Made Ali Smith's 'Books of the Year' in TLS

 (woop, woop!)

Thanks Ali - I love you even more now :)


Here's the section:

ALI SMITH

Amy Sackville's The Still Point (Portobello), a story of turn-of-the-century arctic pioneering and contemporary emotional frozen states, has an Eliotic calm that seems almost uncanny in a debut writer, and a narrative voice that's subtle and original. Ciaran Carson's originality in the novel form is often overlooked, presumably because he's primarily known as a poet; The Pen Friend (Blackstaff), with its unlikely fusion of pens, perfumes and politics, is one of his most arresting fictional cocktails. I also loved Paul Murray's Skippy Dies (Hamish Hamilton), three novels fused into one ignited tragicomic tour de force. Finally, who knew the weight of history and the foulness of the slave trade could be transformed into, of all things, a hot-air balloon ride? Like a liberating piece of jazz, and with astonishing, near-heroic buoyancy in its communal voice, Nii Ayikwei Parkes's poetry sequence, Ballast: A remix (Tall-Lighthouse), literally does the impossible. 

Here's the link to the entire Books of the Year piece: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article7169599.ece