Throughout this novel, massive in its eloquence, time is bent like a Slinky toy.
On Heroes and Tombs by Ernesto Sabato
The Flight of the Maidens by Jane Gardam
You’d have to have a heart of stone not to love this novel. Three young women lounging in an ancient graveyard in the Yorkshire sticks that Gardam knows so well have all received good news.
The Maids by Junichiro Tanizaki
Reading The Maids is like eavesdropping on an intimate Japanese conservation.
Thus Bad Begins by Javier Marias
Javier Marais is fond of laying out all the possibilities: of what might have happened in the past, of what might be going on now, not in general, but line-per-line as the story unfolds.
The End of Eddy by Édouard Louis
The End of Eddy reads like an extended, intense essay, dashed off in white heat.
Judas by Amos Oz
Amos Oz’s Judas is a story of delicate balances. The sort of novel where you wonder what a room is like when nobody is in it. Judas plays what-if games with history.