Books

J M Coetzee's latest novel, Slow Man, reveals a man who appears without joy, yet the book is beautifully composed, deeply thought and wonderfully written. By Ward Just

Review of Caravaggio: Painter of Miracle by Francis Prose

News from the Stormfront
Hurricane Katrina has been to the forefront of the weblogs this week. We thank the Tel...

The new novel from John Berendt – the man who brought Savannah, Georgia to readers all over the world in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil – is set in Venice and based on the mysterious fire that erupted inside the grand old Venetian opera house in 1996

Katie O'Brien's last novel, As Music and Splendour, has been republished. Review by Eamon Maher

That Man Booker Prize Again Critics and reviewers have struggled to discuss Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, second favourite for this year's Man Booker prize next month. This is primarily due to the twist in the plot, one that unlike a thriller is slowly revealed – even a hint at the main thrust of the tale will lessen your enjoyment of the revelation. The reader finds out what's going on at the same pace and time as Ruth, Tommy & Karen, the children attending Hailsham boarding school who grow to adulthood in the story.

Shortlisted in this year's Booker
prize and now being compared to EM Forster,
Zadie Smith's latest novel, On Beauty, is described as 'not
beautiful, not supremely brilliant, but filled with something that
took the place of both qualities – something best described as a
profound vivacity, a continual and sincere response to all that
she encountered in her path through life'. By Frank Rich

Marlon Brando co wrote Fan-Tan in 1970. Fan-Tan, like Brando "is coarse, perverse, idiosyncratic, unapologetically behind the times". Joe Queenan reviews it and recommends it as
a good read

Daniel Swift looks at a new book that takes a tour in search of ecumenical understanding between Christianity, Islam and Judaism

Newfoundland and Labrador have syddered much hardship, most recently the disappearance of the cod industry, a mainstay of livelihood. And yet John Gimlette's beautifully written book is neither dark nor depressing writes Elizabeth Royte