Written in English (the author’s second language), Slanting Towards the Sea is the debut novel by the Croatian writer Lidija Hilje – a new name to me, but one I will be looking out for again in the future. Published in the UK by Daunt Books – a mark of quality, if ever there was […]| JacquiWine's Journal
Regular readers of this blog are probably aware of my fondness for Barbara Comyns – a startlingly original writer with a very distinctive style. Her novels have a strange, slightly off-kilter feel,…| JacquiWine's Journal
First published in Spanish in 2012 and then in English in 2017, Die, My Love was one of the first books issued by the innovative, independent publisher Charco Press, which remains committed to bringing the very best of contemporary Latin American literature to an English-speaking audience through translation. Based in Edinburgh, Charco focuses on award-winning/critically-acclaimed […]| JacquiWine's Journal
I’ve been making my way through Anita Brookner’s exquisitely written novels slowly but steadily over the past eight years. As a long-term reading project, I’m finding it fascinating to see how Broo…| JacquiWine's Journal
The award-winning Japanese writer Hiromi Kawakami first came to prominence with her beautiful, meditative novella Strange Weather in Tokyo (tr. Allison Markin Powell), which was shortlisted for the 2014 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (now merged with the International Booker). First published in Japanese in 2016 and translated into English in 2024, Under the Eye of the […]| JacquiWine's Journal
Like her namesake, Celia Dale, Celia Fremlin is fast becoming one of my favourite writers from the mid-20th century. She wrote wonderfully suspenseful domestic noirs, slowly building tension by leveraging her protagonists’ understandable but sometimes irrational fears. First published in 1965, The Jealous One is another deliciously compelling novel in which a seemingly happy marriage […]| JacquiWine's Journal
While the English writer Nina Bawden is probably best known for her children’s books, especially Carrie’s War and The Witch’s Daughter, she also wrote many novels for adults, mostly focusing on the…| JacquiWine's Journal
It’s been a while since I last read anything by Rosamond Lehmann, the critically acclaimed author of the excellent novels Invitation to the Waltz (1932) and The Weather in the Streets (1936) – both…| JacquiWine's Journal
When Nora (@pear-jelly on Bluesky and Instagram) announced that she would be hosting #SpinsterSeptember again this year, Simon (at Stuck in a Book) suggested Katherine Dunning’s The Spring Begins a…| JacquiWine's Journal
The critically acclaimed novelist, essayist and screenwriter Eileen Chang was one of the greatest chroniclers of Chinese life in the 20th century. In Love in a Fallen City, an insightful, exquisite…| JacquiWine's Journal
If you follow the International Booker Prize, the name Solvej Balle will be familiar to you. This critically acclaimed Danish writer scored a hit in the 1990s with According to the Law: Four Accoun…| JacquiWine's Journal
