FICTION: A LIFE LIVED IN RETROSPECT
Deborah Levy’s eighth and most complex novel, longlisted for the Booker Prize, provides a timely lesson in history and
Rabeea Saleem
FICTION: PARTITION AND PROPHECY
An earnest debut that juxtaposes a family saga with the zeitgeist of pre- and post-Partition turmoil is richly detailed
FICTION: WOMEN ON THE VERGE
A translation of a French novel tells the tale of three characters separated by geography and social circumstances,
INTERVIEW: ‘I WANTED THE READER TO EXPERIENCE THE IMMENSITY
Jamil Jan Kochai was born in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 1992, but his family hails from Logar, Afghanistan. Kochai ...
FICTION: THE DOG THAT HATED ME
A coming-of-age story about a boy looking for a dog that bit his finger off in his ancestral Afghan village marks an
FICTION: SINISTER SISTERS
A morbidly funny modern noir combines family saga, quirky crime thriller and dark comedy, but is also a sharply incisive
FICTION: A CITY DIVIDED
Racial tensions and citywide riots make a tinderbox of a London council estate in this searing debut novel
FICTION: A TOUCH OF MADNESS
A novel that deftly combines the daunting reality of day-to-day life in a war-torn city with a hint of self-deprecating
FICTION: SCANDINAVIAN DYSTOPIA
An inventive near-future locked-room mystery that falls slightly short of its fascinating potential
LOOK BACK: AN END WITH SOME GREAT BEGINNINGS
As 2017 comes to a close, a look at some works of fiction by first-time writers that came out this year
FICTION: TYRANNICAL TALES FROM NORTH KOREA
Chilling and heartbreaking stories from a totalitarian regime that holds its nation in slavish subjection
FICTION: A COURTROOM CONUNDRUM
An inventive crime thriller that blurs the line between legality and moral question
FICTION: ANTS AND AVARICE
A compact, multi-layered portrait of family conflict and the insecurities of bourgeois life
FICTION: THE LAND OF TOO MUCH BAGGAGE
A satirical work concerning US politics that is encumbered by its own ambition
FICTION: The path precarious
Vintage crime fiction goes meta in this story-within-a-story
Of circularity and collision
A dynamic novel about causality, with a reclusive protagonist standing in as the linchpin of Angola’s revolution
Ghosts of the past
A novel with a mystery at its centre, expounding on the nature of revenge and redemption
“If I have an idea or if I see an image, hear a sound which triggers something in my imagination
Amna K. Boheim worked in investment banking before turning to writing. She also writes a blog on life’s little
The story of me and you
A psychological thriller about twins which falters due to sketchy characterisation and an overly-elaborate plot
Downward Spiral
A promising debut novel, providing incisive psychological insight on abuse