Did I draw this? Frame or bed, hole could be window, flesh could be flat, nobody looking, One body prostrate, another attending. Another beautiful poetic prose book by Max Porter, The Death of Francis Bacon is a brief tale of Bacon's final days. In April 1992, Bacon fell ill in Madrid, taken to a convent…
What should have been a moment of triumph for me, standing up for myself and even settling the matter without blows, turned oddly sour as I realised that the kids around me were now afraid of me. By so daringly stepping away from my role as victim, I was to be feared, or at least…
A boy at the beginning of a story has no way of knowing that the story has begun. Erin Morgenstern's long awaited second book explores the very idea of stories. We follow Zachary, a video game player and book nerd, on his journey to get to the Starless Sea and submit to fate. From a…
I first read Malorie Blackman's Noughts and Crosses years and years ago and, of course, was excited to watch the TV show last month. Noughts and Crosses is an alternative reality in which the native African people colonised the Europeans. Set in an alternative 21st century Britain in which the Crosses (darker skinned people) dominate…
The Keanes' German shepherd, who would often bark at the southwest corner of the dining room when nothing was there.— Leanne Shapton Everything I wanted from a book. Guestbook isn't so much short and sweet as short and fucking creepy. It's a series of subtle ghost stories. There isn't anyone in a white sheet jumping…
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