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
I’ve always had a tricky relationship with Virginia Woolf, having first read her when I was grieving the loss of a parent, which still makes it difficult to separate her from painful memories of that time. Recently published in the Archive series, which marks Penguin’s 90th anniversary, The New Dress seemed like a good way […]| JacquiWine's Journal
Amongst Women, the fifth novel by the critically acclaimed Irish writer John McGahern, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1990, missing out to A. S. Byatt’s Possession in the final cut. Ostensibly the story of an ageing, tyrannical father, whose wife and daughters both love and fear him, the novel can be seen as […]| 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
1 post published by JacquiWine during September 2025| 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
If you follow Nora (Pear Jelly) on Bluesky or Instagram, you’ll know that she’s been gearing up to host #SpinsterSeptember, a brilliant reading event showcasing books featuring spinsters, from the …| 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
5 posts published by JacquiWine during August 2025| JacquiWine's Journal
Ivy Compton-Burnett is widely considered to be one of the most original British modernist writers of the early 20th century. She published twenty novels in her lifetime, of which A House and Its He…| JacquiWine's Journal
7 posts published by JacquiWine during July 2025| 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
Mostly books, with a little wine writing on the side| JacquiWine's Journal
While Simenon is probably best known for his Inspector Maigret novels, he also wrote many darker novels, often referred to as his romans durs or ‘hard’ psychological novels with an existential edge…| JacquiWine's Journal
I love stories featuring trains, mostly because the settings offer so many possibilities for interesting fiction, from chance encounters and illicit affairs to good old-fashioned murder mysteries. …| JacquiWine's Journal
7 posts published by JacquiWine during May 2025| JacquiWine's Journal
While the prolific Belgian writer Georges Simenon is probably best known for his Inspector Maigret novels, he also wrote many darker books, often referred to as his romans durs or ‘hard’ …| JacquiWine's Journal
If you’re a fan of Mariana Enriquez’s dark, deeply disturbing stories on the horrors rooted in Argentina’s history, you will love Hungry for What, a ferocious collection of short fiction from Spani…| JacquiWine's Journal