Gilly Macmillan’s latest novel To Tell You The Truth features the ultimate in unreliable narrators, as past and present events in Lucy Harper’s life seem to align with disturbing similarity, when an unsettling house move forces her back to the scene of a traumatic childhood event. Lucy Harper has a talent for invention… She was nine years old when her…
Curated by book squirrels
Books
Comedy Women in Print announced its shortlists on Monday, choosing seven shortlisted titles for its Published Comic Novel Prize category, rather than the expected six. Luckily, I’d read one of the books, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman, which I absolutely loved and recommend – so my remaining #20BooksOfSummer slots have been filled by the shortlist. It…
I’m taking part in my second 20 Books of Summer reading challenge this year. Cathy over at 746Books runs it and only asks that you choose 10, 15 or 20 books to read between the beginning of June and the beginning of September, and post a review of each one. I didn’t do so well on that last part in…
Welcome Abigail. First of all, congratulations on being runner-up in the inaugural 2019 CWIP Prize for an Unpublished Novel but also Happiest of Publication Days to you! The Lonely Fajita is out as an ebook today with audiobook and paperback following later this year. You’ve had quite a year. Can you give us an idea of what it’s been like?…
It’s publication day for Abigail Mann’s debut novel, which was runner-up in the Comedy Women in Print Prize 2019: The Lonely Fajita is a story about how finding yourself with nowhere else to go just might lead you to the very place you need to be. It’s Elissa’s birthday, but her boyfriend hasn’t really noticed – and she’s accidentally scheduled…
Born Survivors tells the story of three remarkable young women whose lives were first diminished, and then devastated, when the Nazis swept through Eastern Europe intent upon their annihilation, but which they somehow found the resilience to outlast and survive. Among millions of Holocaust victims sent to Auschwitz II-Birkenau in 1944, Priska, Rachel, and Anka each passed through its…
Charlotte Philby found the inspiration behind her debut novel in a question that arose from her grandfather’s notorious defection to Russia in 1963: what kind of person walks out on their family? On the surface, Anna Witherall has the perfect life. Married to her university boyfriend David, she has an enviable job, beautiful home, and gorgeous three-year-old twin daughters, Stella…
Emily Koch’s second novel Keep Him Close focuses on mother-son relationships and the dynamic between two women as they try to unravel what happened on a night out which goes very badly wrong. Alice’s son is dead. Indigo’s son is accused of murder. Indigo is determined to prove her beloved Kane is innocent. Searching for evidence, she is helped by…
Isabel Allende’s A Long Petal of the Sea is about people, exiled not once but twice, who are determined to survive and even thrive in their adopted countries, and what home signifies. Victor Dalmau is a young doctor when he is caught up in the Spanish Civil War, a tragedy that leaves his life – and the fate of his…
Quick Reads first launched in 2006 and is a project run by The Reading Agency. Working together with top authors, it produces six books each year; short books with simple vocabulary that help ease you into reading for pleasure or help you rediscover your love of books. In Wales, four books are produced each year – two in English and…