Review: The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out Of A Window And Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

You’re never too old for adventure or vodka. In this quirky shaggy dog story, hundred-year-old Allan Karlsson escapes his strict retirement home and goes on the run.

After climbing out of the window in urine-splattered slippers, he wants freedom – and a stiff drink.

Review: The Friend by Dorothy Koomson

I owe someone out there a lot of chocolate. It’s the person who told me to read Dorothy Koomson’s work.

The Friend is the first book I’ve tried by this author and I’m already hooked. I’ve started making plans to binge-read her back-list.

Review: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

One of the best books I’ve read this year. Colson Whitehead takes readers through some of terrible injustices heaped upon slaves in America.

The Underground Railroad is a well-written mixture of history and magical realism. The violence, racism and murder mean it isn’t light reading but I’m glad I picked up this story.

Review: Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan

This book packs an emotional punch. Half Blood Blues is a story of jazz and betrayal in Nazi-occupied Europe. Author Esi Edugyan evokes sensations, feelings and sounds in wonderful, and sometimes terrifying, detail. 

The novel begins in 1940, with talented, young musician Hieronymus Falk. As a black German citizen, he has been forced into statelessness by the Nazi regime. In 1940 “the boots” arrest him in a Parisian café. He’s never seen again. 

The Power by Naomi Alderman

If you could inflict pain with a wave your hand, would you do it? Naomi Alderman’s novel imagines a world where women become the dominant sex. When a genetic mutation lets teenage girls shoot electricity from their fingertips, the traditional power balance flips and men find themselves at risk.

Five Books That Go Bump in The Night

Happy Halloween! In the last few decades we’ve seen traditional tales turned on their head. Witches, wizards, warlocks and all manner of creatures have climbed out of the darkness to become heroes in their own adventures.

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

Agatha Christie step aside, there’s a new crime writer in town. Stuart Turton has managed a nearly impossible feat; a brand new, never-seen-before twist on the British country house murder mystery.

A Short History of Drunkenness

From rollicking Romans to boozed-up Brits, Mark Forsyth explores humans’ tendency to get completely and utterly sloshed.