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Anuradha Roy
Positive The Scotland Herald (UK) ... intriguing ... These changing perspectives might, at first, seem baffling, but it works. The novel’s world becomes clay on the potter’s wheel, being viewed from different angles in space and time ... Rightly, politics is treated with both seriousness and light-heartedness ... The plot shifts again, but Roy never loses control. Her writing can sometimes become a little prosaic, and a few scenes, including one where an old chauvinistic Hindu woman incites a riot, seem forced. Nevertheless, it’s worth persevering. Near the end the style improves and the characters take on a sharper focus ... a lucid and enjoyable novel.
Kapka Kassabova
Rave The Scotland Herald (UK) To the Lake is not the usual tale of self-excavation. Over her last few books, Kassabova has developed an interesting methodology for her non-fiction. She enters a terrain and starts to absorb its character, collecting stories of its people along the way ... In To the Lake, she repeats this feat, with fascinating results. She finds an explanation for her internal strife, one that is reliant on knowledge of the lake folk. In a sense, she re-maps the region, unveiling the polyphonic history of its people, from Illyrian tribes to modern day Sufis .... Anyone who is seeking to truly understand Balkan culture, in all its pain and glory, should know about the lakes, and read this book.
Deb Olin Unferth
Rave The Herald Scotland (UK) ... wild and pacey ... It’s not a novel’s job to inform, but if it has a few well-constructed, enjoyable lessons like this and they serve the art itself, then it’s nothing to complain about. Thankfully, didacticism is not Unferth’s style. This is her sixth book. She’s honed her writing in a range of forms, from memoir, poetry and short story. Her dexterity shows...She’s a playful and digressive writer with a keen psychological insight, but one which doesn’t overburden the reader with heavy interiority. She understands how our imaginations clash with reality, how we fumble through our days moving between who we are and who we could be ... This is one reason Barn 8 is so interesting and much more than a crazy plot. Unferth questions the motives of all and sundry and explores what moral acts mean in a world of compromised politics ... contains complex depths: it is a novel about finding a home in the world and breaking free of the production line mentality of modern life, but also an exploration of the different fates that befall people – and chickens – when some life-altering opportunity comes along.
Javier Cercas, Trans. by Anne McLean
Rave The Scotland Herald (UK) ... [a] brave political and family history ... Cercas’ book consistently examines why someone might act against their own interests, and a superb companion piece to Cercas’ novel The Soldiers of Salamis ... in this elegant and penetrating narrative Cercas shows us how important it is that Mena’s life is not forgotten.
Javier Cercas, Trans. by Anne McLean
Rave The Herald Scotland (UK) ... one of the strengths of Lord of All the Dead is the breadth of its subject matter. We learn enough about Mena to know the bare outline of his life and why he decided to fight for The Falange. But, more interestingly, we also discover the truth about why other Spaniards joined one side or another ... Cercas’ book consistently examines why someone might act against their own interests, and a superb companion piece to Cercas’ novel The Soldiers of Salamis, in which a Republican soldier saves the life of a Falangist leader ... in this elegant and penetrating narrative Cercas shows us how important it is that Mena’s life is not forgotten.
Lucy Ellmann
Rave The Scotland Herald (UK) Over the last four weeks, for two hours a day, I have read Lucy Ellman’s Ducks, Newburyport. When I showed the book to a friend, he said it looked like it could take four weeks off my life, too. Well, it almost did ... Sometimes, it reads like an indictment of modern America and some of its more iniquitous foundations, like the massacre of Native Americans and the appropriation of their land. So, it is a stream of consciousness novel, but also a stream of conscience novel ... Who is this woman and why are we in her head for so long? She could be all mothers everywhere and mother earth combined. But whoever she is, she is one of the most intriguing, charming and genuinely funny characters I have come across in recent years. And, somehow, out of all the detritus flowing through her mind, there emerges a whole life, with its own distinctive American voice, full of wit, intelligence and an array of emotions ... Still, even now, in recovery, I can’t say for certain what this novel’s all about. Moreover, I can’t say if it’s a masterpiece or a terrible splurge of fearful polemic and word association. But, to hell with it, I certainly enjoyed the ride.