Reviews

The Silence of the Girls is an imaginative and ambitious re-telling of The Iliad. It takes a confident, not to say brave, author to base a novel on the greatest legend of Western culture, but Pat Barker has already created a highly regarded body of work and The Silence of the Girls will undoubtedly enhance her reputation. The story is narrated by Briseis, concubine and slave of Achilles, a minor character in the original text but at the centre of … Read more

A wonderfully unsettling exploration of guilt and its insidious power to wreak people’s lives. Helen escapes her mundane life to work for a charity in the Phillipines. Unexpectedly, she falls in love but tragically, through “her own pride and cowardice”, betrays her lover and he is condemned to prison. Trying to flee her guilt, Helen exiles herself in Prague, denies all pleasures and eeks out a humble existence. She is befriended by Karel and Thea but their lives are thrown … Read more

Andrew Miller has established an impressive reputation having won multiple prizes for his novels including Ingenious Pain (James Tait Black) and Pure (Costa). Now We Shall Be Entirely Free is the story of John Lacroix, returned home wounded and weak after the disastrous retreat from Napoleon in the Peninsular War. He is nursed back to health but cannot face returning to his regiment. With no family or friends around him he resolves to try to find peace by travelling to … Read more

Helen Dunmore was a prize-winning, bestselling novelist, poet and children’s writer; her short stories were published less often but Girl, Balancing & Other Stories proves she also mastered this genre brilliantly. In a dazzling variety of settings she demonstrates her skill within the economy of the form, creating vivid and distinctive characters, recognisable as ‘ordinary’ people, often to give an individual’s story within a known historical or contemporary scenario. She is especially adept at creating characters with a sophisticated mix … Read more