Ellah Allfrey

Ellah Allfrey appears in the following:

Novelist Caitlin Moran Wryly Shows 'How To Build A Girl'

Monday, September 29, 2014

Caitlin Moran's semi-autobiographical novel is an earnestly written look at a young woman's self-reinvention. How to Build a Girl tackles class, gender and sexuality with both humor and sincerity.

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An 'Epilogue' That Makes Sense Of The Chaos Of Memory

Monday, September 22, 2014

In his episodic memoir, Will Boast meets the siblings he never knew while navigating family deaths and secrets. Critic Ellah Allfrey finds Epilogue conceptually ambitious, but lacking in execution.

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'F' Is For Fraudster In A Family Novel For Our Modern Times

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Daniel Kehlmann's F, about three brothers abandoned by their father, examines the detail of lives lived without integrity. It is brilliantly translated from the German by Carol Brown Janeway.

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With Magic And Fables, 'Angel Of Losses' Breathes Life Into History

Tuesday, August 05, 2014

Stephanie Feldman's debut novel is about Jewish folk tales and family history. It's also an exploration of the inheritance of loss and the guilt of survival as it is passed down through generations.

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Post-Apocalyptic World Falls Flat In 'California'

Monday, July 07, 2014

California tells the story of a couple who, when they learn they are having a baby, leave their solitary refuge in a forest for a Utopian community in post-apocalyptic America.

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'The Unwitting' Explores The Lure Of Complicity

Monday, June 16, 2014

The Unwitting by Ellen Feldman is part love story, part mystery and part political thriller set during the Cold War.

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Book Review: 'Kinder Than Solitude'

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Ellah Allfrey reviews Kinder Than Solitude, by Yiyun Li.

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Inspired By History, A Novelist Writes Of Jewish South Africa

Thursday, November 07, 2013

Roughly three-quarters of South Africa's Jewish population are descendants of Lithuanian immigrants. Of these peasants, townspeople, tradesmen, shopkeepers and intellectuals who fled centuries of persecution and embarked on a passage to Africa, many dreamed of a new land and the promise of new beginnings. Kenneth Bonert's ancestors were part of ...

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After Tragedy, Lost Live On In 'Maid's Version' Of The Story

Monday, September 09, 2013

For readers new to Daniel Woodrell's work, The Maid's Version is a perfect introduction and an invitation to read more. It's a short book — almost a novella at a mere 164 pages — but there are lifetimes captured here. Woodrell sets the story in his beloved Missouri Ozarks, and ...

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Iain Banks Bids Us Farewell With 'The Quarry'

Saturday, June 29, 2013

At the time of his death from cancer in June, Iain Banks had written 27 books. He was the rarest of creatures, a writer acclaimed (by critics and fans alike) not just for his literary fiction, but also for the science fiction novels he wrote as Iain M. Banks. It ...

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Coming Of Age Amid Upheaval In 'We Need New Names'

Thursday, June 06, 2013

In 2011, NoViolet Bulawayo was awarded the Caine Prize for African Writing for her short story "Hitting Budapest." In this raw, fierce tale of a gang of near-feral children on the hunt for guavas, the young writer delivered one of the most powerful works of fiction to come out of ...

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Female Perspectives: Five Novels That Bring Outsiders In

Thursday, June 06, 2013

For readers in search of tales that step outside familiar viewpoints, there is an abundance of fiction by women unraveling the big themes of conflict, religion, race and love — from new and different angles. The five novels I'm recommending offer up-close-and-personal engagement with characters who are often at odds ...

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