuring that she rarely had any ‘suitable’ playmates.

P is for The Pear Field by Nana Ektimishvili – The title refers to an orchard that is up the road from a orphanage in Tbilisi, where Lela, who has just turned eighteen is working while she wonders what is to come next in her life. Ekvtimishvili’s writing, as told by Lela, is unsentimental and highlights her protagonist’s survival instinct, while offering a snapsnot of life in another culture.

Q is for Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym. One of her last novels, published in 1977, Quartet follows Letty, Marcia, Edwin and Norman who all work together in an office in London. They all live alone in the London suburbs. Edwin is the only one who ever married, but is now a widower.  Her vision of ageing spinsters alone in bedsitterland or in hiding from the real world is so sad and horribly real. It is not quite as bleak as Brookner though, for underneath is a little bit of humour à la Muriel Spark, dark and ironic.

R is for Rodolfo Walsh’s Last Case by Elsa Drucaroff – Argentinian author Drucaroff has taken a documented event in 1976 which occurred during truly turbulent political times in the country and run with it to create a work of fiction imagining the circumstances leading up to Rodolfo Walsh’s death after the murder of his daughter Vicki by the junta in power. It has the feeling of a true crime novel but given literary licence to expand on the facts to tell the story, Drucaroff has written a dramatic account that still feels very real indeed.

S is for Shy by Max Porter – One of our most inventive writers, Porter’s fourth continues to follow his chosen path of fractured experimental writing with a definite story arc to it percolating through the interstitial spaces around the text. Shy is the story of one night in the life of a troubled teenager, who escapes from Last Chance, a home for ‘very disturbed young men’ – will it end in tragedy or realisation? Unputdownable.

T is for This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone – not what I expected at all! A prizewinning SF&F novella that is an epistolary time travelling love story written by a pair of authors, one a Canadian poet and author of spec fiction, the other an American fantasy author. Just superb – and barely SF&F at all really.

U is for Universality by Natasha Brown – totally different to her debut, this satire on wokeism, capitalism, race, class and culture is spot on and the author has had great fun with it, managing simultaneously to be witty whilst scoring some serious points on freedom of speech and its language.

V is for Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito – The most batshit crazy novella I’ve read this year. The elevator pitch for Victorian Psycho could be ‘Jane Eyre meets Patrick Bateman’ – you’ve never met a governess like Winifred Notty. Loved it!

W is for We had to remove this post by Hanna Bervoets – published in 2022, this Dutch novella looks at the stress brought on by the job of social media content moderator. Senses do get dulled, alcohol after the shift doesn’t necessarily blank it all out, risk taking becomes more normal. Then, in the final pages of the book came one of those, ‘Did I really just read that?’ moments. Nuff said.

Y is for Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna – Passilinna, who died in 2018, is one of Finland’s most celebrated novellists; a former journalist who turned to writing comic novels. This one from 1975 is a Finnish favourite. A man rescues an injured hare and has a series of adventures with the animal.. Sweet, but a book that thinks it’s funnier than it is.

Z is for Zazie in the Metro by Raymond Queneau (1959) – Zazie is a mischievous and potty-mouthed eleven-year-old who, unable to achieve her aim of travelling on the Métro as they are on strike, runs rings about her Uncle Gabriel and his friends generally causing chaos wherever she goes, whilst having a weekend to remember. A charming, quirky, wacky, wordy and very silly book! 

I hope you enjoyed my tour of some of the novellas and short NF I’ve read and reviewed.