Purple Hibiscus chimamanda Ngozie Adichie

An undoubted success , An early work by women who gone on to write more good books  . The family as a cipher for the society   in this case post-colonial Nigeria  Highly recommended

Shusako Endo The Samurai

Interesting historical setting  East meets West , One disliked it  one really liked it and the rest of us found it patchy but worthwhile.

Francis Spufford Golden Hill

The main interest was the historical setting    New York of mid-1700s which worked well. The characters less so

Samantha Harvey - Dear Thief

A hung jury  on this one  - Had great reviews from professional critics  but a bit of a struggle to read and warm to .  Marmite.

Geoff Dyer - Jeff in Venice Death in Varanasi

A readable book of two halves with some very amusing bits. Is he trying to say something profound about life? Perhaps he finds writing too easy  . OK  not great

George Sanders Lincoln in the Bardo

The house is divided  either a great work  , moving and humorous and original  or a pretentious hard to read  not even a novel....

Colm Toibin House of Names

A mixed reception for this  retelling  of and tinkering with the Oresteia . Why did he write it   ?