Travel memories - some imagined, such as a performance of 'Hamlet' off the African coast, in 1607 - from the amiable author of A Pike in the Basement: Tales of a Hungry Traveller.
An excellent Catalan novel from the 1970s, about flight and return, in which the Civil War still looms over the tail-end of Franco's era and modernity blooms. A marvellous evocation of Barce... read more
The attraction of opposites on the French Riviera - the bohemian and the strait-laced - has lasting consequences for its adolescent protagonists, which play out over a decade. Well-structure... read more
A snakes-and-ladders novella about the misplaced confidence of a bossy widow, whose aspirations to a life of refinement and social elevation bring about her downfall. Ginzburg, as ever, is l... read more
Another of Ginzburg's lambent, ironic novellas: this time about a spoilt boy who grows into a feckless youth. Both he and his parents are blinded by unrealistic hopes, while his sister (the ... read more
Scanlan's prose is pared back to the bone in this slim novel about an Iowa horse trainer and the scuzzy, feverish world of racing with its trailers and motels...
M.F.K. Fisher is, in our opinion, the greatest and most entertaining writer about food there has ever been - but we are far from alone in this. A wonderful reprint.