Slightly Read

A book about a child soldier in an unnamed west African state sounds a lot like like a book you ought to read rather than one you'd want to. But Nigerian writer Uzodinma Iweala avoids this problem by making his narrator's voice compelling from the very...

"It has to be deeper, otherwise the dogs will get her," Dad says. Doesn't he realize they already have me?
'Exile' was a pure impulse buy for me. I think it attracted my attention simply by its author having a Scandinavian name (I suppose I assumed he might be some new crime fiction writer) and then by having the outline of Africa on its cover. When I saw...

A book about neo-Nazis and psychotic gunmen running around Oslo was a disconcerting thing to be reading on the 22nd of July, 2011, as Anders Breivik went on the rampage. Despite how this sounds, Nesbø has fashioned a surprisingly subtle and intelligent...

Willy Vlautin was originally best-known as the lead songer of alt-country group Richmond Fontaine, but has recently won serious plaudits for his third novel, 'Lean on Pete'. Being a forager in the Hodges Figgis bargain basement, I picked up his previous...