Annie Hayter

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Parasol Against the Axe by Helen Oyeyemi review - electrifying, experimental writing

May 21, 2024 | bigissue.com | Annie Hayter

British writer Helen Oyeyemi’s glorious ninth novel, Parasol Against the Axe is a maximalist belter, proffering a vision of a hen-do weekend in Prague in dizzyingly delicious prose, featuring a revolving cast of acrobatic characters – each more infuriatingly brilliant than the last – who skip away and stick their fingers up at you if you prod them, because they won’t be pinned to any page and you can bog off if you’re going to interrogate anything so routine as a conventional plotline! This...
Come and Get It by Kiley Reid review – the alienation of campus life

Mar 11, 2024 | bigissue.com | Annie Hayter

Books The US novelist's second is a juicy campus drama charged with tensions Kiley Reid’s absolute gem of a first novel, Such a Fun Age, was a bitingly satirical take on performative allyship, the peculiar dynamic of nannying and everyday racism. Come and Get It is a somewhat gentler, more pondering read – but it’s equally full of deliciously fallible characters and their shenanigans.
My Heavenly Favourite by Lucas Rijneveld review – a nightmarish vision of abuse

Mar 10, 2024 | bigissue.com | Annie Hayter

Books Rijneveld’s prose is slickly stumbling, translated with shuddering brilliance by Michele Hutchison Lucas Rijneveld is known for his debut The Discomfort of Evening, which won the International Booker Prize (and my heart), in his discomforting, visceral vision of a child’s life on a farm in the Netherlands. This second novel, My Heavenly Favourite, offers another nightmarish vision, set in the Dutch bible belt in 2005.
An ultimate guide to the best books of 2023 – as chosen by Big Issue critics

Dec 26, 2023 | bigissue.com | Jane Graham |Doug Johnstone |Barry Pierce |Billie Walker |Annie Hayter |Patrick H Maxwell | +1 more

BooksOur books editor and regular critics choose their favourite books of the last 12 monthsby: Jane Graham, Doug Johnstone, Barry Pierce, Billie Walker, Annie Hayter, Patrick Maxwell, Chris Deerin“This is a moving labour of love, not just for Eileen but for the many women writers a patriarchal literary scene has worked hard to erase” Jane Graham on Wifedom by Anna Funder.
How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair review – a compelling account of the Rastafari movement - The Big Issue

Nov 18, 2023 | bigissue.com | Annie Hayter

BooksSafiya Sinclair’s memoir puts the reader at the heart of a Rasta family while detailing the history of the movementHow to Say Babylon; A Jamaican Memoir by Safiya Sinclair is out now (4th Estate, £16.99)How to Say Babylon: A Jamaican Memoir by Safiya Sinclair is a truly wonderful and compelling read that renders Sinclair’s account of growing up as the eldest daughter in a strict Rasta family.
Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq review – coming of age in the Tunra - The Big Issue

Nov 17, 2023 | bigissue.com | Annie Hayter

BooksMyth is braided with history in a reality that is mundane as it is magical with every stepSplit Tooth by Tanya Tagaq is out now (And Other Stories, £14.99)Tanya Tagaq is known in Canada for her prize-winning, punkish work as a musician. Her debut novel Split Tooth is a visceral work of brilliance, weaving moments of memoir, poems, drawings and Inuit folklore.
Bright Fear by Mary Jean Chan: Poetry alive with compassion and acceptance

Aug 19, 2023 | bigissue.com | Annie Hayter

BooksChan’s poems shimmer with the knowledge that amid the pitfalls of the world, you might still come home to yourselfMary Jean Chan’s second, scintillant poetry collection, Bright Fear, maps the poetic self in flux, delving into roots of queer longing, the enduring harm of colonialism and the shifting undercurrents of family interactions.
Ootlin: A Memoir by Jenni Fagan review: Harrowing truths about the care system

Aug 19, 2023 | bigissue.com | Annie Hayter

BooksThis tale of survival gives voice to the silenced Ootlin: A Memoir, by the remarkable Jenni Fagan, is an unforgettable testament to survival – rendering the first 16 years of her life as a child shunted across various foster homes, adoptive placements and hostels in Scotland. Fagan wrote the initial material 20 years ago, as an adult contending with complex PTSD and suicidal thoughts, meaning to leave the story of her life behind.
This Is Not Miami by Fernanda Melchor review: Tragic happenings become urban legend

Jun 17, 2023 | bigissue.com | Annie Hayter

In her stonkingly good collection, This Is Not Miami, Fernanda Melchor writes about infamous historical events in her childhood home of Veracruz in Mexico, using a docu-dramatical approach to chronicling the realities of living in a city where violence is commonplace as breath. Its 12 narratives acknowledge the fictions that shape family gossip or hearsay on the street. Tragic happenings become the stuff of urban legend – shaped by the subjectivity of each new storyteller.
Patterflash by Adam Lowe review: Acrobatic and winking poems of queer life

Jun 17, 2023 | bigissue.com | Annie Hayter

Patterflash is defined by Adam Lowe in his glorious glossary of Polari as: “Gossip, chat, ostentatious or pretentious speech; the lyrics pouring out of my gob”. This cheeky gobbet is an apt representation of the delightful poems in this collection. With some poems written in full or sprinkled Polari, Lowe revives that old slangy argot used by the gays of yore: ‘vada, ‘pooker’, ‘lallies’, to name a few.