Tag Archives: novel-review

Novel Review: Brave New World

Brave New World depicts what the world will be like in the future. It’s 2540 or 632 A.F. i.e. After Ford and the novel depicts what happens to society when Americanisation/Globalisation has reached its zenith. Written in 1932, it’s chilling how prescient the author, Aldous Huxley, seems to be. Brave New World is a world […]

Novel Review: Great Expectations

If you’ve never read a Dicken’s novel then Great Expectations is an excellent introduction to his world. The novel is written with great wit highlighting Dicken’s hallmark skill of describing people and events with a wonderfully humorous turn of phrase. As with all Dicken’s novels there is a cornucopia of characters exhibiting a wide range […]

Novel Review: Animal Farm

In a nutshell Animal Farm is pure genius in its simplicity. As a former student of Russian, I have numerous books on Russian history books sitting on my numerous bookshelves collecting dust. But for a concise and pretty accurate account of what happened to Lenin’s revolution, then Animal Farm is a perfect choice. Orwell dissects […]

Novel Review: To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic of modern American literature. Simply told, it depicts small town life in racially-charged Alabama during the Great Depression and manages to capture the innocence of childhood whilst dealing with issues of racial prejudice and injustice. The hero of the book, Atticus Finch, is an unassuming man, a widower […]

Foreign Novel Review: Das Siebte Kreuz – The Seventh Cross

I originally bought The Seventh Cross by Anna Seghers simply because it was on sale in a bookshop in Vienna. Admittedly, this is usually not a good reason to buy a novel but it turned out I had bought myself a real bargain. The Seventh Cross is one of the best books I have ever […]

Foreign Novel Review: Schachnovelle – The Royal Game

One of my favourite authors, this is Zweig’s last work and probably his most well-known – at least in German speaking Europe. Written just before he and his wife committed suicide while in exile from the Nazis in Brazil, Schachnovelle tells the story of a chess game on board a liner from New York to […]

Foreign Novel Review: Jeder Stirbt für sich Allein – Alone in Berlin

Alone in Berlin is to quote the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, “the literary rediscovery of the century”. Originally written in the autumn of 1946 and in under 4 weeks by the writer Hans Fallada, the novel gives a chilling insight into life under the Nazi regime whilst providing a testament to the endurance of the […]

Foreign Novel Review: Fabian

Fabian, as its author Erich Kästner insisted, is the story of a moralist even though he clearly lives in immoral times. The book depicts Berlin in the moral decay and chaos that epitomised the dying days of the Weimar Republic just before Hitler and the Nazis take power. This is a Berlin, teetering on the […]

Foreign Novel Review: Die Groẞe Hitze oder Die Erretung Österreichs durch den Legationsrat Dr Tuzzi – The Great Heat or How Legationsrat Dr Tuzzi Saved Austria

If you want an insight into Austrian humour (and let’s face it, who doesn’t?) then this is the perfect book. I mentioned to the Austrian friend who gave me the book that it would be a nightmare to translate into English, whereupon he noted that it would be a nightmare to translate it into German. […]