FICTION
New Boy Tracy Chevalier, Hogarth, £12.99
Shakespeare’s Othello morphs into a 1970s schoolboy in this reworking of one of the Bard’s greatest plays.
The Moor of Venice becomes Osei, a Ghanaian student who joins an all-white school in Washington, and has to navigate playground bigotries.
Sadly New Boy struggles to deliver the brutal and grown-up drama of its 16th Century counterpart.
OUR VERDICT 6/10
The Ice Laline Paull, Fourth Estate, £12.99
Set in the near future, the action alternates between Britain and Norway as “very modern buccaneer” Sean Cawson pursues commercial success, while haunted by the accidental (was it?) death of his business partner, environmentally aware Tom Harding.
Much of the action takes place in a British coroner’s court. An engaging read.
OUR VERDICT 7/10
These Dividing Walls Fran Cooper, Hodder & Stoughton, £14.99
Set in an unfashionable quarter of Paris where the residents of an apartment complex barely know each other, this novel sees their lives become intertwined as their private lives are slowly revealed. Cooper’s threedimensional characters are what make this novel so readable.
OUR VERDICT 7/10