STEVEN ANDREW is moved beyond words by a historical account of mining in Britain made from the words of the miners themselves
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The first great political novel of the Trump era
JOHN GREEN recommends an acute portrait of a troubled and divided US by Barbara Kingsolver
Insightful: Barbara Kingsolver
CAILEAN MCBRIDE welcomes a refreshing and timely study of the way officialdom creates structures that exclude LGBT+ rights and humanity
The bard mourns the loss of comrades and troubadours, and looks for consolation with Black Country Jess
CHRIS MOSS relishes the painting and the life story of a self-taught working-class artist from Warrington
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a star-studded adaptation of Ibsen’s play that is devoid of believable humanity
GORDON PARSONS is fascinated by a unique dream journal collected by a Jewish journalist in Nazi Berlin
Borrowed Time: Lennon’s Last Decade, Parthenope, Where Dragons Live and Thunderbolts* reviewed by MICHAL BONCZA and MARIA DUARTE
Unsheltered
by Barbara Kingsolver
(Faber & Faber, £8.99)
IN THIS novel, Barbara Kingsolver carries forward the strong commitment to social justice and environmental care expressed so strongly in her previous books and demonstrates again that she is one of the US’s foremost socially critical writers of fiction.
Her narrative centres around an old house falling apart, a recurring symbol of social decay. It was built in a small US town which, created in the mid-19th century as a model community, is beholden to its wealthy entrepreneur founder who very much dominates and controls its citizens’ lives.
The story oscillates between characters living in the 19th century when the town was built and a family living there today facing up to a Trump presidency. The comparisons and parallels Kingsolver draws are instructive and illuminating.
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