Category Archives: Fiction

The Jaguar by Sarah Holland-Batt

Posted by Kate W in Fiction, Non-fiction and tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

I’ve been blogging for more than a decade (oops, forgot the blog’s tenth birthday) and up until this year, I have not reviewed any poetry. Because I don’t read poetry. It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s more that I’m not in the habit of seeking it out. However, inclusion of poetry in the Stella Prize meant reading Big Beautiful Female Theory earlier in the year, and more recently, The Jaguar by Sarah Holland-Batt (which incidentally, won the 2023 Stella Prize).

The titular poem comes midway in the collection and, despite what you might expect (and what the image on the cover suggests), the poem is about her father’s car  –

A folly he bought without test-driving,
vintage 1980 XJ, a rebellion against his tremor… Continue reading →

Soviet Milk by Nora Ikstena

Posted by Kate W in Fiction and tagged with , , , , , ,

Just before my sunny holiday in Hawaii, I read the rather bleak Soviet Milk by Nora Ikstena – in summary, avoid it if you need cheering up, as it’s about repression, mental health, addiction, and fraught mother-daughter relationships.

It’s set in the Soviet-ruled Baltics between 1969 and 1989 and examines the impact of Soviet rule on a girl and her family (predominantly her mother and grandmother). Some of the story is told from the mother’s perspective, as her education and opportunities were quite different to those ultimately available to her daughter. At the beginning, we learn of the mother’s efforts to follow her calling as a doctor.

She would be a doctor and a scientist, come what may. For the moment she easily manages to regurgitate the official programme, while simultaneously acquiring a totally different, prohibited education. Continue reading →

The Margot Affair by Sanaë Lemoine

Posted by Kate W in Fiction and tagged with , , , , ,

Firstly, if you’re hungry, proceed with caution reading The Margot Affair by Sanaë Lemoine. It’s not a book about food – it’s actually about a teenager named Margot, the product of a long affair – but I was quite distracted by whatever Margot et al were eating (from mussels in white wine and gratin dauphinois to cheeses, asparagus soup and pear clafoutis).

It’s difficult to say much about this story without spoilers but essentially, Margot is the child of Anouk, a stage actress who is successful in Paris; and Bertrand, a senior politician, who has ambitions to be president. Continue reading →

Stella Prize 2023 Shortlist – Hydra by Adriane Howell

Posted by Kate W in Fiction and tagged with , , , , , , ,

Hydra by Adriane Howell is true to its title – a beast that is hard to contain. It’s loosely Australian gothic, and tells of Anja, a young, ambitious antiquarian, whose specialty is mid-century furniture.

We learn a few important things about Anja early in the story – her rival at the auction house where she works is Fran; her marriage ended on a recent trip to Greece; and she is intent on classifying objects based on emotional response (as opposed to origin or period).

Teapots, I decided, were connected to storytelling, belonging to the Department of Once Upon a Time. Continue reading →

Stella Prize 2023 Longlist Reading – Iris by Fiona Kelly McGregor

Posted by Kate W in Fiction and tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

In the first few years of the Stella Prize, I put my head down in March and ripped through the entire longlist. But over the last year or two, my enthusiasm has waned, and this year I’ve been distracted by Reading Ireland Month and books on the Women’s Prize longlist, so my Stella reading has been patchy.

I selected Iris by Fiona Kelly McGregor after reading Lisa’s glowing review. Continue reading →

Upstairs at the Party by Linda Grant

Posted by Kate W in Fiction and tagged with , , , , , , ,

I’ll cut straight to it – Upstairs at the Party by Linda Grant was a massive disappointment.

The right ingredients were there – campus-lit, a tight group of friends, an incident that disrupts their university bliss – all with a seventies backdrop. What I actually got was a story as bland as the drab concrete buildings that populated Grant’s imagined campus. Continue reading →