J. Greg Matthews
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PREMIUM
The Facility
Fans of Saramago's Blindness will be blown away by this a chilling election-year fable for our current era of universal surveillance and corporate control of media and its perverse influence on politics. Lelic's prose is lean and cinematic and brilliantly conveys his characters' justified paranoia. His lastest (after The Child Who) reads like the classic post-war British fiction of Margaret Atwood, Anthony Burgess, and William Golding.
PREMIUM
Life! Death! Prizes!
May's astonishing 2008 debut novel, TAG, distinguished him as a gifted portrayer of modern British life. In this follow-up, May's skills are just as dazzling. Billy's wry narrative juxtaposes commentary on contemporary Britain's consumerist decline in a village south of London with his own timeless aspirations and universal adolescent vanities. Readers who appreciate the fiction of Joe Dunthorne and Ross Raisin will also prize this novel.
PREMIUM
Long Time, No See
Healy's (Sudden Times; A Goat's Song) first novel in ten years is a triumphant return by the author Roddy Doyle considers "Ireland's greatest writer." Philip's voice, at once tender and odd, like Joejoe's slightly out-of-tune accordion, narrates. His easy familiarity with Ballintra's seasonal rhythms, landscapes, and inhabitants credibly shapes the contours of an interior life open to all perceptions and ideas that existence offers him. A beautiful account of one person's acceptance of his own quiet heroism.
PREMIUM
The Last Storyteller
Set against the turbulent backdrop of the sectarian violence that would lead to the Troubles in the Sixties, this novel is a stirring showcase for Delaney's skill at mingling lyrical fiction and historical fact. It beautifully concludes the romantic trajectory set in motion in Venetia Kelly's Travelling Show and The Matchmaker of Kenmare. [See Prepub Alert, 8/21/11.]
PREMIUM
Armitage's version of the Alliterative Morte Arthure strengthens Norton's catalog of new translations of Anglo-Saxon and Middle English texts. It is also a remarkable instance of Armitage's own unique poetic strengths, especially his ear for lyrical economy and gift for sensual, tactile description.
The Death of King Arthur
Armitage's version of the Alliterative Morte Arthure strengthens Norton's catalog of new translations of Anglo-Saxon and Middle English texts. It is also a remarkable instance of Armitage's own unique poetic strengths, especially his ear for lyrical economy and gift for sensual, tactile description.
PREMIUM
Where No Storms Come
Deane's third novel (after Undertow) is both a stunning evocation of nature's transcendent beauty and a convincing account of the personal struggles that form a human conscience. While the epilog seems gratuitous, the sometimes Lawrencian descriptions, especially of the west Irish countryside and its wildlife, are rapturous throughout. While Deane is known primarily as a poet, here he proves himself a master of lyrical prose as well.
PREMIUM
Solace
McKeon's debut novel heralds a powerful new voice in contemporary Irish fiction, displaying a deliberateness and quiet strength that provides a notable contrast to the frenetic depiction of everyday lives evident in much modern fiction. McKeon's command of description and pacing are especially impressive. Colm Tóibín's stylistic influence is evident throughout, though McKeon's treatment of romance and relationships calls to mind Anne Enright's best work.
PREMIUM
Galore
Newfoundland author Crummey's award-winning third novel, published in Canada in 2009, affirms that our lives are always astonishing. It's been justly compared to Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. It also calls to mind Graham Swift's Waterland and Alexis Wright's Carpentaria, as well as William Faulkner's epic Compson novels, and will appeal to readers who enjoyed those works.
PREMIUM
The Empty Family
In this triumphant follow-up to his award-winning novel Brooklyn, Tóibín exhibits his familiar stylistic simplicity while extending his emotional reach and range in surprising ways. There's a mastery of romantic eroticism that calls to mind Camus's lush lyricism in "Return to Tipasa" and Exile and the Kingdom, as well as the seductive strangeness of Katherine Ann Porter's best-known short stories. For all readers of fiction. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 8/10.]
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