Winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize for fiction, The Sentimentalists by Johanna Skibsrud is a haunting and exact meditation on memory and mortality, and marks the entrance of a major new literary talent.

Click the cover to read an extract:

‘Skibsrud’s beautiful first novel is subtle, sharp and truthful.’

Kate Saunders, Times

‘The Sentimentalists is a writer’s book: lyrical, thoughtful…compulsively readable…A moving testament to the fragility of stories we tell about ourselves.’ 

Adrian Turpin, Financial Times

‘Johanna Skibsrud’s The Sentimentalists has many excellent attributes but the best may be the persistent proposal that one can never know anything, certainly in regard to relationships with those one loves’ 

Hugh Macdonald, Herald

‘One of the many impressive things about this novel is its density. By this I mean that the author has managed with considerable economy to fill in the background to her characters’ lives while keeping their present and immediate thoughts, feelings, hopes and fears in the foreground. We are with them in the here and now, but always made aware of the there and then … Remarkably accomplished for a first novel, not likely to be quickly forgotten.’

Allan Massie, Scotsman

‘It was with no small surge of recognition that I read Johanna Skibsrud’s deeply moving The Sentimentalists … As an objective reader, I was engrossed by the elegant plotting and intelligent writing, by the questing after a truth that would never be found. As the adult son of a Vietnam veteran, I was, simply, moved to tears.’ 

Patrick Ness, Guardian

‘A mature poetic novel.’

Waterstones Books Quarterly

‘If you liked Nicole Krauss’s latest book Great House, chances are you’ll get on with this award-winning debut from Canada … Skibsrud has the knack of bringing things into striking sharp focus … her dense, haunting novel … impresses.’

Stephanie Cross, Daily Mail

‘An outstanding novel born of the horror of Vietnam … The Sentimentalists is an allusive, intelligent and solemn work that articulates one man’s horror and the way it became a communal lamentation.’ Eileen Battersby, Irish Times

‘There are heart-stoppingly vivid and affecting scenes.’

Hannah McGill, Scotland on Sunday

‘A probing exploration - now subtle, oblique, now forensic, scalpel-sharp - of the ramifications of a person’s experience through the lives and relationships of those he loves. Of the way in which what we do, and witness, echoes through our lives, and the next generation’s.’

Tim Pears

‘Johanna Skibsrud’s remarkable debut is a novel at once lyrical and frank, the resonantly layered portrait of a man, a family and a place that will stay with you long after you read the last page.’

Claire Messud

A special edition of the usual Friday Feeling link-a-thon for all those getting in the mood for the Easter break.

The first link is Easter themed, though perhaps not how you think. Bunny rabbits: cute in real life, TERRIFYING IN COSTUME! Shudder.

Onto the rabbit’s friend and ally in the natual world, the llama, with this Llama font fun.

Reminiscent of the great Garfield minus Garfield, this is the Peanuts cartoons with the last panel removed, 3eanuts. The explanation is the best: “Charles Schulz’s Peanuts comics often conceal the existential despair of their world with a closing joke at the characters’ expense. With the last panel omitted, despair pervades all.” Enjoy!

A stunning time-lapse project of Paris composed out of 2,000 photos here, Le Flâneur - lost count of how many times I’ve watched it.

Finally, I leave you with the fabulous Vintage podcast, the latest episode featuring David Lodge, Martin Amis, and many others. Lovely stuff.

Happy Easter!

Who is Mr Satoshi? by Jonathan Lee is on the longlist for the prestigious Desmond Elliot Prize, the award for the best first novel published in the UK.

For more information on the award and to see the full longlist, click here.

 ‘Funny and moving, Who Is Mr Satoshi? introduces another newcomer who will catch prize judges’ attentions. Set in Japan, it concerns Rob Fossick, an English photographer who has been unable to work since his wife died. When his mother, too, is suddenly killed, he discovers she has left instructions that he must deliver a package to a mysterious Mr Satoshi in Tokyo. Lurching from crisis to crisis as he stumbles drunk and weeping through a strange culture, he engages the help of a pink-haired Japanese girl and a former sumo wrestler. Fossick (a great name for someone on a quest) eventually unravels a mystery stretching back to the time of the Allied occupation’ - Giles Foden, author of The Last King of Scotland

‘An elegant and incisive examination of how history and our perceptions of the world are partial, filtered, and continually revised…Who is Mr Satoshi? ask[s] intriguing questions about how we see, remember and narrate our lives’ - Observer

‘A lyrical page-turner’ - Naomi Alderman

‘Confident, sharply-written, and refreshingly direct…Tokyo is, of course, a descriptive writer’s dream and Lee is not cowed by that culture’s omnipresent and exhaustive literary heritage; he instead revels in his character’s conflicts…[The] dialogue is playful and well-observed…More experienced authors might milk drug-addled protagonists for all they’re worth; Lee’s subtlety in this regard speaks volumes of the appeal, depth and maturity of his central character, as well as his writing’ - Independent

‘Lee lays the groundwork for Foss’s trip with care…patiently weaving exposition into early events…Lee has a pleasingly straightforward style…spiced with metaphoric flourishes … A promising first novel’ - Times Literary Supplement

‘”Assured debut” is a tired old phrase, but it really does sum up this first novel…Satisfying, well-paced, just the right length for the story it’s telling, Who Is Mr Satoshi? is a literary novel that also happens to be a highly accessible one…Lee skilfully and inexorably draws us into his story as the clues mount up to Mr Satoshi’s identity…Lee’s prose manages to maintain…a sparse elegance that does great service to the characters and setting and bodes well for his future’ - The Herald

‘There’s an almost dream-like quality to the narrative…An unusual, playful and clever book’ - Daily Mail

‘Who is Mr Satoshi? is a clever, gripping and unusual novel that provides a whole host of hugely enjoyable mysteries. It is also a sensitive portrayal of a man brought back from the brink of breakdown. Reminiscent of some of Haruki Murakami’s best work, this is a debut to treasure’ - Book Trust

‘Compelling, funny and beautifully written, this novel is one of those rare treats - a book you won’t want to put down’ - Jennie Rooney, author of Inside the Whale

‘Jonathan Lee paints an exhilarating portrait of modern day Tokyo in limpid, intelligent prose as we accompany his narrator along his wildly labyrinthine voyage through the city’ - Chloe Aridjis

Fantastic news that Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey has been shortlisted for the highly prestigious 2011 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. The award is worth €100,000 and is the world’s most prestigious literary prize nominated by public libraries world-wide. For more information on the award and to see the full shortlist, click here.

‘Terrific … this is an enthralling novel that invites comparison with Mark Twain and isn’t found wanting. Silvey is able to switch the mood from the tragic to the hilarious in an instant’ - Mail on Sunday

‘A finely crafted novel that deals with friendship, racism and social ostracism… Saluting To Kill a Mockingbird and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Silvey movingly explores the stifling secrets that lurk behind the most ordinary of facades’ - Marie Claire

‘Silvey’s story of a claustrophobic Australian mining town and two of its native, naïve sons is suspenseful, charming and very readable indeed’ - MSLEXIA

John Niven, author of The Second Coming, Kill Your Friends and The Amateurs, will be answering your questions live TODAY from 4pm. Tweet your questions with #jniven to be in with a chance of winning a signed copy of The Second Coming!

Let’s tear open some steaming packets of culture and guzzle the finest links the internet has to offer - it’s the Windmill Friday Feeling!

A ludicrously fascinating feature on time, from the science and politics, to philosophy and history, on the BBC website. Nepal-time is 15 minutes ahead of India-time - who knew? (Thanks to Mr John Self of Asylum, one of the finest book bloggers around, for pointing that out.)

This is a rather lovely advert, a ‘xylophone forest’.

Humour and how-not-to with this, the worst submission cover letter ever written.

This bookish t-shirts are brilliant, though I may not be able to wear them into the office without being mocked. And don’t forget, you can win your own t-shirt with Waterstone’s for the publication of John Niven’s The Second Coming.

A fascinating and thought provoking essay on ‘reader’s block’ by Geoff Dyer, which at once shows the frustrations and revelations from a life of reading.

To celebrate the release of John Niven’s hilarious The Second Coming, we’re giving you the chance to win a personalised t-shirt and signed copy of the book! For full details of the competition, go to the Waterstone’s website.

‘Believe me, this book is going to cause one almighty stink…Deeply, intelligently satirical. In lesser hands it could easily have become a crass rant. Yet Niven provides hilarious, perceptive entertainment, not at the expense of religion, but at the expense of bigoted, fundamental zealots whether they be Christians, Muslims or whatever….Amazingly, and despite the hipster stance and the brilliantly foul language, The Second Coming is surprisingly on message. Only the truly ignorant will take offence. But then they usually do.’ Henry Sutton, The Mirror, Book of the Week ****