Tag Archives: Random House UK

Title: Joseph Anton: A Memoir
Author: Salman Rushdie
Publisher: Jonathan Cape, Random House
ISBN: 978-0-224-09397-2
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoirs
Pages: 633
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5
So I have a confession to make: I have not been able to complete a single Rushdie novel, except for Haroun and the Sea of Stories and I am not ashamed of it, only because I have tried reading his works time and again. I haven’t been able to cross the hundredth page. That is the relationship I share with Salman Rushdie’s books.
I started reading,…

Title: Aerogrammes and Other Stories
Author: Tania James
Publisher: Vintage Books
ISBN: 978-8-184-00301-7
Genre: Short Stories
Pages: 180
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5
Whenever I am about to read a new collection of stories from someone who is just about trying to step foot in this genre, I get very apprehensive. I love the short-story genre. It is something else. If I could, I would have written a piece in praise of the short story. I just would have so much to say.
With this, I must talk about the short-story…

Title: The Daylight Gate
Author: Jeanette Winterson
Publisher: Hammer Books
ISBN: 978-0-09-956185-9
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 194
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4/5
I have always loved what Winterson writes. I have read everything that she has written, including her book for children and her non-fictional pieces as well. To me, she is everything a writer should be, but then again that is purely a personal opinion. I was overjoyed on receiving a copy of her latest, “The Daylight Gate” and could not stop reading it.
Here is something about the book:…

Title: Lionel Asbo: State of England
Author: Martin Amis
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
ISBN: 978-0-224-09621-8
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 288
Source: Publisher
Rating: 3/5
Martin Amis’s writing is weird and I say this with utmost respect. It is also intellectually appeasing and at the same time takes the road, not taken by many writers, that of experimentation in terms of plot and characters that are as anti as they can be.
His characters oscillate between wanting to do the right thing and tempted always to do the wrong thing and go…

Title: Sweet Tooth
Author: Ian McEwan
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
ISBN: 978-0224097376
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 336
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5
I remember reading the first Ian McEwan when I was sixteen. I started with, “The Cement Garden” and the idea of a book where only young adults featured while the adults were on a vacation intrigued me and rightly so. The book did not disappoint a single bit and since then I have not stopped reading everything written by him.
Ian McEwan’s female characters have always been enigmatic and rather…

Title: The Orphan Master’s Son
Author: Adam Johnson
Publisher: Doubleday, Random House UK
ISBN: 978-0857520555
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 464
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5
A book about North Korea is not an easy one to write. A territory which is closed to everyone and everything is quite enigmatic and yet inaccessible. Adam Johnson’s, “The Orphan Master’s Son” is a book set in modern day North Korea and epitomizes Orwellian Horror at its best. The book but obviously features the regime under, “Dear Leader” Kim Jong il. Now to tell you…

Title: I’m Never Coming Back
Author: Julian Hanshaw
Publisher: Jonathan Cape, Random House UK
ISBN: 978-0-224-09644-7
Genre: Graphic Fiction
Pages: 144
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5
When someone writes about the human condition, the reader is almost forced to contemplate on his or her life. There would be no other way to read that particular book. I am amazed at what is being done with the so called, “Graphic Novel”. The ways of telling stories are plentiful. It also matters what the book makes you feel and think after reading it.…

Title: Home
Author: Toni Morrison
Publisher: Chatto and Windus, Random House UK
ISBN: 978-0701186074
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 146
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4/5
Toni Morrison is one of my favourite writers. I have almost loved everything she has written. She is amongst the writers who knows her craft and does not shy from writing on themes that are real and varied and sometimes plain scary. From the first time since I started reading her, when Beloved was gifted to the time I have finished reading her recent book, “Home”, Toni…

Title: Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama
Author: Alison Bechdel
Publisher: Jonathan Cape, Random House UK
ISBN: 978-0-224-09352-1
Genre: Graphic Novel
Pages: 289
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5
When Alison Bechdel wrote, “Fun Home”, a graphic novel about her closeted gay father and her relationship with him, it was received with great aplomb. Critics loved it and so did the regular readers. I read it last month and was in absolute love with it. At the end of the book, I wondered, “What about Alison’s mother? What about her point…

Title: The Land of Decoration
Author: Grace McCleen
Publisher: Chatto and Windus
ISBN: 978-0-701-18682-1
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 291
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5
The Land of Decoration starts off as a strange book. About a girl, her father and their staunch religious beliefs. At the core of it, it is a battle of good and evil at times, about the choices we make and how we can pretty much differentiate, and the times when everything clouds over and we aren’t able to make the right decisions.
Judith McPherson is a…