“No more tricks, no more abracadabra, no more misdirection or uncertainty, no more seeing things one way when most people saw them another.” “My mother didn’t mention him, I didn’t mention him, but there he sat in the room with us.” “…she didn’t believe in blank pages…” Right now, Chloe Aridjis’s The Shadow of theContinue reading “THE SHADOW OF THE OBJECT – Chloe Aridjis”
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THE END OF EVERYTHING – M. John Harrison
“Whole worlds… trapped in a few daisies, some grapes in a bowl.” “What would she remember about him in the end anyway that could be separated from everything else that happened?” Baffling and bizarre, M. John Harrison’s The End of Everything is a bit Seascraper meets Fringe. (You remember – the tv show where JoshuaContinue reading “THE END OF EVERYTHING – M. John Harrison”
THE RENOVATION – Kenan Orhan
“Better not to be making memories right now anyway,” he said. “In my father’s reality, my mother had never died and his country had never betrayed him.” “What is the weight of memory?” “Then she died and no one called me that anymore.” There is typically a novel of exile appearing on the Booker longlistContinue reading “THE RENOVATION – Kenan Orhan”
KINGFISHER – Rozie Kelly
“Human ashes look just how you’d imagine them to look – somewhere between the contents of an ashtray and the surface of the moon.” Rozie Kelly’s Kingfisher (Saraband 2025) is a beautifully heartbreaking novel where everything is messy, life hurts, but there are birds and poetry. You’ve likely read before how I typically don’t likeContinue reading “KINGFISHER – Rozie Kelly”
HELEN OF NOWHERE – Makenna Goodman
“Isn’t it a joke, how you can tell a story and other people hear a different story than the one you told?” “Reading became an intellectual pursuit, one of focus instead of escape.” In many ways, Makenna Goodman’s Helen of Nowhere and Missouri Williams’s Vivisectors are telling the same story – just recast with differentContinue reading “HELEN OF NOWHERE – Makenna Goodman”
CAT LOVE – Tomás Q. Morín
“Call me… call me whatever you like. I’ve had many names over the years. Did you think I was going to say Ishmael? Or actually tell you my real name? Not today. Maybe not tomorrow, either. I bet you’re wondering how a cat knows about Moby-Dick. Especially the tortoiseshell cat sealed in the box inContinue reading “CAT LOVE – Tomás Q. Morín”
BLACK BAG – Luke Kennard
“I’m sure this comes up somewhere in Revelation.” “You try not to become a full-blown alcoholic,” she says. “Fetishize small pleasures. A good water bottle. A first edition of a novel you like. A really good cup of coffee. The crack as a needle hits the record.” “I have measured out my life in coffeesContinue reading “BLACK BAG – Luke Kennard”
THE PALM HOUSE – Gwendoline Riley
“As long as it’s not boring. That’s our motto now.” Set in London in 2017, The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley is my least favorite Booker read to date. I’ve never read Riley before, but I have seen some comparisons drawn between her and Rachel Cusk. That tracks. I don’t like either. It’s a writingContinue reading “THE PALM HOUSE – Gwendoline Riley”
THE GREAT WHEREVER – Shannon Sanders
“Because who wants to be known as some kind of ho-bag haunt.” Shannon Sanders’s debut novel The Great Wherever (Henry Holt 2026) might be my favorite ghost story of the year – it certainly has a couple of my favorite ghosts. The novel opens with Aubrey Lamb getting dumped. She was already floundering a bit,Continue reading “THE GREAT WHEREVER – Shannon Sanders”
SOME PEOPLE – Parini Shroff
“We’re all just people, trying. We’re all eggshells, walking around trying not to bump into shit that will break us.” I really enjoyed Parini Shroff’s The Bandit Queens, so I was eager to read the follow-up novel, Some People (Ballantine Books 2026). While it is a very different book from The Bandit Queens, the writingContinue reading “SOME PEOPLE – Parini Shroff”
A Girl Named Tommi 