AGE OF VICE – Deepti Kapoor

Billed as India’s response to The Godfather, Deepti Kapoor’s Age of Vice (Riverhead Books 2023)  is a gangster novel meets political commentary kissed with a romance wrapped in a family saga.  In short, it’s a muddled, confusing thrill ride of extreme violence and unlikeable characters.  Even though a bit sloppy at times and in seriousContinue reading “AGE OF VICE – Deepti Kapoor”

TRESPASSES – Louise Kennedy

“They were like a tag team, taking turns to fall apart.” Set in Ireland during “The Troubles,” Louise Kennedy’s Trespasses (Riverhead 2022) is a weeping wound of a novel about womanhood, love, and family with a violent backdrop of the politics that defined Northern Ireland in the early 1970s. Admittedly, it wasn’t on my radarContinue reading “TRESPASSES – Louise Kennedy”

TRUST – Hernan Diaz

The Booker Prize longlist was announced last Tuesday, which means my Booker countdown has officially started. I began the baker’s dozen of books with Hernan Diaz’s Trust (Riverhead Books, 2022), a cocky and bold literary experience about truth and memory, trust and fiction. The novel is told in four separate parts by four separate fictionalContinue reading “TRUST – Hernan Diaz”