The National, May 2017 “I have been there and, believe me, I have been afraid.” This was how the first African-American Arctic explorer, Matthew Henson, described his expeditions to the North Pole in 1912. It […]
The National, May 2017 As opening lines go, “I have been acquainted with the smell of death”, is about as intriguing as it gets. But then, in his latest novel, Irish author Colm Tóibín is […]
The National, May 2017 It barely seems believable in our 21st-century, always-connected culture, but when Abdulrazak Gurnah’s mother died, the Zanzibar-born, Booker Prize-shortlisted author did not find it out for days. By the time someone was […]
The National, May 2017 It is, without question, the most eagerly awaited novel of the year. Paula Hawkins has been the very definition of a publishing sensation since her psychological drama The Girl on […]
The National, April 2017 It begins with a beheading. Then another, and another, until nine severed heads are found in a sleepy Iraqi village. It’s a shockingly vivid introduction to the violent, chaotic world of […]