Page 54 - Ali Smith News Today

The writer, who won the Premi Llibreter in 2020, is considered one of the UK's brightest voices

Audrey Lane, the headstrong young heroine of Wedderburn’s high-powered follow-up to The Milk Chicken Bomb is obsessed with everything about the open road. At 20, Audrey gets her dream job driving a truck around the oil fields not far from Calgary, Alberta. Shortly after, she impulsively runs away from the job and the camp where she’s been staying, and ends up in a gritty Edmonton bar. She talks her way into a job as the driver for a bar band called the Lever Men, with none of them sober en...

The Liars Dictionary, by Eley Williams Image: Doubleday Have you ever caught a Mountweazel? Before reading Eley Williamss beguiling first novel, Id never heard of them. But Williams is an expert. She wrote her doctoral dissertation on them, and then she put her hard-earned knowledge to further good use in The Liars Dictionary, which is to word lovers what potato chips are to my husband — minus the guilt. What are these sly creatures? Mountweazels are fake entries deliberately inserted into d...

‘Such A Fun Age’ by Kiley Reid No other 2020 debut quite compared with Kiley Reid’s brilliant take on the 19th-century novel of manners. Such a Fun Age centres on 25-year-old African-American nanny Emira, who finds herself caught up in the world of her polite, affluent (and deeply condescending) employers while grappling with what to do with the rest of her life post-university. Witty and thought-provoking. ‘Summer’ by Ali Smith If you have yet to read Ali Smith’s masterful seasona...

An NYRB Classics Original The trouble begins in Venice, the first stop on Erzsi and Mihálys honeymoon tour of Italy. Here Erzsi discovers that her new husband prefers wandering back alleys on his own to her company. The trouble picks up in Ravenna, where a hostile man zooms up on a motorcycle as the couple are sitting at an outdoor café. Its János, someone Mihály hasnt seen for years, and he wants Mihály to come with him in search of Ervin, their childhood friend. The trouble comes to a h...

36 Winter Quotes That Give You Warm Feelings On Cold Days Feeling the winter blues? These quotes will pick you up. Dec 23, 2020 Winter is here whether we like it or not. I’m one of those people who says I can’t wait for winter. Then when it gets here, my fingers and toes are cold, my nose is runny, and I’m ready for summer again. If you’re feeling anything like I am, then maybe these winter quotes will help you appreciate the season a little bit more. Winter brings shorter,...

Christmas countdown: The ultimate Christmas gift guide 28 minutes to read The Ultimate Christmas Gift Guide Its the most wonderful time of the year and what a year its been! If ever there were a time to gather together and relish precious moments with those who mean the most to you, its Christmas 2020. But finding the right gift can add stress in what should be a joyous time of year. So, instead of aimlessly strolling the mall, or endlessly scrolling online, weve done all the ...

Best books of 2020: Fiction 21 Dec, 2020 06:00 AM 5 minutes to read Financial Times Hamnet, by Maggie OFarrell Its summer, and a plague is sweeping the country. Maggie OFarrells novel transports the reader back to 1596, and to Shakespeares family — in particular his wild and mystical wife Agnes (as she is named here) and his ill-fated son Hamnet — in the years preceding the play that took his name. Motherhood and scenes of pastoral life are described in exquisite detail. Real Life,...

The Gatekeepers brings book deal for Trini writer Lloyd Thursday 17 December 2020 Ayanna Gillian Lloyd, left, Uganda-born British poet Nick Makoha and Trinidadian Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné at the 2019 Bocas Lit Fest. - BEFORE she started writing The Gatekeepers, Trinidad-born, UK-based writer Ayanna Gillian Lloyd spent a lot of time in cemeteries and was always struck, “by the way Lapeyrouse Cemetery (Port of Spain) in particular was a history lesson – a little city within a city, a world o...

Willamette Week The need for strong, independent local journalism is more urgent than ever. Please support the city we love by joining Friends of Willamette Week. Five Wintry Novels to Read in Hibernation Born out of a Russian fairy tale, in "The Snow Child," a drifting couple is brought together by a strange child who appears the day after a snow replica is built in a moment of joy. Eowyn Iveys beloved debut novel,  The Snow Child, sets magical realism in the harshness of winter. Born o...