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Welcome to A Novel Review, the book podcast where every week, Seamus reviews a different book. For 2025 Seamus is doing a ‘Book World Tour’ where every month he ‘travels’ through literature to another country. The rules are simple: Each month he reads two books – one male and one female and the author has
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Creating a list of the 30 best books of the 21st century with some rules is difficult enough but what makes it harder is just trying to remember all the books you have read in the first place. Join Seamus as he starts his list, counting down the 30 best books across 3 episodes! Painting:
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The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende is a sweeping historical novel that blends magical realism with political and family drama. It follows the Trueba family across generations, exploring themes of love, power, and destiny. Through vivid storytelling, Allende weaves Chile’s turbulent history into a tale of resilience, passion, and the supernatural, making it
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Mervyn Peake tragically passed away before being able to finish his planned 5 book Gormenghast series. He managed 2 books at full health and worked in a third, but this had its issues. Today I discuss this ‘trilogy’ and my issues with it being called that. Painting: Today I painted Titus Alone in front of
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Reality blurs with ghostly nostalgia, and the past presses continue whether we like it or not. Nona Fernández’s Space Invaders is a haunting puzzle of memory, dictatorship, and childhood, piecing together fragmented recollections of Chile’s Pinochet era through the eyes of schoolchildren. A novel both fleeting and unforgettable, much like the arcade game itself. Today
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“The Dark King Swallows the World” blends history and fantasy with a dash of whimsy, as 12-year-old Nora navigates faeries, giants, and a chilling King of the Dead—all to bring her brother back. It’s a magical rollercoaster where every page feels like a new twist, proving that even in the darkest times, a little imagination
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“A Woman in Berlin” is an anonymous account of a woman’s experience during the fall of Berlin in 1945, as Soviet forces invade the city. The diary, written by a journalist, reveals the harsh realities of war, sexual violence, and survival. Her poignant observations offer an unflinching portrayal of the human cost of conflict, exploring
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In Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake doubles down on his surreal vision, crafting a gothic maze where time moves in sluggish circles and tradition is a trap. The castle is both character and prison, and its inhabitants, bizarrely fixated on status, seem destined to stumble through their own eccentricities. Steeped in dark humor and absurdity, the novel
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A story of fiction inlaid with the truth from someone who was there. The writer Hans Peter Richter was there in Nazi Germany, not just as a bystander but as an active participant. The story he writes explores the lives of a young boy living under this regime of ideological programming that led so many
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Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell tells the historically fictive, gothic, fantasy tale of the two practical magicians in London. One is the master, the prim and proper, quiet and concerned Mr Norrell, the other, the apprentice, eager and energetic, daring and audacious, Jonathan Strange. Both believe in the magic they work on, but they have
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A girl returns but she never knew she left. How would you navigate growing up only to learn at age 13 you have been with a foster family, and your real family want you back. Only, they don’t really want you back. So begins the tale as our young narrator is forced to question the
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