The Sorrow of Belgium (Het Verdriet van België) by Hugo Claus (1983)
21st October 2025 The Sorrow of Belgium is generally recognised to be one of the most significant 20th Century novels written in Dutch. It is a long read – just over 600 pages – of which the first 40 per cent or so set the scene in 1939 with the remainder then taking the narrative…
Jaws by Peter Benchley (1974)
28th August 2025 It is now 50 years since Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster Jaws took the cinematic world by storm, its combination of narrative conflicts, breath-taking shocks and special effects – aided by John Williams’s dramatically sinister score – relating how Amity Island in New England was being terrorised by a man-eating Great White shark. (Not…
The Reader (Der Vorleser) by Bernhard Schlink (1995)
1st July 2025 When the 15 year-old Michael Berg is taken ill in the street, he is comforted by Hanna Schmitz, a neighbour in her mid-30s. She cleans him up and then accompanies him back to the home that he shares with his parents and three siblings in the suburbs of Heidelberg in the German…
The Scarlet Papers by Matthew Richardson (2023)
28th May 2025 When Dr Max Archer, Associate Professor in Intelligence History at the London School of Economics, receives an old-fashioned calling card inviting him to visit Scarlet King in her Chelsea flat the following morning, it is not surprising that he is somewhat perplexed. Max is a middle-ranking academic, whose career has stalled and…
England Their England by AG Macdonell (1933)
24th March 2025 Donald Cameron is a 20 year-old artillery subaltern when he meets the older Evan Davies in a captured German pillbox on the Western Front in October 1917. The pair – a Scotsman and a Welshman – strike up a conversation about the English, whom they both like and respect, but also find…
Karla’s Choice by Nick Harkaway (2024)
14th February 2025 The front cover of this spy story boldly depicts it as “A John le Carré novel”. It’s a debatable point. Le Carré died in 2020 and the author – Nick Harkaway – is one of his sons. But, as marketing ploys go, it’s a strong sell. There is no doubt that we…
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth (2004)
16th January 2025 Philip Roth’s novel begins with the nomination of Charles A Lindbergh as the Republican candidate in the 1940 US Presidential Election to stand against the two-time incumbent, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Lindbergh is a fervent admirer of Adolf Hitler. His platform is based on a combination of “America First” – which involves staying…
A Dangerous Business by Jane Smiley (2022)
20th November 2024 One day in November 1851, Eliza Cargill – a recently widowed 20 year-old in Monterey, California – is approached in the street by a Mrs Parks. “Dear, if you find yourself in embarrassed circumstances, don’t hesitate to come to me. I think I can help you” offers the latter. A short time…
The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri (1994)
22nd October 2024 The Shape of Water is the first in the series of novels by Andrea Camilleri (1925-2019) featuring the Sicily-based Inspector Salvo Montalbano. The English translation in the Picador edition of 2004 is by Stephen Sartarelli, who also provides some informative Notes. The narrative moves quickly from the start and maintains a brisk…
HHhH by Laurent Binet (2009)
22nd August 2024 There are two-books-in-one in this novel by the Parisian-born Laurent Binet, translated from the original French by Sam Taylor. First, there is a conventional historical thriller about the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazi Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia – otherwise known as the “Hangman of Prague” or the “Blond Beast” –…
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JR Alexander 