ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MARIA DUARTE review On The Sea, A Useful Ghost, Brunello: The Gracious Visionary, and Pinocchio Unstrung
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Fiction Review: Optic Nerve by Maria Ginza
Maria Ginza's novel is an outstanding exploration of the nature of perception
RON JACOBS enjoys a great tale, told by a US communist, of the lives of working-class New Yorkers
BRENT CUTLER searches a new history of contemporary Iran for an understanding of the Islamic Republic, finding both interesting detail and glaring omissions
MARIA DUARTE recommends the true story of the remarkable woman who sued Donald Trump for sexual assault not once, but twice
KENNY MacASKILL is disappointed by a polemical, rather than factual, account of the Lone Star State and its political path since the civil war
PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by the lives of Charles and Mary Bagot, and the insight this biography shines on the morals of pre-Victorian society
GORDON PARSONS appreciates fine performances and a feel for ambiguity, but misses the music of the dialogue
Optic Nerve
by Maria Gainza
(Vintage Publishing, £14.99)
THIS exquisite novel of a woman in her twenties searching for meaning through the paintings she loves is a stunning debut from Maria Gainza.
Part autobiographical fiction, part art criticism, it’s set in her native Buenos Aires and comes across as a subtle chronicle of a city, family life and a culture deeply rooted in the “southern cone” of Latin America.
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