Fine new translation of a wonderful writer who lived an extraordinary life Albertine Sarrazin | The Crib and Other Stories, trans. Sonya Moor | Confingo: £10.00 (available to pre-order)Reviewed by Livi Michael It would be easy to focus solely on the extraordinary details of Albertine Sarrazin’s life. Born in Algiers in 1937, she was abandoned […]
Gaia Holmes, He Used to Do Dangerous Things, reviewed by Anna O’Boyle
A poet’s inventive and unusual debut short fiction collection Gaia Holmes | He Used to Do Dangerous Things | Comma Press: £10.99Reviewed by Anna O’Boyle Gaia Holmes’ He Used to Do Dangerous Things secures Holmes’ move from poetry to short fiction as a success. The collection presents an original, intriguing, and often surprising assemblage of […]
The Flying Dutchman, The Lowry, Salford, reviewed by Paul Knowles and Edith Powell
Opera North’s powerhouse production of The Flying Dutchman brings Wagner’s depiction of Faustian love onto the stage in triumphant fashion The Flying Dutchman | The Lowry, Salford | 15th of March 2025Reviewed by Paul Knowles and Edith Powell Opera North is a leading UK arts organisation based in Leeds. Its mission is to make opera […]
Monica Ali @ LBF25, reviewed by Joseph Hunter
Monica Ali @ LBF25 | 13th March 2025Reviewed by Joseph Hunter At all of the talks and events at this year’s London Book Fair there was an abiding sense that the wider world is in a state of disequilibrium, to put it mildly. Chris Power (A Lonely Man, 2021) put words to what many of […]
Claudia Piñeiro @ LBF25, reviewed by Joseph Hunter
Claudia Piñeiro @ LBF25 | 12th March 2025Reviewed by Joseph Hunter In the subterranean Main Stage of the London Book Fair, Claudia Piñeiro was unsure about her own ability to conduct the conversation in English rather than her native Spanish. The Argentinian author, best known for her crime novels, has had many of her books […]
Adam Farrer, Broken Biscuits: And Other Male Failures, reviewed by Joseph Hunter
A touching, searching, and warm memoir of troubles with masculinity Adam Farrer | Broken Biscuits: And Other Male Failures | Harper North: £16.99Reviewed by Joseph Hunter Anyone reading this, no matter their gender, will know that complaining about how hard it is to be a man is not a highly-commended activity. In fact, most men […]
Paul Stubbs, Beast: The Lost Chronicles, reviewed by Michael Lee Rattigan
A potent and challenging poetic reimagining of Yeats‘ ‘rough beast‘ Paul Stubbs | Beast: The Lost Chronicles | Broken Sleep Books: £9.99Reviewed by Michael Lee Rattigan ‘En route to Bethlehem’ contains the first of many cleavings in Paul Stubbs’ propulsive seventh collection, in many ways both a culmination and a confluence of this poet’s singular […]
Submissions open for Issue 27
Dear all, Submissions for Issue 27 of The Manchester Review are now open. The submission window will be open from 25th February to 25th March 2025. Please take a look at the submission guidelines on our website before you submit. We’re looking forward to reading your finest poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction. Best wishes, […]
Zdravka Evtimova, The Wolves of Staro Selo, reviewed by Dylan Stewart
Contemporary Bulgarian fairytale told in a polyphonic, experimental style Zdravka Evtimova | The Wolves of Staro Selo | Héloïse Press: £12.95Reviewed by Dylan Stewart The Wolves of Staro Selo is a contemporary Bulgarian fairytale told by Zdravka Evtimova, who won, among other accolades, Bulgaria’s Favourite Writer in 2021, and translated by Yana Ellis, who won […]
Shadow and Void: Buddha¹⁰, esea contemporary, reviewed by Joseph Hunter
Esoteric and serene by turns, this international collaboration re-interprets buddha statues Shadow and Void: Buddha¹⁰ | esea contemporary | Jan 18th – April 20thReviewed by Joseph Hunter I’ve seen a few buddhas in my time. In Japan a long time ago I saw the Great Buddha in Tōdai-ji, Nara, wide and matte-black, stern, looming high overhead […]
A Complete Unknown (dir. James Mangold), reviewed by Joseph Hunter
Young Dylan rebels against the folk scene in this evocative, beautiful biopic A Complete Unknown | dir. James Mangold | Reviewed by Joseph Hunter Handsome, chiselled, lyrically-named Timotheé Chalamet looks like Bob Dylan in this film. I mean he really, really looks like Bob Dylan. The styling helps: the clothes, the sunglasses, the wigs. But […]
Misha Honcharenko, Trap Unfolds Me Greedily, reviewed by Clare Patterson
A rich, challenging, poetic novel of pain, desire, violence, and grief Misha Honcharenko | Trap Unfolds Me Greedily | Sissy Anarchy: £15Reviewed by Clare Patterson Following the publication of his debut poetry collection Skin of Nocturnal Apple with Pilot Press in 2023 comes Misha Honcharenko’s debut novel. Enfolding war, childhood, fear of death and the […]
Dunstan Power, The Empty Rope, Reviewed by Paul Anthony Knowles
Two men’s lives shattered by a climbing accident twenty-five years ago in Patagonia — that neither man can forget — which forms the basis of this gripping debut thriller. Dunstan Power | The Empty Rope | Black Pear Press: £10.00Reviewed by Paul Anthony Knowles Dunstan Power’s debut novel, The Empty Rope, is a gripping thriller […]
Ailsa Cox | Precipitation | Reviewed by Paul Anthony Knowles.
Domestic Gothic stories where the sinister behind the everyday is centre stage. Ailsa Cox | Precipitation | Confingo: £6:00 plus postage and packaging. Reviewed by Paul Knowles. Cox’s Precipitation is a masterclass in capturing the unsettling eeriness that sits behind the mundanity of the domestic. All three stories in Cox’s collection explore the hidden secrets […]
David Wheldon, The Viaduct, Reviewed by Dylan Stewart
It is an imagination, and a world, that I quite liked inhabiting. In some ways it seemed notably British, made up of well-meaning but somewhat sinister parochial towns, cities with draconian laws, a legion of nearly identical coppers to enforce them, and superstitious drifters who seem sick of the whole set-up but have no power […]
Blue Now, Aviva Studios, reviewed by Clare Patterson
A moving live staging of Derek Jarman’s intimate final work Blue Now | Aviva Studios | 8th December 2024Reviewed by Clare Patterson Over three decades after the original release of Derek Jarman’s Blue (1993), director Neil Bartlett brings a live stage performance of Jarman’s visionary final film to Aviva Studios. Sitting down in the theatre, […]
Stella Wong, Stem, reviewed by Ian Pople
An energetic and resonant collection of lyric poems and dramatic monologues Stella Wong | Stem | Princeton University Press: £14.99Reviewed by Ian Pople In her second collection, Stem, Wong offers a series of poems entitled, ‘Dramatic Monologue…’, followed by the names of several forgotten female composers. These forgotten female composers have tended to specialise in […]
Twelfth Night, Royal Shakespeare Theatre (Stratford-upon-Avon), Reviewed by Paul Knowles and Edith Powell
A darkly delicious Christmas retelling of Shakespeare’s raucous gender-swapping comedy. Twelfth Night | Royal Shakespeare Theatre (Stratford-upon-Avon) | 7th of December Reviewed by Paul Knowles and Edith Powell Undoubtedly, this is one of the most confident, raucous, and dazzling productions of Shakespeare that we have watched over the last few years. The costumes, […]
Rachel Kushner, Creation Lake, reviewed by Georgina Parfitt
An unreliable narrator’s cry for help Rachel Kushner| Creation Lake | Jonathan Cape: £18.99 Reviewed by Georgina Parfitt My friend and I happened to be reading Creation Lake at the same time without knowing it. I mentioned it one day, withholding my thoughts, and my friend got excited: Oh, you too?, We hesitated. There are […]
John Ironmonger, The Wager and the Bear, reviewed by Paul Knowles and Samantha Cassells
A Cornish Ecothriller: two adversaries thrown together by a deadly climate wager John Ironmonger | The Wager and the Bear | Fly on the Wall Press: £11:99 Reviewed by Paul Knowles and Samantha Cassells John Ironmonger’s The Wager and the Bear is a hugely ambitious novel: mixing philosophy, politics and climate change together in an […]
David Hockney – Bigger and Closer (not smaller and further away) | Factory International @ Aviva Studios | Reviewed by Liam Starkey
People may think Hockney is a little obvious or populist, but I realise Hockney is a quality artist. David Hockney – Bigger and Closer (not smaller and further away) | Factory International @ Aviva Studios 10 December 2024 – 25 January 2025 | Reviewed by Liam Starkey Getting into the exhibition is a little disorientating. […]
Design for Planet Festival 2024, Manchester School of Art, reviewed by Rowanna Lacey Ewings
An event that truly allowed the free flow of radical thought and provided a place for powerful discussions around making sustainable change. Design for Planet Festival 2024 | Manchester School of Art (Manchester Metropolitan University) | Reviewed by Rowanna Lacey Ewings The sustainability spotlight was shining down on Manchester for the Design for Planet Festival […]
Samantha Harvey, Orbital, reviewed by Paul Knowles and Edith Powell
A dizzying, stark, haunting reflection on humanity’s hubris from outer space. Samantha Harvey| Orbital| Jonthan Cape: £9.99Reviewed by Paul Knowles and Edith Powell Orbital by English writer Samantha Harvey is a lyrical reflection on what makes us human: our hopes, beliefs and fragilities. The narrative follows six astronauts from across the globe (Russia, Japan, Ireland, […]
Yael van der Wouden, The Safekeep, Reviewed by Alexandria Mowrey
Lost and found are two sides of the same coin in this stirring tale of desire Yael van der Wouden | The Safekeep | Viking: £16:99 Reviewed by Alexandria Mowrey ‘They are not for touching. They are for keeping.’ These are the first words spoken by Isabel in Yael van der Wouden’s Booker-shortlisted (and debut) […]
Percival Everett, James, reviewed by Joseph Hunter
Strange, barbed, inverted retelling of an American classic by a contemporary American giant Percival Everett | James | Pan Macmillan: £9.99Reviewed by Joseph Hunter I don’t know what to make of this novel. It’s hard to assess it. It’s hard for two reasons. 1) Percival Everett is a superb, distinguished, and significant writer. 2) This […]
3 poems
Image: © Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester Coffee Once a currency of the colonial kings of the seas, Captain.This simple plant. It will grow and die and synthesiseSo why, sir, is it stained? Men enslaved; families separated, Killed.Yet the brew drips, drips, […]
On the Falseness of Wolves
Image: © Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester wolves aren’t real She said it with the smooth-shouldered arrogance of youthful certainty. At first, I wasn’t sure I heard her right. I asked her what she said and she calmly […]
Eingang freihalten, bitte
Image: © Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester Perhaps motherhood is a solitarywalk down the road of an interrupted dream You point out birds, flowers, how the road arrivesat Spring. Behind you, two balloons dance their strings in your hands. You are heldback on the path, wait at corners, guard against the muffled shadows of […]
When We Were Raucous
Image: © Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester It’s raining. I’m in the back of the car, Beth is in the front with Dad. When there were four of us, Beth used to sit next to me and we’d watch raindrops slither down the windows, try to guess which one would get to the bottom […]
Belief
Image: © Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester “But you have to believe.” We are standing in her kitchenIn front of the stove. That urgency in my grandmother’s voice soft, yet desperate? […]
2 poems
Image: © Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester This Sunday Morning I watch you from the kitchen window, digging in, reaching for the good earth, summer-baked in suspended animation, knee-deep in love. The kids are asking for Daddy, the dog needs to pee, and the coffee has dribbled its last drops into the pot – […]
An Adultery
Image: © Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester “Sex with my wife hasn’t been the same,” my lover says, “since her breast cancer.” Where bedsheets retract, the shoreline of his body emerges. Lumps of burnt pink, freckled all over. Behind him, glass slats combine to windows, and then the Mediterranean, its green light stretching all […]
Daisy’s Place
Image: © Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester A scramble of hairpins, then a wedge of smooth sea. Down the coast, the Costa del something. High-rise hotels, Dan said, and street fights. But out here, he said, it was a different world. No bars, not on this trip, eating in and he’d cook, and anyway, […]
2 poems
Image: © Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester Rialto Blues In May I take the train from Genoa to Venezia Santa Lucia, but I am late, and see you before you see me, standing on the bridge, face hard as Istrian stone. What irony that we should reunite in Venice with its web of artifice—wrecked […]
3 poems
Image: © Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester I Heard Her Drumming in the Spring Haw frost comesand light snow duststhe solid ground. I take paper bagsof peanuts,sunflower seeds — black, unhusked— and do the jobyou used to do. I fill the feedershung on a stumpyash tree — a pollard we cut years ago.Binoculars, yours,sit […]