Conor Bateman @norbateman.co · 05/01/2025First book of the year done, Mary Robison's Why Did I Ever - sharp and funny, intermittently gutting; a novel of fits and starts seemed fitting to start on. 120 2
Conor Bateman @norbateman.co · 07/01/2025The Silent Executioner by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre: deeply silly stuff, and not a bar on the first Fantômas entry, though the abrupt and pithy prose has its charms. 100 1
Conor Bateman @norbateman.co · 07/01/2025Fraud is my first Anita Brookner; I was taken in by the premise and then surprised, pleasantly enough, that it's a different novel entirely. Reminds me of Muriel Spark (Memento Mori by way of The Driver's Seat) and, for a brief spell, Middlemarch (doctoral duties). 120 2
