Peter Straus
The Bear’s Hug
AN UNFINISHED LIFE is about as well-finished a novel as you could get. Mark Spragg has fashioned out of one family's harsh vicissitudes, played out in the country around where he lives, a work which reaffirms one's belief in family and in family values. It is staggeringly good.
The book's beginning is not alluring: two septuagenarians, Mitch Bradley and Einar Gilkyson, are down on their luck, one half crippled by a bear attack some years past, the other eaten up by the bitterness of losing his son. But then we hear about Einar's daughter- in-law Jean Gilkyson and
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'I gulped down the whole thing in about three blissful hours.'
@WomackPhilip reviews new children's books by @hilary_mckay, @JonathanAStroud, @bookhorse, @conradwrites and Sam Thompson.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/orphans-outlaws
'He consistently fits unreliable "facts" around a specious argument. On practically every page, Husain betrays the Enlightenment principles he so energetically thrusts on others.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/fear-loathing-in-alum-rock
'Global peace still depends far too much on calm decision-making and displays of good sense by a relatively small number of people with control over the world’s nuclear arsenals.'
@LawDavF on a new book about the Cuban Missile Crisis.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/countdown-to-armageddon