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Including Deborah Orr's posthumous memoir Motherwell, Rob Doyle's Threshold and Jane Robinson's Ladies Can't Climb Ladders Home | Fiction | Non-Fiction | Children's | Genres | Publications | Prizes The Week in Review: 23rd January 2020 Motherwell finds home in the critics' hearts Good morning Karen, Deborah Orr's posthumous memoir Motherwell (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) has been hailed by the reviewers as "utterly riveting", "wonderful and awful", and "a fitting legacy left by a blazing talent". The Bookseller's non-fiction previewer Caroline Sanderson praised the title for its portrayal of the "complex and tangled mixture of light and shade" in parent-child relationships, adding that Orr "succeeds so brilliantly that for me it ranks with Alexandra Fuller's Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight—one of my favourite memoirs of all time—in its understanding of how the places and people we come from make us who we are". Many critics felt the poignancy of the author's recent death in the pages, with Susie Boyt in the Financial Times writing "You forget a little as you go along but when Orr writes in the present tense or refers to her future things darken as you come up hard against the facts", and Sarah Hughes in the Observer describing Motherwell as "a deeply moving reminder of all she might still have achieved", as well as her legacy. Rob Doyle's Threshold (Bloomsbury) also got a foot through the door, with Jude Cook in the TLS describing it as "boundary-nudging fiction" and "compellingly readable". Martin Chilton in the Independent described it as "a humorous delight", Lee Langley in the Spectator wrote, "Not many books manage to expand your mind, do your head in and set you laughing out loud. This one does, and Doyle’s words sing on the page." Jane Robinson's Ladies Can't Climb Ladders (Doubleday) scaled heights, with the Sunday Telegraph's Frances Wilson commending the historical title on the first professional women as "an important and crackingly good read". Melanie Reid in the Times wrote, "Modern professional women will read it with a slow burn of anger and heightened respect for those whose actions, such a relatively brief time ago, made today possible." By Kiera O'Brien, charts editor, The Bookseller Book of the Week Motherwell Deborah Orr 4.44 out of 5 | 8 reviews "This is what this utterly riveting, often darkly comic, and astonishingly honest debut memoir " The Bookseller "No one in Orr’s family, least of all the man she would marry and divorce, Will Self, comes away unscathed" Evening Standard "Deborah found a way to rise out of her sorrows and dependencies... and create a masterpiece of self-exploration" The Guardian "it is both a fitting legacy left by a blazing talent and a deeply moving reminder of all she might still have achieved" The Observer Latest Reviews Miss Austen Gill Hornby TBC out of 5 2 reviews "...a novel of great kindness, often unexpectedly moving, with much to say about the status of “invisible” older women" The Observer Dear Life Rachel Clarke 4.5 out of 5 3 reviews "...Clarke is unerringly good at telling stories and Dear Life is full of them" The Observer Pills, Powder and Smoke Antony Loewenstein 3.4 out of 5 3 reviews "...the only thing wars against human nature ever produce, as Loewenstein shows in this lucid and well-researched book, are piles of dead bodies" The Times Threshold Rob Doyle 3.6 out of 5 6 reviews "...Eleven freewheeling pharmaceutically messy vignettes" The Observer The Other Bennet Sister Janice Hadlow 3.2 out of 5 4 reviews "...Hadlow builds an immersive and engaging new version of a familiar world" The Guardian Parisian Lives Deirdre Bair TBC out of 5 2 reviews "...(a) candid and entertaining memoir" The Bookseller Tombland C. J. Sansom 4 out of 5 8 reviews "...it’s the author’s inclusive humanity that lingers" Daily Mail Asha and the Spirit Bird Jasbinder Bilan 4.1 out of 5 3 reviews "...an exotic journey with a feelgood ending" The Sunday Times Braised Pork An Yu 3.8 out of 5 4 reviews "...A seductive, sharply observed tale of love, loss and hope" Daily Mail Providence Lost Paul Lay 4 out of 5 6 reviews "... Few guides take us so directly, or so sympathetically, into the imaginative worlds of that tumultuous decade" The Sunday Times Your House Will Pay Steph Cha 4 out of 5 3 reviews "...Steph Cha’s deftly written novel explores Los Angeles in 1991 and 2019" Irish Times A World Without Work Daniel Susskind 3.2 out of 5 5 reviews "...the voice of a clever, sensible man telling you what’s what" The Guardian The Bookseller Podcast Listen to Episode #13 - Jan 2020 The latest podcast includes author interviews with Sophie Hanna and Deepa Anappara plus the Bookseller team looks forward to the most anticipated books of 2020... Best Reviewed In the Dream House: A Memoir Carmen Maria Machado 4.9 out of 5 4 reviews The Sphinx Hugo Vickers 4.5 out of 5 3 reviews Ladies Can't Climb Ladders Jane Robinson 4.2 out of 5 4 reviews The Doll Ismail Kadare, John Hodgson 4 out of 5 3 reviews Three Hours Rosamund Lupton 4 out of 5 3 reviews A Scheme of Heaven Alexander Boxer 4 out of 5 3 reviews Providence Lost Paul Lay 4 out of 5 6 reviews Your House Will Pay Steph Cha 4 out of 5 3 reviews Most Reviewed The Death of Jesus J.M. Coetzee 3.2 out of 5 9 reviews The Shapeless Unease Samantha Harvey 4 out of 5 8 reviews Essays Lydia Davis 4.2 out of 5 6 reviews Providence Lost Paul Lay 4 out of 5 6 reviews Threshold Rob Doyle 3.6 out of 5 6 reviews The Captain and the Glory Dave Eggers 3.4 out of 5 5 reviews Uncanny Valley Anna Wiener 3.6 out of 5 5 reviews Agency Mr William Gibson 3.1 out of 5 5 reviews Gigs of the Week Jill Mansell & Friends Yeovil, 20 Jan Deepa Anappara, Michelle Gallen & Tomasz Jedrowski London, 30 Jan Derek Owusu: That Reminds Me Bath, 28 Jan Helen Taylor - Why Women Read Fiction Bristol, 28 Jan © 2020 Bookseller Media Ltd.

Including Kiley Reid's Such a Fun Age, Daniel Susskind's A World Without Work and Francesca Wade's Square Haunting Home | Fiction | Non-Fiction | Children's | Genres | Publications | Prizes The Week in Review: 13th January 2020 Praising Such a Fun Age is child's play for the critics Good morning, Kiley Reid's Such a Fun Age (Bloomsbury) has won over the reviewers, with the novel declared "the calling card of a virtuoso talent", "witty and subversive", and "a cracking debut". In the Times, Hattie Crisell wrote, "What a joy to find a debut novel so good that it leaves you looking forward to the rest of its author’s career," adding that Reid's portrait of the liberal middle class adds up to "a tantalisingly plotted tale about the way we live now: about white guilt and virtue-signalling, but also about the uneven dynamic between domestic staff and their employers". Sara Collins praised it as "a thrilling millennial spin on the 19th-century novel of manners" in the Guardian, while The Bookseller's Alice O'Keeffe described it as "sharply observed and well-crafted". Many reviewers compared Reid to Sally Rooney, though Collins concluded, "I had thought of ending this review by predicting that Reid may be the next Sally Rooney. But Such a Fun Age is so fresh and essential that I predict instead that next year we’ll be anxiously awaiting the next Kiley Reid." Daniel Susskind's A World Without Work (Allen Lane) also earned its keep, with the Guardian's Dorian Lynskey praising Susskind's "relentlessly reasonable tone" and describing the title, on what will happen when AIs can do most human jobs, as "an explainer rather than a polemic". In the Financial Times, Rana Foroohar wrote, "Susskind makes a good case that technology is going to put Thomas Piketty’s views on steroids," while John Arlidge in the Sunday Times stated "his prescriptions for how society might well have to change to cope with the effects of vast un- and underemployment" are what makes A World Without Work "stand out". Francesca Wade's Square Haunting: Five Women, Freedom and London Between the Wars (Faber) battled to the top, following the lives of five remarkable women, including Virginia Woolf and Dorothy L Sayers, who once lived in Mecklenburgh Square in Bloomsbury. Johanna Thomas-Corr wrote in the Observer: "It has a lovely movement to it – a decadently pre-internet feel. It’s not just the period setting, it’s in the texture of Wade’s prose, which is careful and measured," and The Bookseller's Caroline Sanderson agreed, praising Wade for "beautifully evokes the emotional texture of their lives as she relates how each of these women sought a space where they could live, love and work independently". Margaret Drabble, writing in the New Statesman, once rented a flat in the area and enjoyed the "vividly evoked" setting, writing, "It is good to revisit [the local landmarks] and their eloquent ghosts." By Kiera O'Brien, charts editor, The Bookseller Book of the Week Such a Fun Age Kiley Reid 4.38 out of 5 | 7 reviews "A sharply observed and well-crafted debut that explores race, class and privilege in contemporary Philadelphia" The Bookseller "This is the calling card of a virtuoso talent, a thrilling millennial spin on the 19th-century novel of manners" The Guardian "I suspect it will turn its writer into a star." The Times "All in all, it’s a cracking debut – charming, authentic and every bit as entertaining as it is calmly, intelligently damning." The Observer Latest Reviews Motherwell Deborah Orr 4.6 out of 5 4 reviews "...Deborah found a way to rise out of her sorrows and dependencies... and create a masterpiece of self-exploration" The Guardian A House in the Mountains Caroline Moorehead 4 out of 5 7 reviews "...Their transformation from studious, dutiful daughters into daring, scruffy, exhausted combatants is brilliantly and subtly told" The Guardian A Scheme of Heaven Alexander Boxer TBC out of 5 2 reviews "...daunting feats of computation recur throughout his book, and some of the most fascinating relate to historical events" The Sunday Times American Dirt Jeanine Cummins 3.9 out of 5 5 reviews "...Jeanine Cummins captures the horror of modern-day Mexico" The Independent Agency Mr William Gibson 3.3 out of 5 4 reviews "...This wild plunge into a world of strange inventions is great fun" The Times People Like Us Hashi Mohamed 3.6 out of 5 3 reviews "...A refugee turned barrister mourns the end of social mobility" The Times The Story of Yoga Alistair Shearer TBC out of 5 2 reviews "...Something for practitioners to meditate on" The Daily Telegraph The Great Pretender Susannah Cahalan 3.4 out of 5 4 reviews "...She writes it all very well too, with clarity, economy and style" The Times The Other Bennet Sister Janice Hadlow TBC out of 5 2 reviews "...Hadlow builds an immersive and engaging new version of a familiar world" The Guardian Car Park Life Gareth E. Rees 3.3 out of 5 3 reviews "...an engaging blend of memoir, history and surreal imaginings" The Spectator You're Not Listening Kate Murphy 3.6 out of 5 3 reviews "...an intriguing and constructive take on the problem" The Times My Parents: An Introduction / This Does Not Belong to You Aleksandar Hemon 3.7 out of 5 4 reviews "...A dexterous exercise in empathy" Times Literary Supplement Non-fiction Book of the Month Motherwell Deborah Orr Caroline Sanderson describes the late Doborah Orr's Motherwell as an "utterly riveting, often darkly comic, and astonishingly honest debut memoir" and makes it the non-fiction Book of the Month for January... Best Reviewed Such a Fun Age Kiley Reid 4.4 out of 5 7 reviews In the Dream House: A Memoir Carmen Maria Machado 4.8 out of 5 3 reviews The Shapeless Unease Samantha Harvey 4 out of 5 5 reviews Providence Lost Paul Lay 4 out of 5 5 reviews Braised Pork An Yu 3.7 out of 5 3 reviews Agency Mr William Gibson 3.3 out of 5 4 reviews A World Without Work Daniel Susskind 3.3 out of 5 3 reviews The Death of Jesus J.M. Coetzee 3.2 out of 5 9 reviews Most Reviewed The Death of Jesus J.M. Coetzee 3.2 out of 5 9 reviews Essays Lydia Davis 4.2 out of 5 6 reviews 97,196 Words Emmanuel Carrere 4 out of 5 5 reviews The Siberian Dilemma Martin Cruz Smith 3.9 out of 5 5 reviews The Captain and the Glory Dave Eggers 3.4 out of 5 5 reviews Providence Lost Paul Lay 4 out of 5 5 reviews Agency Mr William Gibson 3.3 out of 5 4 reviews The Great Pretender Susannah Cahalan 3.4 out of 5 4 reviews Gigs of the Week Peter May on A Silent Death Inverness, 15 Jan Camilla Sacre-Dallerup Workshop London, 14 Jan Vegan Challenge with Bettina Campolucci Bordi Liverpool 17 Jan Jill Mansell & Friends Yeovil, 20 Jan © 2019 Bookseller Media Ltd.

Includes Deborah Orr's Motherwell, Samantha Harvey's The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping and J M Coetzee's The Death of Jesus Home | Fiction | Non-Fiction | Children's | Genres | Publications | Prizes The Week in Review: 9th January 2019 Harvey's The Shapeless Unease wakes up the critics Good afternoon, Reviewers haven't been sleeping on Samantha Harvey's The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping (Jonathan Cape), praised as "striking", "erudite" and written "brilliantly". Many commented on Harvey's portrayal of insomnia, with Helen Davies in the Sunday Times describing it as "excruciating", adding, "beautifully, if unsettlingly, Harvey captures the roiling exhaustion, the fuggy disbelief and irrational anger" of living without sleep. Jake Kerridge in the Sunday Telegraph agreed, writing, "Harvey has certainly proved that insomnia, as much as any of the more obviously nasty diseases, might be as worthy a subject of literature as love, battle or jealousy, and at its best, her book rises to that level." In the Financial Times, Catherine Taylor wrote that the prose "glows off the page", praising the author as a writer "gets at not just the heart, but the soul of things". However, reviewers seemed to disagree over whether other insomniacs would enjoy it—Davies felt fellow sufferers may find it "an erudite companion" during sleepless nights, but Kerridge felt it would be "discouraging reading" to anyone looking for tips on battling them.  Critics also worshipped at the altar of J M Coetzee's The Death of Jesus (Harvill Secker), the third title in the author's Jesus trilogy. David Sexton in the Evening Standard wrote that, despite finding the novel "baffling", it was also "full of truth, irreducible, tearfully moving to read', while John Self in the Times described it as "ridiculous", but added, "If The Death of Jesus strikes you in the right place, then you will read its cool, dry final sentences—as I did—with tears in your eyes." Lisa Williamson's Paper Avalanche (David Fickling) flew high in the critics' hearts, with the Sunday Times' Nicolette Jones describing it as "a story with characters who catch you up and carry you through their trials and triumphs [...] It ends with hope". About a teenager whose mother is a compulsive hoarder, the Financial Times' Suzi Feay praised its "relatable characters and well-crafted dialogue", making for a "thoroughly engaging read", while Books for Keeps' Nicholas Tucker described it as "compassionate and understanding". By Kiera O'Brien, charts editor, The Bookseller Book of the Week The Shapeless Unease Samantha Harvey 4.00 out of 5 | 3 reviews "As a writer Harvey gets at not just the heart, but the soul of things" Financial Times "Harvey writes with a hefty dose of self-deprecating humour" The Sunday Telegraph "This is a creative account of a life with little sleep" The Sunday Times Latest Reviews Motherwell Deborah Orr 4.7 out of 5 3 reviews "...This is what this utterly riveting, often darkly comic, and astonishingly honest debut memoir " The Bookseller A World Without Work Daniel Susskind TBC out of 5 2 reviews "...the voice of a clever, sensible man telling you what’s what" The Guardian In the Dream House: A Memoir Carmen Maria Machado TBC out of 5 2 reviews "...Carmen Maria Machado’s account of the abuse she suffered at the hands of her ‘petite, blond, Harvard graduate’ lover is horrifying but beguiling" The Observer Nietzsche and the Burbs Lars Iyer TBC out of 5 2 reviews "... the landscape of late adolescence is evocatively rendered" The Sunday Times Providence Lost Paul Lay 4 out of 5 3 reviews "...A compelling and wry narrative of one of the most intellectually thrilling eras of British history" The Guardian Think, Write, Speak Vladimir Nabokov, Brian Boyd, Anastasia Tolstoy 3.7 out of 5 4 reviews "...The writer’s genius for nailing a subject in a sentence lives on in his stinging reviews and defensive interviews" Financial Times The Other Name: Septology I-II Jon Fosse, Damion Searls TBC out of 5 2 reviews "...The beginning of a septet, this darkly ecstatic Norwegian story of art and God is relentlessly consuming" The Guardian How To Break Up With Fast Fashion Lauren Bravo TBC out of 5 2 reviews "...A fun, non-preachy guide to changing the way you shop" The Bookseller The Northumbrians Dan Jackson TBC out of 5 2 reviews "...This survey of the northeast is the very best type of local history" The Sunday Times Plagued by Fire Paul Hendrickson 2.4 out of 5 6 reviews "...An unconventional biography of the visionary architect Frank Lloyd Wright" The Spectator How the Brain Lost its Mind Allan H Ropper, Brian Burrell TBC out of 5 2 reviews "...a complex and convoluted story but one made highly readable and hugely entertaining by this authoritative book." The Guardian Suncatcher Romesh Gunesekera 3.4 out of 5 4 reviews "...Two boys from different backgrounds bond as 1960s Ceylon heads for disaster" The Sunday Times The Bookseller Podcast The Latest Bookseller Podcast Cast away the back to work blues! Because the 12th edition of The Bookseller Podcast is here to chase away the January gloom. Includes interviews with not one but two of this year’s award-winning novelists: Bernardine Evaristo, winner of the 2019 Booker Prize with Girl, Woman, Other and Nina Stibbe, author of Reasons to be Cheerful and winner of this year’s Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction Best Reviewed Providence Lost Paul Lay 4 out of 5 3 reviews The Shapeless Unease Samantha Harvey 4 out of 5 3 reviews Braised Pork An Yu 3.7 out of 5 3 reviews The Death of Jesus J.M. Coetzee 3.2 out of 5 8 reviews Along the Trenches Navid Kermani, Tony Crawford TBC out of 5 1 reviews Stalin and the Fate of Europe Norman M. Naimark TBC out of 5 1 reviews Mrs Delany: A Life Clarissa Campbell Orr TBC out of 5 1 reviews A Good Man Ani Katz TBC out of 5 1 reviews Most Reviewed Christmas in Austin Benjamin Markovits 3.7 out of 5 9 reviews "...This is up there with the best contemporary Christmas novels " Daily Mail The Death of Jesus J.M. Coetzee 3.2 out of 5 8 reviews "...Franker and more oblique than anything he has written" The Sunday Telegraph The Siberian Dilemma Martin Cruz Smith 3.9 out of 5 5 reviews "...Smith’s lucid prose, surprising imagery and realistic dialogue, as well as his wonderfully quirky characters, all serve his engrossing storytelling" The New York Times Essays Lydia Davis 4.2 out of 5 5 reviews "...She writes short stories or texts of unsettling wit and invention" The Observer The Captain and the Glory Dave Eggers 3.4 out of 5 5 reviews "...The pot-shots are bitingly funny. " The Independent Self-Portrait Celia Paul 3.8 out of 5 5 reviews "...Paul’s style is passionate, direct and at times almost childlike" Literary Review 97,196 Words Emmanuel Carrere TBC out of 5 0 reviews "..." Endland Tim Etchells, Jarvis Cocker 3.7 out of 5 4 reviews "...There are no happy endings in this nastily funny phantasmagoria set in a warped version of England" The Guardian © 2019 Bookseller Media Ltd.