Matthew Blakstad

9 August 2015

Book review

Acts of Omission by Terry Stiastny

Matthew Blakstad

9 August 2015

Book review

Terry Stiastny is an ex BBC TV journalist who knows Westminster inside out. It shows.

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2 Apr 2018

The Charmed Life of Alex Moore by Molly Flatt

2 Apr 2018

A dynamic, beautifully written debut that moves effortlessly between ultra-contemporary London, the wilds of a remote Scottish island, and a fantastic reality that underpins them both.

2 Apr 2018

28 Jul 2017

Yesterday by Felicia Yap

28 Jul 2017

With this punchy debut, Felicia Yap has hit on a winning formula from the very start. This is a book that will keep you guessing to the very end. It’s going to be massive.

28 Jul 2017

25 Jan 2017

Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller

25 Jan 2017

The ocean’s a zone where you can be completely free; or vanish utterly. It’s against this elemental force that Claire Fuller has set her powerful second novel. Like all the best stories, Swimming Lessons has secrets hidden in every nook.

25 Jan 2017

15 Jan 2017

The Wolf Road by Beth Lewis

15 Jan 2017

The Wolf Road was one of my stand-out reads of 2016. It could be a classic adventure story of the West, except that it takes place in a post-apocalyptic America that might almost have come to be.

15 Jan 2017

18 Nov 2016

Heroes of the Frontier by Dave Eggers

18 Nov 2016

When your American dream turns sour, where do you run to? In this case, America. Or at least to its wild, disjunct north-western annex.

18 Nov 2016

20 Jul 2016

Poison City by Paul Crilley

20 Jul 2016

I don't know if the black-magic-noir-black-comedy genre was ever a thing but it is now. And that's a lot of black to pack into a single genre. Poison City is Paul Crilley's adult fiction debut and it's a cracker.

20 Jul 2016

18 Jul 2016

Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller

18 Jul 2016

There are a million stories of rugged men who take to the wilderness and there descend into madness. In Our Endless Numbered Days the survivalist male obsessive chooses to take his eight-year-old daughter with him.

18 Jul 2016

18 Mar 2016

The Loney by Andrew Hurley

18 Mar 2016

The Loney uses the mainstays of gothic horror – a wild, ancient landscape, a face at the window, a crumbling house filled with mysteries – to speak about our search for meaning in an incoherent world.

18 Mar 2016

23 Dec 2015

seveneves by Neal Stephenson

23 Dec 2015

Joseph Stalin referred to writers and artists as engineers of the human soul. I can't think of a novelist more suited to that description than Neal Stephenson.

23 Dec 2015

16 Nov 2015

Dataclysm by Christian Rudder

16 Nov 2015

I'm currently writing a novel set in the near future. It imagines the consequences of those endless breadcrumb trails we're currently leaving behind us as we navigate our data-driven world.

16 Nov 2015