Scotland On Sunday
25 July 2009
 
 
‘Frailty and failure, they’re charismatic,” announces AL Kennedy midway through her latest collection of short stories, where she stops narrating and turns the spotlight back on herself for a moment.

Scotland on Sunday
19 July 2009

Charlie Bain is the kind of man who sees a lady with her legs crossed as a challenge. An outrageous, compulsive flirt, he is a serial womaniser, but one who considers himself loftier than the average.

The List
16 April 2009

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writes about an Africa far removed from bleak media clichés. Claire Sawers chats to her about superstition and stereotypes

The List
19 February 2009
For his debut novel, Dundonian Jason Donald has drawn on his summers as a child in South Africa to produce something shocking, meditative and affecting. Claire Sawers meets him

Scotland On Sunday
15 February 2009
 
For her latest novel, Tama Janowitz leaves behind the catwalks, cocaine and clubs of Manhattan to explore a grotesque America 100-odd years in the future.

The List
5 June 2008
ALLEGORICAL DRAMA
Alexander Terekhov wrote this political allegory when he was 27. Bad timing meant it failed to make waves outside Russia, as critics were busy unearthing older, established writers suppressed under the communist regime.

The List
8 January 2009

Love and the city
With her debut novel, Gemma Weekes has created a vibrant tale of obsession, identity and solitude. Claire Sawers hears more than just soundbites
‘A Big Mac and a hot chocolate please,’ comes the voice down the phone. Gemma Weekes is in McDonalds, ordering lunch, pushing her son’s buggy and doing [...]

The List
11 December 2008
3 stars

The vice that spices up this short story collection by Jay McInerney - a peeping tom on modern, urban American life - is not the overtly debauched or instantly shocking kind.

The List
30 October 2008
Michel Faber is a tough act to follow, especially when you’re Michel Faber. The chameleonic author has built an impressive back catalogue that flips between postmodern memoirs of a Victorian prostitute, ghostly love stories or a sci-fi thriller about a woman addicted to picking up hitchhikers. So where exactly do you go [...]

The List
18 October 2007
Mitzi Szereto (Ed)
3 stars
Sounding worryingly like a manual for angry Bobbitt types, this anthology of short stories looks at ways of serving up the cold dish of revenge.
Men don’t come out looking too rosy, and boors, cheaters, liars and leches are given just desserts by poison, sharp nail files or dogged scheming. [...]