I have an announcement to make! Mark Haddon’s latest novel, A Spot of Bother, is an amusing light comedy-drama about an upcoming wedding and the inevitable wacky family turmoil that ensues. And that’s about it.

I feel it’s necessary to point this out, because it flies in the face of the melodramatic copy on the inside dust jacket, which promises a story of suspense, “sinister” lesions, and the lead character “going mad.” This is a shame, because it seems like the author and publisher would be better served marketing this otherwise well-written and tightly paced novel to the type of people who might actually be interested in reading it. Instead, they seem to be selling it as a follow up to Haddon’s earlier book — The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, an unorthodox mystery told from the point of view of an autistic teen — which it most certainly is not. » More... » →

“The mysteries of childhood and of coming of age have long been rich ground for novelists to mine.” That might be one way to start a review of a book like M.J. Hyland’s Carry Me Down, but every time I read a review that begins with a sentence like that I instantly think to myself, “So what is he saying? That this book just rips off a bunch of other books?”

The answer is yes and no. While Hyland’s novel does cover some familiar territory, she does so with a keen sense of perception that allows her to draw her characters in meticulous detail. Every situation in which they find themselves and their every action simply rings true, a quality that ultimately makes for a satisfying (if quick) read. » More... » →

Africa is a forgotten continent to most Americans. We hear about the tragedies — the famines, the crooked governments, the occasional genocide — and we look away. The mainstream media, if they cover Africa at all, somehow fails to bring a sense of significance to it. These are alien people, living lives that are unlike ours, laboring through problems that cannot be solved.

Two recent books aim to put a human face on the struggling peoples of Africa. One centers on the civil war in Sierra Leone in the 1990s. The other focuses on events that are even now unfolding in Sudan. Both succeed where news reports have failed us, even if the pictures they paint are not pretty. » More... » →