1. House of Names by Colm Tóibín
(7 Rave, 2 Mixed)
“In Colm Tóibín’s extraordinary new novel, The House of Names, it feels as if that night watchman has finally been allowed to speak. Drawing upon Greek tragedy as deftly as he borrowed the story of the Virgin mother in his 2013 Booker Prize finalist novel, The Testament of Mary, Tóibín has found the gaps in the myth, reimagining all as a profoundly gripping and human tale.”
–John Freeman (The Boston Globe)
*
2. Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane
(4 Rave, 2 Positive, 1 Mixed)
“…an opener worthy of Raymond Chandler or James Cain, and the rest of this novel — a sleek thriller that, despite its turbocharged pace, explores the nature of love and evil — is just as gripping … … Since We Fell feels distinctly cinematic. Its dialogue is crisp and often darkly funny, its characters vividly drawn, its plot a tightening wire of well-crafted suspense.”
–Colette Bancroft (The Tampa Bay Times)
*
3. Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami, Trans. by Philip Gabriel & Ted Goossen
(3 Rave, 8 Positive, 1 Mixed, 1 Pan)
“Time and again in these seven stories, Murakami displays his singular genius…when he manages to find a concrete image for human emotion … The stories in this collection find their power within the confines of common but momentous disturbances that linger on in memory.”
–Jeffrey Renard Allen (The Los Angeles Times)
*
4. The End of Eddy by Édouard Louis, Trans. by Michael Lucey
(4 Rave, 2 Positive)
“What is most impressive about The End of Eddy is that its author turned himself into a man capable of creating such a vivid and honest self-portrait … Louis is situated now in this line of powerfully, almost scarily, honest gay storytellers who need make nothing up, since their lives — especially their lonely childhoods — provide them with material beyond the scope of the imagination.”
–Rich Whitaker (The Washington Post)
*
5. The Purple Swamp Hen by Penelope Lively
(4 Rave)
“Lively is wary of high emotion, but only because she knows its power. In these perfectly pitched circumnavigations of relationships, passion and sex lie unseen but felt everywhere beneath the surface.”
–Christobel Kent (The Guardian)
*
