The press team on The Andalucian Friend is working their tails off to try and convince the general public that The Andalucian Friend is the Swedish thriller book equivalent of the second coming. I give them an A+ Nice Try paper plate award for their efforts. But they are wrong. Alexander Söderberg’s The Andalucian Friend […]
This is pretty much straightforward. I read a lot of books this year, and a huge proportion of those books were fiction. Sometimes realistic, some fantasy, some sci-fi, and some historical—but, in any case, a lot of fiction. These are—in no true order—my top five fiction picks of the year. The Dog Stars, by Peter […]
This is one hell of a book. Saleem, the narrator, opens by telling us (in a stuttering, halting way—a stickler for perfect accuracy, that Saleem) when he was born, that he’s 31 now, and that he’s dying. This was the first Rushdie I’d read, so I can’t give you any firsthand information about how it […]
Futureproof is a messy, utterly debauched ride into a 90’s drug-ridden hell. And we’re not talking Baz-Luhrmann-Moulin–Rouge-opulent debauchery. This is grunge flavored—everything is dirty, scummy, gray, wearing ripped black tee shirts and dirty flannel, and sort of feels like a cop-less episode of SVU. In a word: gritty. It’s fast paced, witty, and conversational—the narrator […]