![]() ![]() Thoughts: Beautifully honest and heartrending, this is an exquisite illness narrative, and the parallel to Coutts’ wonderful The Iceberg.ġ0. Plot: An art critic is diagnosed with a Grade 4 terminal brain tumour, and charts how his speech and skills decline over time. Until Further Notice I Am Alive by Tom Lubbock **** Thoughts: Evocative descriptions bring Peggy’s world – and her character – to life.ĩ. Plot: A young girl is told that the world has ended, and is taken to live deep in the German forest with her father. Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller **** Thoughts: Compelling and beautifully written anecdotes, and I feel I learnt a lot.Ĩ. Plot: Presents portraits of twelve twentieth-century women writers, ranging from Djuna Barnes to Edith Wharton. Thoughts: A very clever idea, but perhaps not executed as well as it could have been, as many of the entries were quite similar. Plot: One entry for every day of the year, which focuses on something which has happened in literary history, or in dated literature. Love, Sex, Death and Words by John Sutherland and Stephen Fender *** Thoughts: The elements of magical realism fascinated me in this well-translated novel, and my high hopes after reading Laxness’ Fish Can Sing were reached.Ħ. Plot: Two parallel stories: America want to purchase a portion of uninhabited land in Iceland for testing, and concurrently a young girl moves to become the maid for the Icelandic Prime Minister. Thoughts: Includes just the right balance of Spark’s wit and quirkiness.ĥ. Plot: A collection of very short stories in a handy foldable format. The Young Man Who Discovered the Secret of Life and Other Stories by Muriel Spark *** Thoughts: The first half is entirely different to the second, in almost a jarring manner, but it is certainly an interesting illness narrative.Ĥ. Plot: Philosophical musings about an academic’s diagnosis with breast cancer, and how it affects her life. Thoughts: An utterly compelling read, which gets creepier as it goes on. ![]() Plot: Edwardian mystery about a newly-married woman who becomes obsessed with one of her husband’s books. The Book Collector by Alice Thompson **** Thoughts: There were problems with dialogue and characterisation, and it feels to me rather an odd choice for a Persephone book, but a memorable read nonetheless.Ģ. Plot: Mother’s only son goes missing, and she refuses to give up hope for his return, as all others do. Each will, of course, have a corresponding star rating, and will be reviewed in the order in which I read them. I haven’t had anywhere near enough time to comprehensively review my reads, so I thought I would create a post where I blog about each work I’ve read using just two lines – one for the plot, and one for my thoughts. ![]()
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