bwl 37 - December 2006
Fiction
| Lorraine Adams - Harbor
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| Aziz has escaped Algeria after horrific experiences in the army (we are offered some graphic flashbacks) and arrives illegally and in a terrible state in Boston harbour. Not always easy, the occasional strange syntax and surreal humour reflect the struggle of the immigrants, but there are deep friendships, sleazy glamour,and the FBI's excruciating and bungled involvement. Unusual, and gripping, it is already a prize winner and deservedly nominated for Guardian First Book Award. (Victoria Grey-Edwards)
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| Kate Atkinson - One Good Turn
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| The author subtitles her story 'A jolly murder mystery' and tells it in her unique joky style. The setting is Edinburgh during the Festival and the time is Now. There is a large cast of finely drawn characters with eccentricities which contribute to making this a hilarious entertainment. It's a worthy successor and in a way sequel to the author's 'Case Histories' (bwl 28). I thoroughly recommend it. (Jeremy Swann)
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| Melissa Bank - The Wonder Spot
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| The narrator, Jewish Sophie Applebaum of New Jersey and New York, relates episodes of her life from age 12 to mid-thirties as she struggles to find her place in the world, ending up again and again with the wrong man/wrong job/wrong friends. Each chapter recounts another (failed) relationship, another (unfulfilling) job. Sophie's asides to the reader draw us into her life, which comes together in the last chapter . . . or does it? (Wendy Swann)
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| Giorgio Bassani - The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
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| The main subject of this poignant story is a wealthy Jewish family in the author's home town of Ferrara, Italy, before and during World War II when anti-Semitism became rife. The family was to become a victim of this. The story is beautifully told and the book enjoyed much success when it came out in the nineteen sixties. Re-reading it forty years later was a moving experience. (Jeremy Swann)
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| Louis de Bernieres - Birds without Wings
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| Purporting to be a novel but historically sound, this book is set in the early twentieth century in the dying world of the Ottoman Empire. Through the eyes of the inhabitants in a tiny Anatolian village, with great humour but with a rare understanding of the Turkish viewpoint, the author describes multi-ethnic communities living in peace and respect until the meddling of foreign powers destroyed them. More valid today than ever. Not to be missed. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)
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| G K Chesterton - The Man Who Was Thursday
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| But the real question is who (or what) is the monstrous 'Sunday' who toys with those around him? The plan to penetrate the secretive Inner Circle of the Anarchist Council seems doomed and suspicion grows in the group that all is not well. Confusion, misunderstanding and desperation begin to cloud the cool logic of the detective and the plot then veers to the fantastic. Anarchists wear top-hats, policemen are poets and readers are firmly gripped! (Clive Yelf)
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| Charlie Fletcher - Stoneheart
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| A truly gripping fantasy adventure that takes place against the background of London today from a new author for children. George finds himself facing real danger when he breaks the head off a stone dragon while on a visit to the Natural History Museum. He unwittingly awakens the statues of London - the spits and the taints. A war is imminent. George must find the Stone Heart to prevent it. But how? Read on. (Ferelith Hordon)
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| Elizabeth George - Playing for the Ashes
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| This is an amazingly rich and sophisticated psychological thriller, and as usual with George, much more than that, a tragic 'document humain' portraying all too human personalities and all too familiar issues in the human condition, intricately woven and brought to a logically satisfying, if most surprising, denouement. George is never judgemental but invariably gives her characters the benefit of the doubt, and then sits back and lets them ruin themselves. Dense and rewarding read. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)
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| Rudyard Kipling - Kim
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| From the moment we meet Kim astride the gun, Zam-Zammah - the fire-breathing dragon - we are plunged into the noisy, colourful, exotic world of the Raj. This is not just an exciting Boy's Own adventure of spies and assassins; it is also a wonderful portrait of a country, fascinating and multi-layered. I read it on holiday in Nepal - it was the perfect backdrop. If you haven't read it, I recommend it - Kipling is a great storyteller. (Ferelith Hordon)
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| Alan Massie - A Question of Loyalties
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| I read this novel when it was first published in 1989 and second time around, I found it as lucid and moving as I remembered. It tells the story of a son's attempts to discover the part his father played in the Vichy government. Was he a misguided patriot or a treacherous collaborator? In telling his story, Massie manages to tell a much bigger one, that of war-torn France itself. A brilliant piece of writing. (Jenny Baker)
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| Jon McGregor - If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things
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| I found this first novel gripping. The setting is a residential street in a Northern England town, the inhabitants identified by their house number (no names). A summer's day gradually unfolds, overshadowed by a terrible event that we know is imminent. Sometimes I could hardly bear to go on reading, so great was the suspense. A few loose ends have left me still wondering weeks later what became of some of the characters. (Wendy Swann)
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| Julie Myerson - Something Might Happen
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| A senseless and brutal murder casts its shadow over the lives of the people living in a Suffolk seaside town. This is not a whodunit but an exploration and unravelling of relationships previously so taken for granted by the friends and family of the victim. The narrative is intimate, slow-moving almost hypnotic as it progresses towards its unpredictable and disturbing climax. (Jenny Baker)
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| Merce Rodereda - The Time of the Doves
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| Merce Rodereda is a highly regarded Catalan author who fled to France after the Spanish Civil War when the Catalan language was suppressed. She began writing again in the 1950s. The book spans some 30 years, including the Civil War, as seen through the eyes of the main character, Natalia, an ordinary woman. You share her experiences as she survives in a difficult time. A beautifully written, descriptive book with Barcelona as the backdrop - the doves in the title do not bring the peace with which we associate them. (Christine Miller)
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| Merce Rodereda - A Broken Mirror
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| This is a family saga set in Barcelona, stretching from the 1870s for some 60 years. It is told in fragments by different characters, as the reader follows the founding of a dynasty and its disintegration. This is another interesting and beautifully written book by this Catalan author. (Christine Miller)
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| Paul Sussman - Lost Army of Cambyses, The
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| This was not quite what I expected but is, in fact, an enjoyable, well paced thriller. Set in Egypt it takes the lure of archaeological treasure as its central motif. The reader is plunged into the murky world of bribery, corruption and murder. The characters are satisfyingly predictable - a really nice Egyptian policeman; nasty diplomats; a religious fanatic - and a splendid 'penny dreadful' villain. Facing a long journey or a boring wait? Just the thing. (Ferelith Hordon)
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| Barbara Trapido - Brother of the More Famous Jack
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| Having never read Trapido before, I feel I've uncovered a new seam of enjoyment. It focuses on a bookish but stylish eighteen-year-old escaping a stifling home life, and the influence on her of the bohemian, self-opinionated Goldmans. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, it's a kind of Brideshead Revisited meets I Capture the Castle, but more modern and raunchy. The ending demands a sequel - and apparently there is one, which I hope won't disappoint. (Annie Noble)
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Non-Fiction
| Steven Bayley - Dictionary of Idiocy & Other Matters of Opinion
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| I'm a great fan of trivia and snippets of information and this book is full of them - trouble is I feel I've been sold it under false pretences. The categories are arbitrary, the opinions take the form of quotes and 'Idiot' is defined in the original sense of a free-thinker. Padded out with notes on individuals more quoted than read, include a similar exercise by Flaubert as an appendix and you've created the ideal stocking-filler. (Clive Yelf)
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| Alan Bennett - Writing Home
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| This is a rich miscellany from a richly miscellaneous man. From memories of childhood to the account of the old woman camping in his garden for fifteen years, from his diary of working with Gielgud to book reviews and funeral addresses, Bennett is perceptive, intelligent and above all sane as well as funny, pin-pointing absurdities and hypocrisies but also evoking people and places with affection and insight. I hope there'll be more to come. (Annabel Bedini)
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| David Bodanis - The Secret Family - 24 hours inside the mysterious world of our minds and bodies
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| A deeply absorbing book that follows individual family members as they go about their lives. Every yawn, sight of a lover or lungful of air in a shopping mall is examined in (literally) microscopic detail. Include aspects of psychology, bacteria, chemical reactions and cosmology and the world suddenly becomes a far more interesting place. This is much more engrossing than I thought it would be and an excellent introduction to the world of science. (Clive Yelf)
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| William Dalrymple - City of Djinns - A year in Delhi
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| In this memoir, Dalrymple records with sympathy and understanding those people who crossed his path in the year he spent in Delhi, but just as importantly he gives a valuable exposé of India's history and culture and shows how 'the ghosts of even the most distant past still walk Delhi in the twentieth century'. Jan Morris is right when she says he is more a pilgrim than an observer, and we can benefit enormously from both. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)
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| William Dalrymple - White Mughals - Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-century India
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| A sympathetic portrayal of the British when respect for a completely new culture was at its height, and before British society had hardened and tightened under the spreading influence of the Anglican Church and the influx of British 'memsahibs'. Against the background of Indian history and culture, Dalrymple has painted a touching and historically true love story, and shed light on the issues of racism, colonialism and globalisation which have become so current today. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)
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| Robert Fisk - Pity the Nation - Lebanon at War
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| In this account of the carnage of Lebanon for over twenty years, the Independent's highly acclaimed Middle-Eastern correspondent, who has been based for thirty years in Beirut, combines war reporting, political analysis and historical assessment in a completely personal way. It is also an exposé of other countries' continual invasions resulting in political and military catastrophe, and the terrible price paid by its innocent population. Vital for an understanding of today's burning issues. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)
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| Peter Mayle - Confessions of a French Baker - Breadmaking secrets, tips and recipes
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| This is a delightful little book resulting from the author's visits to his local baker's shop in Cavaillon (France) and from conversations about the evolution of the family business with the fourth generation baker, Monsieur Auzet. He describes with illustrations different types of French bread and, step by step, how they are made. It should be an excellent stocking-filler for any Francophile cookery enthusiast this Christmas. (Jeremy Swann)
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| Mick O'Hare (editor) - Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze - and 114 other questions
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| Hard pressed for another stocking filler, this follow-up to Does Anything Eat Wasps? (bwl 33) could be the answer. Published by New Scientist magazine, it answers scientifically many of the things you might want to know but have never liked to ask, such as: Why are dogs' noses black? Why do Flying Fish Fly? Which Way is Up? and What time is it at the North Pole? A book to curl up with after the turkey! (Jenny Baker)
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| James Shapiro - 1599 A year in the Life of William Shakespeare
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| Why 1599? Much happened in England including: the 'false' Armada, the failed attempt at quelling the Irish Rebels with the subsequent execution of Exeter, and a growing concern over Elizabeth's health. The year is also full of clues about Shakespeare and the author finds much evidence to build up a picture of the poet and dramatist's life in London and Stratford-upon-Avon, as he becomes both famous and relatively wealthy. A totally absorbing and illuminating read. (James Baker)
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| David Sinclair - The Pound - A Biography
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| Who knew that some early English coins had small stars on them, were called 'starlings' and were often measured by weight, hence the term 'Pounds Sterling'? Not me and there's more of the same on every page of this illuminating work. Why the Americans ended up with dollars, the strange ratios of pounds, shillings and pence, the origin of the abbreviation £.s.d -this book reflects our national history through the fortunes of one small coin! (Clive Yelf)
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| Feedback |
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Jenny Bakes writes:
For me Suite Française (bwl 36) is the book of the year. A huge amount has been written about France's collective guilt and the role that the Vichy government played in WW II but this book, which encompasses the first two novels in a planned set of five, is unique, written as it was while the actual events were unfolding and without the benefits of hindsight. As she set about observing and recording the actions and reactions of the French and the Germans, Irene Nemirovsky had an uncanny grasp of what was happening but she could not have imagined that France, that most civilised of countries, would actively collaborate in the fate that awaited her and thousands of others.
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