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
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Persuasive path to class consciousness
PAUL SIMON recommends James Clarke's novel, set in the middle of the miners' strike of 1984-5
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EWAN CAMERON marvels at the impossible ambition, realised with dreamlike finesse of translating Italo Calvino to the stage
The Litten Path
by James Clarke
(Salt, £9.99)
FRAMED by a sequence of betrayals, The Litten Path is a story of unequal class struggle.
The geographical co-ordinates of the novel are tightly drawn — the Yorkshire mining village of Litten, the semi-derelict Threndle House on its outskirts and the Orgreave coking plant.
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Family issues and dragon-fuelled history amount to a vacuous spectacle that ill-fits the theatre, muses SIMON PARSONS
RON JACOBS is enthralled by Roberto Saviano’s portrait of heroes and deplorables, that calls for people to stand up for themselves and the things they believe in
KEITH RICHMOND relishes a superbly conceived modern version of Aeschylus’ drama of murderous family succession
The book feels like a writer working within his limits and not breaking any new ground, believes KEN COCKBURN