Suri
Suri reviews a vivid, evocative and compelling novel set in the early 21st century, by a multi disciplinary author, Keeping the House by Tice Cin.
Following a multi generational family in South London, Keeping the House studies the rich inner lives of women and immigrant communities.
There is a soundtrack for this book! You can listen to it here.
You can listen to Suri’s review with Rachel below.
Short, clear and concise. If you’re going to read any non-fiction title about America, this is it. National Book Award winner George Packer presents how politics, economics and culture has evolved into the America we know today.
You can listen to Suri’s review with Rachel below.
A sprawling history of human civilization, The Dawn of Everything rivals its predecessors by asking 'Are both Hobbes and Rousseau wrong about the state of human nature?'. Drawing on carefully chronicled indigenous histories and posing a challenge to existing understandings of the development of civilization, The Dawn of Everything is a must read for fans of Sapiens and Humankind.
You can listen to Suri’s review below.
Richard Power's latest novel, Bewilderment, is a tender exploration of loss, climate anxiety and the binding love between father son. In the wake of his wife's death, scientist Theo tries to rescue his sensitive son from the noise and cruelty of the modern world. A rich mixture of philosophy, science and spirituality, Bewilderment is a powerful ode to the natural world.
This is another lockdown review! You can listen to Suri chat with Rachel below.
Samuel Te Kani's debut erotic short fiction collection, Please, Call Me Jesus is an electric, moreish journey through suburbia and its dark pleasures.
From gaming housewives, to teenage werewolves and suburban fathers with secrets, Sam Te Kani's psychologically piercing and playful vignettes of suburban desire make for addictive reading.
Samuel Te Kani is a contributor to Metro NZ, The Spinoff, Pantograph Punch and formerly Vice NZ.
This is another lockdown review! You can listen to Suri chat with Rachel below.
Keep the spooky season alive with Gigi Fenster's chilling new novel, A Good Winter! The 2021 Michael Gifkins Prize winner is an absorbing psychological thriller told through the neurotic and increasingly frenetic observations of Olga, a lonely woman who befriends her neighbour Lara. As Olga's life becomes more entwined with Lara's and her feelings become more obsessive, her paranoia begins to take over until the shocking end.
A compulsive and addictive read, A Good Winter is a dark and fascinating insight into the mind of a woman alienated from family, love and desire.
This is another lockdown review! You can listen to Suri chat with Rachel below.
After a brief hiatus, Karl Ove Knausgaard returns to fiction with The Morning Star, a rich 666-page exploration of human existence told through the lives of nine interconnected characters. In The Morning Star, the spectre of the unreal and imagined hovers over the prosaic rituals of daily life, as Knausgaard's characters try to find meaning in the modern world. A stunning novel for turbulent times.
This is another lockdown review! You can listen to Suri chat with Rachel below.
Auckland writer Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle’s devastating little novella ‘Nostalgia Has Ruined My Life’ explores the emptiness of dating and work in the modern world. Told through darkly funny and painful little vignettes, ‘Nostalgia Has Ruined My Life’ is a deliciously twisted and intoxicating work. For fans of Ottessa Moshfegh and Sakaya Murata!
Listen to Suri’s lockdown review with Rachel below.
Twice-Pulitzer Winning author Colson Whitehead’s latest novel ‘Harlem Shuffle’ follows the life of fictional Ray Carney, a black furniture salesman whose middle-class aspirations lead him to a criminal underworld of heists, blackmail and corruption. A punchy, zinging noir, Harlem Shuffle looks at the hypocrisy of the American Dream with a sharp sense of humour.
Due at the end of September, you can pre-order this book now.
Listen to Suri’s lockdown review with Rachel below.
Omar El Akkad's latest novel, What Strange Paradise tells the story of nine year old Amir, a lone survivor of a storm-wrecked ship carrying refugees to Greece. Aided by the ordinary kindness of Greek teenager Vanna, Amir navigates the unfamiliarity of a new country and the bureaucratic systems he's ensnared by, never forgetting the ghosts of his past. Subtly written and powerfully rendered, What Strange Paradise explores the sheer urgency and existential dread of those escaping conflict.A great read for fans of Ali Smith and Colson Whitehead.
Listen to Suri’s chat with Rachel and Zoe below:
Sorrowland tells the story of Verne, a pregnant teenager escaping the confines her strict religious community. Confronted with monsters both physical and metaphorical, Sorrowland is a masterful Southern Gothic that explores the ways in which surviving the institutions that rule us can change us irrevocably.
Listen to Suri’s chat with Amelia and Zoe below:
Winner of the 2021 International Booker Prize, At Night All Blood is Black is a brutal, intelligent insight into the mythologies and psychologies of war. Telling the story of Alfa, a soldier who loses his close comrade on the battlefield and finds purpose as ‘the collector of souls’, this is a novel that examines the ungluing of humanity and sanity in the fields of war. Listen to Suri and Rachel’s chat below!
Deborah Levy's third memoir in her 'living-autobiography' collection is a meditation on home, female desire and art. Real Estate takes place during a time of change in the author's life. Divorcing her husband, leaving her London apartment for a residency in Paris and facing the departure of her youngest daughter for university, Levy explores these transient spaces in her life and asks what it takes to make a life of her own.
Have a listen to Suri’s review with Rachel below:
In Sea State, author and magazine writer Tabitha Lasley leaves her London job and a toxic relationship for the isolated shores of Aberdeen.
Interviewing oil rig workers and life on the precipice of danger, Tabitha Lasley sets out to understand the lives of men who spend months in the company of only other men. A fascinating look at masculinity, longing and the search for home.
Have a listen to Suri’s review with Rachel below:
Baltimore Sun crime reporter Justin Fenton's latest book is an investigation into Baltimore PD's corrupt Gun Task Force. In 2017, three officers, including leader Wayne Jenkins, were indicted for corruption. Looking at court testimony, victim and witness accounts and a history of policing policy, Justin Fenton builds a full picture of corrupt policing in Baltimore.
The perfect book for fans of true crime- it's being optioned for Television rights with The Wire writer, David Simon at the helm!
Have a listen to Suri’s review with Rachel and Zoe below:
The Hard Crowd spans 20 years of essays by Booker-shortlisted novelist Rachel Kushner. From riding motorbikes in the American midwest to analysing anti-facist imagery in Italian cinema and prison abolition, this collection of narrative essays shifts the inward gaze towards the collective and celebrates a history of global working-class culture.
Have a listen to Suri’s review below:
Patricia Lockwood explores the chaos and absurdity of the internet in her autofiction novel, No One is Talking About This. Told through the eyes of a writer who becomes popularized on the internet for tweeting 'Can dogs be twins?', the novel looks at the second life we inhabit on the internet and the chasm between it and the real world.
When a familial tragedy hits the writer, she is left to wonder if the jokes and declarations of the internet offer comfort or meaning in the face of loss.
No One is Talking About This is an extraordinary internet novel which peers into the gap between ourselves and our second skins on the internet.
Have a listen to Suri’s review below:
Tracey Slaughter's latest short-story collection, Devil's Trumpet, explores the intimacies and oddities of everyday life. Slipping between motels, Four Squares and small towns, Tracey Slaughter serves us offerings of yearning, lust and violence in 31 extraordinary short stories. This alive, pulsating collection is a masterwork of Antipodean goth.
Tracey Slaughter is a poet and writer and currently teaches Creative Writing at The University of Waikato.
Have a listen to Suri’s review below:
Hinemoana Baker's newest collection of poetry explores transient spaces; physical and psychological, with a sharp, enigmatic humour and deep warmth.
Using her acerbic wit and keen eye, Hinemoana Baker paints a vivid portrait of of a poet and intellect's inner world.
Hinemoana Baker is a musician and writer, who has won the the New Zealand Berlin Creative Writing residency in 2016 and continues to live and write from Berlin. Funkhaus has been shortlisted for the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry 2021, the winner of which will be announced at the Ockham awards in May.
Listen below to Suri’s review with Rachel and Zoe from 95bFM.
Nobel-prize winning author Kazuo Ishiguro explores the world of AI in his newest novel, Klara and the Sun. Told through the eyes of a curious and keenly observant AI robot, Klara and the Sun examines love, loss and what it means to be human.
Listen to Suri’s review below with Rachel and Sarah from 95bFM.
