CATHERINE STEEL relishes a compelling novel about Augustus’s right hand man, but misses the politics, the cultural shifts, and more detail about his restoration of Rome
Latest editorial
Bleak yet beautiful fiction of near-future disintegration
The White City
by Roma Tearne
(Gallic Books, £12.99)
TONY BURKE speaks to JOEL McIVER, co-author of the biography of bluesman John Mayall
A misfit couple unhappily ever after, a dead man walking, dodgy journos, and trench art trucking
New releases from Javon Jackson, IZE Trio, and Mal Waldron Trio
PAUL DONOVAN applauds an intriguing multi-layered depiction, dominated by a stunning impersonation of Marilyn herself
EWAN CAMERON marvels at the impossible ambition, realised with dreamlike finesse of translating Italo Calvino to the stage
THERE are echoes, maybe unintended, of both Orhan Pamuk and Ilya Ehrenburg in Roma Tearne’s seventh novel.
They are evident not only in the confinements of the characters and the suppressions of the language used, reflecting the impact of an inclement meteorology upon the mobility and actions of her protagonists, but also in the metaphorical implications of the deadening nature of societies in microcosm, hunkering down and in retreat.
Similar stories
A misfit couple unhappily ever after, a dead man walking, dodgy journos, and trench art trucking
FIONA O’CONNOR questions the achievement of this year’s Orwell prize winner for political fiction
CHRIS MOSS joins the hunt in Argentina for the works of Poland’s most enigmatic exile
