ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MARIA DUARTE review On The Sea, A Useful Ghost, Brunello: The Gracious Visionary, and Pinocchio Unstrung
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Best of 2019: Books
COMPELLING: Edward Parnell
RON JACOBS enjoys a great tale, told by a US communist, of the lives of working-class New Yorkers
BRENT CUTLER searches a new history of contemporary Iran for an understanding of the Islamic Republic, finding both interesting detail and glaring omissions
MARIA DUARTE recommends the true story of the remarkable woman who sued Donald Trump for sexual assault not once, but twice
KENNY MacASKILL is disappointed by a polemical, rather than factual, account of the Lone Star State and its political path since the civil war
PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by the lives of Charles and Mary Bagot, and the insight this biography shines on the morals of pre-Victorian society
GORDON PARSONS appreciates fine performances and a feel for ambiguity, but misses the music of the dialogue
THIS year has featured a wave of books dealing with the way human beings are defined by their stories, myths and art and one of the most impressive is The Dollmaker by Nina Allan (riverrun).
A novel of stories within stories, blending traditional literary fiction with fantasy, myth and metafictional games, its framing narrative has Andrew, an accomplished creator of beautiful bespoke dolls, spotting an advert in a trade magazine.
He’s swept into a quest involving a mysterious woman called Bramber and he shares with her an obsession with an eastern European dollmaker and writer of dark fairy tales.
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ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MARIA DUARTE review On The Sea, A Useful Ghost, Brunello: The Gracious Visionary, and Pinocchio Unstrung
ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Synthetic Sincerity, Our Hero, Balthazar, Heartstopper Forever, and A Year In London
GORDON PARSONS is intrigued by a biography of the Marxist intellectual and author, made from the point of view of his son
MARJORIE MAYO welcomes an account of family life after Oscar Wilde, a cathartic exercise, written by his grandson