Pile by the Bed reviews The Death of John Lacey by Ben Hobson a mythbusting reimagining of the Australian gold rush which focusses on the violence and dispossession that accompanied it.
Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Return to Valetto by Dominic Smith set in a dying Italian town, peopled with fascinating characters and lifted by luminous prose.
Pile by the Bed reviews The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty a Middle Eastern inspired, magic infused pirate tale in the tradition of Sinbad
Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry which focusses on a retired policeman and uses crime fiction tropes to explore and expose the issue of child sexual abuse in Ireland.
Pile by the Bed reviews Untamed Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia a noir thriller featuring a plucky heroine set in the bright sunshine of Baja California in the late 1970s
Pile by the Bed reviews The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane, a multi-character look at colonial South Australia set around the search for a missing boy in the Flinders Ranges.
Pile by the Bed reviews Weyward by Emilia Hart, a debut that deals with a famliy of witches which has plenty to say about reclaiming power in the face of abuse.
Pile by the Bed reviews The Whispering Muse by Laura Purcell, another of her effective gothic horror stories, this one set in the nineteenth century London theatre scene.
Pile by the Bed reviews Song of the Sun God by Shankari Chandran the story of a Hindu family living through the modern history of Sri Lanka.
Pile by the Bed reviews This Wild, Wild Country by Inga Vesper, a historical crime novel that explores a range of cultural issues from the 1970s that are still prevalent today.
Pile by the Bed reviews Stella Maris, the coda to Cormac McCarthy’s forst book in sixteen years – The Passenger
Pile by the Bed reviews Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson a crime novel set in and around the illegal clubs of London in the late 1920s.
Pile By the Bed’s Top 5 reads for 2022 include The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers, Hovering by Rhett David, Devil House by John Darnielle, The Colony by Audry Magee and Maror by Lavie Tidhar
Pile by the Bed reviews The Boys from Biloxi by John Grisham – historical legal drama dealing with the rise of and fight against organised crime in the Mississippi town of Biloxi.
Pile by the Bed reviews Babel by RF Kuang a historical fantasy that takes on notions of Empire and colonialism through a unique linguisitc magic system.
Pile by the Bed reviews Willowman by Inga Simpson – a love letter to Australian cricket and its traditions.
Pile by the Bed reviews The Passenger, the first book from Cormac McCarthy for sixteen years full of beautiful and thoughtful passages but slightly less than the sum of its various exquisite parts.
Pile by the Bed reviews the 2022 Pulitzer Prize winner The Netanyaus by Joshua Cohen a campus satire set in the late 1950s loosley based on a true story involving the familiy of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Pile by the Bed reviews Essex Dogs by Dan Jones, debut historical fiction following a group of English soldiers at the start of the hundred years war between Britain and France.
Pile by the Bed reviews Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris, tense historical fiction set in the aftermath of the English Civil War and the restoration of Charles II.
