Family life
The magic of early radio days
Beaty Rubens takes us inside the British home 100 years ago as the glamorous new device becomes central to family life
Truly inspirational: the hospital diary of Hanif Kureishi
‘My world has been smashed...and there is nothing I can do about’, writes Kureishi of the freak accident in 2022 that has left him paralysed. ‘But I will not go under. I will make something of it’
Shalom Auslander vents his disgust – on his ‘grotesque, vile, foul, ignominious self’
Long derided as ‘feh’ by his Orthodox parents, the American writer admits to being his own hanging judge
What do we mean when we talk of ‘home’?
Though deeply attached to her ‘squat, odd-looking house’ near Uffington, Clover Stroud comes to realise that home is as much about bonds between people as a particular place
Ménage à trois: Day, by Michael Cunningham, reviewed
When Dan, his wife Isabel and her brother Robbie decide to spend lockdown together, claustrophobic domesticity develops into a painful love triangle
She’s leaving home: Breakdown, by Cathy Sweeney, reviewed
One ordinary November day in Dublin, without forethought or planning, a woman walks out on her husband and two teenage children and never comes back
The inner world of others
As ever in her short stories, Hadley uses the smallest details – of dress, food and decor – to masterfully convey class, character and the inner world of others
Tuscan chiaroscuro
A trio of formidable British women are enjoying peaceful retirement in Italy – until their idyll is disrupted by a series of unforeseen events
The twists keep coming
Murray’s immersive, beautifully written mega-tome about a family in a small town in Ireland is as funny as it is deeply disturbing
The view from on high
Sixteen-year-old Kit floats free from her body at night and circles invisibly over family and friends – not always liking what she sees
Modest expectations
A Little Hope, Ethan Joella’s debut novel, is about the lives of a dozen or so ordinary people who live…
Laughing in the face of adversity
Writing from a child’s point of view is a daredevil act that Miriam Toews raises the stakes on in her…
Bombs over Belfast
Caught outside at the start of a raid in the Belfast Blitz as the incendiary bombs rain down, Audrey looks…
A controlling monster
If vivid, drily hilarious tales about messy families stuffed with passive aggression and seething resentment are your thing, you will…
Knotty problems
Anne Tyler’s 24th novel French Braid opens in 2010 in Philadelphia train station. We find the teenage Serena, who has…
Everyday inspiration
‘One of the nicest things about being a writer,’ Shirley Jackson once noted in a lecture titled ‘How I Write’,…
Flight from reality
The Autumn of the Ace begins in 1945, as the second world war ends, but both Louis de Bernières and…
Return of the patriarch
Some faint hearts may sink at the idea of a torrid Swedish family drama peopled with nameless figures identified only…
Deeply mysterious: the latest thrillers reviewed
Maggie is sitting alone in the park when she’s approached by Harvey, who introduces himself as a recruiter for MI5.…
Bohemian life Down Under
Here’s a pair of little books — one even littler than the other — by Robin Dalton (née Eakin), a…
The very stuff of life
There was nothing remarkable about the Whitshanks. None of them was famous. None of them could claim exceptional intelligence, and…
Make or break
Us, David Nicholls’s first novel since the hugely successful One Day, is about a couple who have been married for…
The pitfalls and privileges of being a politician’s child
It was a Friday morning in 1992, Britain had just had an election, and I was on an ice rink.…
Flashman lives!
Why it’s time for a Cad of the Year Award
