book cover how i lose you by kate mcnaughton

Review: “How I Lose You” by Kate McNaughton

25. October 2018GuestReview, Students' CornerBerlin, family history, grief, How I Lose You, Kate McNaughton, novel, Review, students' corner

Today, our guest author Anisia Petcu reviews Kate McNaughton’s debut novel How I Lose You for the Literary Field Kaleidoscope: Writing well is a difficult task. Writing well when your subject is love is even harder. Yet, every now and then, someone gets it right – in this case, that […] Read more

cover of mary beard's book women and power, a manifesto

Mary Beard’s “Women & Power “- A Conversation with Sabine Blackmore

13. March 2018GuestInterview, Reviewcultural templates, Feminism, gender equality, gendered violence, interview, literature, Mary Beard, power relations, rethinking power, Review, Women and Power. A Manifesto

In November 2017, Mary Beard’s book Women & Power. A Manifesto hit the shelves – and a nerve. In the two parts titled “The Public Voice of Women” and “Women in Power”, Mary Beard draws our attention to culturally embedded stereotypes and “cultural template[s] which [work] to disempower women”. She […] Read more

Why all Men (and Women) Should Read This – Or, How to Avoid the Authenticity Trap, Holly McNish “Nobody Told Me” (Review)

13. December 2017Gesa StedmanReviewausterity, contemporary Britain, Holly McNish, poetry, Review, Ted Hughes poetry prize

Gesa Stedman was nearly overwhelmed by the quality of the poetry, the potential to move her readers, as well as the topic of Holly McNish`s award-winning poetry collection and memoir “Nobody Told Me”. All men should read this. Holly McNish’s poetry will teach them things nobody tells you in advance, […] Read more

Ukranian woman and a boy welcome soldiers of the German Wehrmacht 1941

A Boy in Winter – Rachel Seiffert’s New Novel

13. July 2017Gesa StedmanReviewA Boy in Winter, novel, Rachel Seiffert, resistance, Review, Ukraine, WW2

Gesa Stedman reviews Rachel Seiffert’s latest novel, set in Ukraine in 1941, which is as devastating as it is masterful. Ukraine, 1941. Two boys, on the run. A German road engineer, waking to the sounds of German soldiers rounding up Jews. The schoolmaster, his elderly mother, his wife and their […] Read more

Review of Sunjeev Sahota’s “The Year of the Runaways”

10. July 2017Gesa StedmanReviewReview, Saunjeev Sahota, Sheffield, Sikh community

Gesa Stedman is surprised that The Year of the Runaways received so much praise and a Man Booker Prize shortlist nomination in 2015. The novel is compelling but panders to middle-class emotional requirements. Sunjeev Sahota’s second novel tells the story of three Indian men, Tochi, Avtar and Randeep, and one […] Read more

Haunted by a Powerful Novel: Evie Wyld’s “All The Birds, Singing”

24. May 2017Gesa StedmanReviewBest of Young British Novelists, Evie Wyld, Granta, narrative voice, Review

With her second novel, writer and bookshop owner Evie Wyld won three awards, the Miles Franklin Award, the Encore Award and the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize. Gesa Stedman reviews the powerful and haunting All the Birds, Singing and hopes for more from this talented writer. All the Birds, Singing, will […] Read more

“A Counter-History of Crime Fiction” by Maurizio Ascari – Rediscovering the Origins of a Genre

17. May 2017GuestReviewcrime fiction, genre history, gothic, non-fiction, Review, sensational, supernatural

Today, Katarina Živković, one of our students at the Centre for British Studies in Berlin, reviews Maurizio Ascari’s A Counter-History of Crime Fiction and tells us why it captured her. While doing research for a university paper, I happened to stumble upon a slender little volume that claimed to provide […] Read more

The Bricks That Don’t Build a Novel: Kate Tempest’s First

10. May 2017Gesa StedmanReviewKate Tempest, Review

Gesa Stedman reviews Kate Tempest’s first novel, The Bricks that Built the Houses which does not stand up to the praise heaped upon it. Raving reviewers should be read with caution, and their advice followed at one’s own peril. The Independent attests Kate Tempest “a talent that knows no bounds” […] Read more

Painstaking Research, But Not Such a Good Read – Sarah Waters The Paying Guests

27. April 2016Gesa StedmanReviewBailey’s Prize for Women’s Fiction, Review, Sarah Waters, The Paying Guests

London 1922. Historical crime fiction. Genteel Mrs Wray and her bored daughter Frances take in lodgers, Lilian and Leonard Barber, because they can no longer manage the upkeep of their London villa without additional financial income. Their routine is disturbed but Frances, who had an affair with a female friend […] Read more

The Literary Field and Recent British Cinema: Genius by Michael Grandage

9. March 2016Sandra van LenteReviewadaptation, Berlinale, film, Michael Grandage, Review

In his review article, Jürgen Enkemann not only comments on the similarities and differences between literary and filmic practice, and how they relate to the literary field. He also dissects Michael Grandage’s film Genius and its apparent failure to translate literary concerns – such as the importance of the editor […] Read more