"The Little Review (issue 1)"

170+ A6 pages. Fiction 14 pages (a Rilke story). Poems 38 pages. Re-Reading 22 pages. Arts 18 pages. Insolence & Triviality 20 pages. Reviews 52 pages. The pieces are written by "TD", "HG" etc - you need to consult the "Key to contributors" to see who did what. Carrie Etter, Karen Solie, Martyn Crucefix and Vona Groarke are among the contributors. Each poet wrote a review.

At the launch the editor Tristan Fane Saunders said he'd rather things be wrong than boring. He pointed out that "The Little Review" which lasted from 1912 to 1929 once contained 12 blank pages because the submissions hadn't been good enough.

"The Music of the Spheres" by David Wheatley is fun. The reviews/articles are a good read too. One review of a recent poetry collection has "In attempting to move further from tatty old theology towards the prestige of literature [] he can't seem to leave behind theology's verbosity and woolliness. It often dribbles into bathos ... it's quite an achievement to get so much repetition and redundancy into such a short poem".

"You Will Never Be Found" by Tove Alsterdal

An audio book set in Sweden.

Eira, about 30, is a policewoman back in her hometown of Leeland. She's helping her demented mother to move into a care home. August, a policeman who's about 25, has moved back. In the past they sometimes slept together. GG is Era's boss.

Era has a brother Mungus who's in prison for a murder he didn't commit. Era has discovered that the supposed victim is still alive but he doesn't want Era to reveal this (he covered for his girlfriend Lina). Era sleeps with August. She discovers that he's engaged - it's an open relationship.

Hans, an actor, 47, has been reported missing. He has a daughter Paloma and an ex-wife Sarner. His body is found in a cottage in a wood, missing 2 fingers.It looks like he'd been kidnapped and left there. An amateur photographer, Tonee (female) had found the body. There were ravens. Hans' final movents are puzzling. And why did he and his ex phone each other in his final week?

The case resembles one a few months before, 100s of km further North, in a town where mining has destabilised the houses. In that case the captive survived. He's married with a child. They interview him. He doesn't tell them that he feels guilty now - had he not lied to the police, Hans might still be alive. The police later discover that he made visits to Leeland. When interviewed he admits to seeing a woman (Han's ex, it turns out). Hans' ex admits to sleeping with GG. A dead, mummified body is found hidden in the flat of Hans' ex.

Police deduce that Hans cut off his own fingers to use them as bait to capture and eat ravens.

GG goes missing. His colleagues don't at first make it public - in the past he'd gone on a bender.

Houses were used that were known to Sarner. Era, visiting Sarner's grandmother, guesses that a lighthouse on an island meant something. She found GG on the island nearly dead.

Evidence against Lina is found.

The motivation for the murders is that a mentally troubled women overreacted when the promise of True Love went bad.

Eira is pregnant. August? It could have been an old friend.

Other reviews

• Steve Donoghue
• Warner Holme (For those unfamiliar with Sweden and Nordic noir overall, getting used to what may be new names and locations can be difficult. They are put out in a matter of fact manner, quickly and with little explanation. This is noticeably different from the way fantasy, historical fiction, or science fiction typically find a way to insert explanations.)

"Irma Voth" by Miriam Toews

Irma (19, married at 18 to Jorge who's not around) lives in a Mennonite community near/in Mexico. Her father's strict. Jorge is strict when it suits him. Her father's parents were killed in Europe. He escaped to Canada. She has a sister, Aggie, 14, who wants to live with her. When Irma was 13 she thought she was dead. She was sent to a doctor. Her mother told her "Just begin". A film director, Diego, arrives, asking her to be an interpreter. He knows that the Mennonites are against images, but he wants to record their culture before it disappears.

Jorge returns briefly. There's tension between them. She's agreed to do cooking for the film crew. She offers Wilson sex. He agrees - he has a terminal illness. She saves drugged Aggie from the film crew. Her father beats her all the same. The father threatens to disrupt the filming.

Jorge's been stashing drugs for someone. She sells the drugs. She and Aggie leave in the film-crew's van, dropping into their mother. She's just had a child! The mother tells them to take the baby with them. They leave for the airport, bluffing their way to Mexico. At a big public protest (clowns and unicycles) she befriends Naomi who's with friends - students. Aggie's had her first period. They're run out of money. The students have heard of the film director. They're given a room in the hotel of one of Naomi's relations in exchange for wprk. They settle down. Aggie goes to school. Irma starts looking at artistic opportunities. She tells Aggie that she's told their father that their sister Katie was leaving, which led to their father killing Katie. She watches Diego's film. In a Q&A session after he reveals that Jorge was killed (by someone asking for his drugs back). Irma feels guilty that she's caused 2 deaths. She flies back to her village, watches her parents' house from a distance, then goes in and says hello.

I like "Waving her arms like a shipwrecked survivor", but I think I've seen it before

Other reviews

• Rachel Shabi
• Susana Olague Trapani (Irma and Aggie’s relationship infuses Irma Voth with the heart needed to supplement Toews’ pithy and clever prose. Not only dealing with parent-child relationships, Toews also offers a touching and fully developed sisterhood, filled with cutting remarks, petty arguments, the turning of a blind eye when necessary and, most importantly, deep affection. ... Irma Voth is not without fault. It is difficult to believe that Irma and Aggie would not encounter harassment or questionable characters once Irma removes Aggie from her father’s reach and they move into the larger world. Yet, in this book, it seems that everyone outside the Mennonite community is nothing but kind and helpful.)
• Kirkus Reviews (A literary novel marked by charm, wit and an original approach to language, weakened by polarized characters and a shift from gritty to soft-centered. )

"Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen

An audio book. Some well-regarded writers regularly re-read this. I've never read it. Having now read some chapters I can't yet find much to like.

Mr and Mrs Bennet have 5 daughters. The live in a Hertfordshire village. The family wealth will go to a male relative, Collins. Mrs Bennet wants to marry her girls off. There's Jane (the eldest), Lizzie (the main character), Mary (plain - a nerd), Kitty and Lydia, the youngest. The latter 2 are considered shallow by their father - they prefer soldiers to rich men. Mr Darcy isn't obviously pleasant - he seems too proud. Mr Bingley, new to the area, seem nicer. He has sisters.

There's banter - is humility really boastfulness? Is it carelessness of taste? Does Lizzie belittle women in general to elevate herself in comparison? Who fancies whom?

Wickam tells Lizzie that Darcey treated him badly. In conversation, Lizzie goes meta when talking to Darcie, talking about how such conversations should be conducted.

Collins arrives and thinks about proposing to Jane, but her mother says she's already spoken for, so he proposes to Lizzie. She rejects him. Her mother doesn't want to talk to her again. Her father wouldn't have talked to her again had she married him. Collins proposes to Charlotte, Lizzie's best friend. She accepts. A few months later Lizzie stays in London for 6 weeks with the married couple. She's surprised that Charlotte is satisfied. She meets bossy Lady Katherine who knows what's best for everybody.

Darcy proposes to Lizzie who rejects him. She thinks that he's stopped Jane's marriage and has been unkind to Wickam. Darcy defends himself, giving evidence to support his case, evidence that makes Lizzie think that she's been a poor judge of character.

Jane, nearly 23, is getting old. Lizzy tells Jane what Darcy said about Wickam but not about the reasons for her hoped for engagement being called off. Lizzie knows that her parents married too young. Her father finds her mother's ignorance amusing, but love has gone.

Lizzie finds herself near Darcy's main house. Darcy's maid tells Lizzie that he was a pleasant child. She thinks that people think him proud but he's short of words rather than lofty. Lydia follows the soldiers to Brighton, then disappears with Wickam. Her uncle contacts her father saying that he's brokered a deal - Wickam and Lydia will marry as long as her father promises some money. Her father hears that Wickam owes £1000 in gambling debts in Brighton alone. He suspects that the uncle is helping out financially without saying. They find out that Darcy was at the wedding and had given the money. Lizzie thinks he did it for her sake. The couple (Lydia's 16) go to live in Newcastle. Her mother's happy.

Jane and Bingley get back together. On hearing that Darcy and Lizzie might be getting together, Lady Katherine tells Lizzie that it would be a disgrace. Lizzie stands up for herself but later can see her point of view. Darcy proposes. Lizzie wishes she hadn't expressed her initial views about him so clearly - she has some backtracking to do. She asks him what initially attracted him to her (her impertinence?) and why he'd sometimes reacted coldly in the past. Lydia asks Lizzie for money.

I'm not convinced.

"A game for all the family" by Sophie Hannah

An audio book.

On the way from London to their new home in Devon Justine (43, with daughter Ellen, 13, an husband Alex, an opera singer) feels a sense of belonging to a house they pass. She wonders what she wants to be in this new life - she's given up her old life because she stuck her neck out for Ben Larenzo. Ellen just wants her to be more normal.

The new house has one phone and bad mobile reception. Ellen seems withdrawn. She writes a story set in the house about Pareen, the youngest sister (of 3) who throws a child, Malarky, to its death from a window. Justine receives a call from a female - "I know you came here to scare me but it won't work. I know who you are". Later the voice tells her to go away, that there are 3 graves, one smaller than the other 2. The voice thinks Justine's name is Sandy. Justine goes to the police.

Ellen tells her school that her mother wants her to concentrate on her story and not do other homework. She tell Justine that she's upset because her best friend George has been suspended. Justine goes to the school. They say that George doesn't exist, though there's a girl with the same surname. Ellen thinks that the sister's going to be suspended too. Justine begins to believe Ellen's idea that the school is hiding something.

Ellen's written story develops. It's set in the house they live in. The sisters are kept home from school in case of reprisals - somebody tried to hang Pareen (or did she fake it to engender sympathy? One sister fears that her academic hopes are being shattered. After Pareen murders twice more, the parents decide to fake evidence to ensure that the police take her away. Then Pareen is murdered.

Ellen takes her mother to see George - but only from such a distance that it could be anyone. The only online mentions of George's parents are about their academic jobs. A schoolboy says that George exists but isn't supposed to be mentioned. A teacher tells Justine the same thing. Finally the head says that George has a security-crazy mother (and weak father) who thinks that the family is in danger (hence their false names).

Justine on a whim goes to the house they passed in London and is offered a dog, Figgy, there, which she takes home. Ellen thinks it's to replace George.

Justine comes home one day to find George playing Monopoly with Ellen. Ellen and George have decided to become engaged, marrying after university. George is gay, which is no problem. Justine reads the story George wrote, given to her by the head. It's based on her London experience. Ben Larenzo had been signed up by Justine's TV company when he defended someome accused of wife-battering. The company dropped Ben, and Justine's series idea too.

Justine thinks that George's mother, Anne Donbervand might be the caller. She hires a detective, who discovers that nothing odd happened in Anne's family - no murders, no name-changing. She thinks that Arwen, the woman from the London house, might be a relative of Anne, and that Anne might be in the family that Ellen's been writing about. Ellen confirms that her story came from George. Justine thinks that she might be the middle sister in Ellen's story.

A hole (a grave) appears in Justine's front garden overnight. Justine finds and talks to Anne's sister Sarah, who says that Anne's in little contact with her family but that nothing funny happened in their family - no murders. Then Justine talks to Stephen, Anne's husband, who hands show that he's been digging. She urges him to deal with his family before something worse happens. She goes home. Anne enters her house with a dead squirrel, denies everything then leaves. Justine goes to Anne's house, breaks in and lets George out. Justine's family go to hide at Arwen's. Justine explains to Ellen that George's story isn't true even though George may believe it. Justine works out that Anne's sister was allergic to dogs, so Anne's family had to get rid of the family pet, Malarky. She thinks that 2 of the sisters in Ellen's story are aspects of Anne

Ellen's story ends with a challenge to the reader to determine Pareen's murderer - all the required facts are there, it claims. Arwen thinks she knows the answer. Arwen and Justine send a message to Anne, claiming it's from a sister in Ellen's story. Arwen pretends to be the sister and brings Anne back to her house, staying in character. Justine's there, being herself, hoping to bewilder Anne by pointing out correspondances between life and Ellen's story. Anne starts strangling a dog. Justine gets into a fight with her and kills her. She never learns why Anne wanted her dead. They dispose of the bod in Anne's garden. Stephen may know this. Ellen and George had worked out that Pareen was murdered by her parents. How does that correspond to something in the real life plot?

The Ellen/Anne/Justine scene at the end is much the best in the book, but doesn't justify the longeurs. The Ben Larenzo storyline doesn't add up to much. Alex's career is soon all but forgotten. The book could be read as an investigation of lying - lies to sustain an imaginary world, white lies, etc.

"The Mother" by T.M. Logan

An audio book.

A mother attends her own funeral.

Heather, a mother with 2 sons aged 4 or under, is grumpy when her MP husband Liam comes home late again. His parents own a big company. He's been talking to women on his phones. He hints that there's a whistle-blowing situation at work. He sleeps downstairs. Next morning she finds pills and alcohol by her bed. Her murdered husband is downstairs. She remembers nothing, but on her phone are pictures of a dishy blonde sent from her husband's burner phone. She's convicted of murder. She spends 9 years in prison during which she doesn't see her sons. She wasn't allowed out for her mother's funeral. When released, she befriends Jodi in a half-way house. Heather wants to clear her name so she can see her sons. She gets in touch with Owen (ex-Guardian) who's written articles online about her innocence. She collects from storage a box left by her mother for her. She meets her sister-in-law Amy, who's not too against her. She's being followed by thugs. She tracks down her case's main detective - he's in a hospice. She manages to access his e-mail account, discovers that he was writing a book. She breaks into his house to get a draft. There are clues that a US company, North Star, exploited a corrupt MP to gain access to the UK.

She's kidnapped in a van, the draft and her phone taken, and her life is threatened. She's released. Amy is threatened and released. Owen takes Heather and Jodi to stay in his house. Safer. Heather wonders how the thugs knew where she'd be. Had they paid Jodi? A bank statement shows that £75k was paid by North Star not long before her husband's death.

She gets an emergency call from Jodi and finds her dead - overdosed. She exchanges IDs with her. Amy's in on the trick, identifying the dead body as Heather's. She attends her own funeral. She lies low, hoping that Owen will present the evidence to the poice. He doesn't. Suspicious. She's sent a photo showing Amy dead from overdose and is told to give herself up or her sons will die too. She arrives at the family residence as ordered. Amy's ok. Actually she's planned everything. Heather's father had been leaking info to the family company and was about to confess when she threatened him, accidentally killing him. She told her father the truth only 2 years later. She fabricated the conspiracy evidence. Heather's about to die when Owen and her sons save her.

I enjoyed reading this. Lots of plot. At the end though, through the misted clear-plastic bag over her head she sees a surprising amount of detail.

"A colder war" by Charles Cumming

Wallenger (UK spy?) is in Turkey, heading for Greece. Ryan is with him.

Evru is a Turkish journalist. She and Ryan have been going out for 5 months. She's arrested. Borak Turance is a policeman.

London 3 weeks later: Tom Kell, ex-spy, 44, divorced, hears from his ex-boss Emelia (c.50) that Wollanger's Cessna blew up. SIS HQ didn't know why he was there, nor did his wife. He was a womaniser - Emelia was one of his secret lovers. She sends him over to investigate. He lost his job because of the "Witness A" incident - something he became the scapegoat for, to protect the government?

Wallenger's daughter Rachel, 31, is also a spy, but Kell doesn't know it. They sleep together in Turkey.

Tremane is one of the British workers in Turkey. Wallenger was the boss. Emelia offers the job to Kell. He realises that Emelia has told him the full sorry - the bomb that kill Wallenger was Iranian. She meets him in Turkey. Other informants have been killed. She thinks there's a mole - Mary Beck? Tremane? Cleckner (american)? Maybe the mole is killing to prevent being revealed. It's be embarassing if the mole's american. Kell finds where in Turkey the dead letter box is.

Ryan Clekner goes to London, he’s under heavy surveillance. Kell watches him sleep with his new girlfriend Rachel. Clekner meets his Russian handle Menasian. Clekner asks Menasian for explanations of murders. He says that Rachel is his girlfriend and shouldn’t be harmed. Emilia explains to Kell that Rachel only did it because Emilia told her that Chekner was involved with her father’s death.

Menasian and Clekner independently realise that Clekner has been exposed. From Istanbul he flees by ferry to Odessa. Clekner thinks it was a Russian error – he thinks he’s not made a mistake (he used elaborate counter-surveillance tactics), and that the British don’t use honeypots. He trusts Rachel. Kell decides that they shouldn't tell the US about Clekner. They arrive in Odessa, get Clekner and take him to a light aircraft. It lands, but not where he’d planned. Emilia is there. She’s decided to give Clekner to the Americans after a quick interview. Kell gets a call from Menasian saying that Rachel will die unless she’s exchanged for Clekner. Emelia finds out that she’s already dead. Later, the Americans kill Chekner.

I like his writing. He uses "thought to herself", though only once, I think.

Other reviews

• goodreads
• Arnold Taylor