Blood, sweat, tears and body shaming: a cartoonist's guide to becoming a mother
• This is an edited extract from Cry When the Baby Cries by Becky Barnicoat, published by Jonathan Cape on 13 March at £25. To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com
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The Guardian
20-04-2025
- The Guardian
Sister Europe by Nell Zink review – ramshackle wanderers in Berlin
California-born, Berlin-based Nell Zink is an idiosyncratic writer. You never quite know where her sentences are going to go. 'Oh God, Toto, you won't believe what just happened,' says Avianca, a character in her new novel. 'This angel stole my hat. Like a winged monkey. It was blue and kind of glowing and had feather wings.' Such delightfully surprising lines are frequent in Sister Europe, Zink's seventh novel, which follows acclaimed titles The Wallcreeper, Doxology and Avalon, and is set over the course of a Tuesday night in 2023. The setting is a ceremony for an Arabic literary prize, held at a hotel in Berlin. The ensemble cast includes Demian, a German art critic; Nicole, his transgender daughter; Toto, an American-born publisher; Avianca, Toto's date, nicknamed 'the Flake' because she tends to cancel on plans; Livia, who lives in a glass house built by her Nazi great-uncle; and Radi, an Arab prince and the grandson of the prize's organiser. No one is particularly pleased to be there. The speeches drag and, it being a Muslim event, there isn't even any alcohol to help pass the time. The ramshackle group end up wandering the streets of the city, finding themselves at a party in the subway, and then at a Burger King. The conversation is as meandering as their route, taking in anti-Nazi activists – 'Sophie Scholl was hot,' Nicole says – and why 'beef is trans'. All evening, they are trailed by Klaus, an undercover police officer, who spotted Nicole loitering in the red-light district earlier and suspects she is a victim of trafficking. Zink's narration is cool, her humour is dry and her dialogue is convincing. But the promise of her characters' quirkiness doesn't in the end add up to much. Despite its early intrigue, the story feels disappointingly quiet by the end. 'Life is all about raising expectations and seeing them crushed,' thinks Toto early on. A thought that fits Sister Europe too. Sister Europe by Nell Zink is published by Viking (£14.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at Delivery charges may apply
The Guardian
13-04-2025
- The Guardian
Greater Sins by Gabrielle Griffiths review – a dark discovery upturns a Scottish village
When the preserved body of a woman is found in a peat bog in the Cabrach, Aberdeenshire, it causes a stir in the isolated Scottish community. Some of them believe her uncovering might be the work of the devil. Gabrielle Griffiths's atmospheric debut opens in May 1915. Lizzie, the wife of wealthy landowner William Calder, discovers the corpse while foraging for moss. Her husband has recently left for the first world war and Lizzie resolves to discover the woman's identity and cause of death. She enlists the help of Johnny, an itinerant farmhand and talented singer. Johnny and Lizzie both harbour secrets from the past and this draws them together. The novel is narrated alternately from Johnny and Lizzie's perspectives and tracks back in time to 1905. We learn of Lizzie's disappointed love affair with a childhood friend and how she ended up with her cold, controlling husband, and discover why Johnny changed his name and is on the run from his past. What begins as a rural mystery (Where is the bog woman from? Was she murdered? How did she end up buried in peat?) becomes, instead, an affecting love story. Griffiths grew up in Aberdeenshire and her use of the vernacular vividly conveys the period and a God-fearing, closed community, used to hardship and quick to judge outsiders. She writes well about forbidden desire, guilt and shame, and the seasonal rhythms of a rural community on the eve of radical change. Her description of the ploughmen's brutal initiation ceremony involving the sharing of the 'Horseman's Word' is hard to shake. Lizzie and Johnny may be flawed, but Griffiths has us rooting for them and her unsentimental ending is particularly fitting given the devastation the war will unleash. Greater Sins by Gabrielle Griffiths is published by Doubleday (£16.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at Delivery charges may apply
The Guardian
13-04-2025
- The Guardian
In brief: Uncommon Ground; The Pretender; All That Glitters
Patrick GalbraithWilliam Collins, £22, pp356 Nature writer Patrick Galbraith's excellent second book more than fulfils the promise that his equally fine debut In Search of One Last Song suggested. In a series of acutely observed and often very funny vignettes ('it was diverse in the sense that there were people there from almost every Oxbridge college'), Galbraith travels across rural Britain in an attempt to look beyond the usual cliches of country life. In his exploration of everything from economic turmoil to the concept of 'belonging', he proves an erudite guide. Jo HarkinBloomsbury, £18.99, pp452 'Wolf Hall meets Demon Copperhead' is an impressive billing for a first-time novelist, but The Pretender mostly justifies it. Jo Harkin veers closer to the grittiness of Dan Jones's medieval-set fiction than the visionary sweep of Hilary Mantel, but it is still an auspicious venture into fictionalised history. Loosely based on the real-life royal pretender Lambert Simnel,The Pretender explores the machinations of the wars of the roses with authority, bringing the frightening world she depicts to life. Orlando WhitfieldProfile, £10.99, pp336 (paperback) If Orlando Whitfield's readable and fascinating memoir-cum-exposé of the art world isn't turned into a big-budget film, it will be an opportunity missed. The author explores his friendship with the charismatic art dealer-cum-convicted fraudster Inigo Philbrick, detailing how he becomes increasingly successful and ever more grandiose in his ideas. All That Glitters would be a considerable accomplishment for a veteran writer, but the knowledge that it is Whitfield's debut makes it all the more impressive. To order Uncommon Ground, The Pretender or All That Glitters go to Delivery charges may apply
