The Fiction Shelf

America is in depression and its small towns and working families are struggling. This story’s dialogue is local and its characters are troubled. A childhood lived in an adult world is the difficult backdrop for this engrossing period tale.

This story dismisses what we all know and reminds us what loss is. Human, concise and powerful without ever exploiting its inspiration, a tremendous pleasure to read.

A Cold War drama that deals with trust and combative relationships. The narrator of Shipmate takes under his wing someone who has time after time proved them selves to be recklessly indisciplined and unreliable.

Grandparents are living history and well worth exploring. History and humour stand side by side in this gently paced but wonderfully contained story of a cross‐generational road trip told through the pages of a child’s journal.