Category: Fiction

Library Loot/Teaser Tuesday

Published on by Margaret3 Comments

It’s been a while since I wrote a Library Loot post and as I went to the library today I thought I’d combine it with a Teaser Tuesday post.

I’ve dipped into each book. From top to bottom they are:

Follow Your Heart by Susanna Tamaro, translated from the Italian by Avril Bardoni. I fancied reading something different from my usual type of book – this book won the Premio Donna Citta di Roma in 1994. From the book jacket – ‘it reflects on feelings and passions and how failure to communicate leads to futility, misunderstanding and tragedy – a meditation on existence.’ An old woman writes to her granddaughter:

As I have wandered aimlessly through the empty house these last few months, the misunderstandings and bad temper that marred our years together have vanished. The memories surrounding me now are of you as a child – a vulnerable, bewildered little creature. (page 3)

Brighton Rock by Graham Greene. A book I’ve known of for so many years and never read. I had no idea that it is a detective story! I love the way it begins:

Hale knew, before he had been in Brighton three hours, that they meant to murder him. With his inky fingers and his bitten nails, his manner cynical and nervous, anybody could tell he didn’t belong – belong to the early summer sun, the cool Whitsun wind of the sea, the holiday crowd. (page 1)

I can just see the scene!

White Nights by Anne Cleeves. I’ve been looking out for this book, the second in her Shetland Quartet, ever since I enjoyed reading the first one – Raven Black. Shetland detective Jimmy Perez investigates what seems at first to be a straightforward suicide. This is my teaser:

‘I don’t know my name’, he said flatly. No drama now. ‘I can’t remember it. I don’t know my name and I don’t remember why I’m here.’ (page 16)

Sister by Rosamund Lupton. More crime fiction, a psychological thriller. I’d read about this book on a blog (sorry, can’t remember which one – it may have been more than one blog) and thought it sounded good. Beatrice’s younger sister Tess is missing. She refuses to give up looking for her and  is determined to discover the truth about Tess and what has happened to her.

For a moment, amongst the crowd, I saw you. I’ve since found out it’s common for people separated from someone they love to keep seeing that loved one among strangers; something to do with recognition units in our brain being too heated and too easily triggered. This cruel trick of the mind lasted only a few moments, but was long enough to feel with physical force how much I needed you. (page 26)

I have high hopes of all four books.

Wherever You Go by Joan Leegant: a Book Review

Published on by Margaret6 Comments

I really enjoyed reading Wherever You Go by Joan Leegant. When Joan emailed me to ask if I would like a review copy I nearly said no thank you, because I have so many books to read and I couldn’t say when I’d get round to reading it. I’m glad I didn’t because when it arrived I soon found myself reading it and then I couldn’t stop. It’s a dramatic (but not melodramatic) and thought provoking book.

It’s about three people, and the narrative moves between them beginning with Yona Stern, an American visiting her sister Dena, a settler living in the territories near Hebron on the West Bank. Yona has come to make peace with Dena, after being estranged for ten years. It then moves on to Mark Greenglass, a Talmud teacher in Jerusalem, now visiting his parents in New York, before returning to Jerusalem. He’s come to a crisis point in his life where he is questioning his faith, his life and his career. The third person is Aaron Blinder, a young American and a somewhat pathetic individual who gets involved in an unofficial commune just outside Jerusalem. Events gradually connect the three, changing all three lives.

Wherever You Go is convincing, with a strong sense of location, believable characters and a fast-paced plot. I’m neither Jewish or American but I thought this was an interesting view of life in Israel, and of the relationship between Israel and America and of Jewish Americans living in both countries. It also conveys the conflicts and tensions of Israeli life, emphasising the dangers of religious and political extremism. But it’s not just a commentary on the political and religious issues, as it explores each of the characters’ personal issues – seeking forgiveness, looking for the truth in religious beliefs, and reconciling family relationships. All in all, a well-rounded novel, which captivated me.

  • Paperback: 253 pages
  • Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co.; Reprint edition (9 Sep 2011)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0393339890
  • ISBN-13: 978-0393339895
  • Source: review copy from the author
  • My rating 4.5/5

Fair Exchange by Michèle Roberts: a Book Review

Published on by Margaret5 Comments

Fair Exchange by Michèle Roberts is from my to-be-read pile. I’ve had it for years and had started to read it once (it still had a book mark in it, but I had to begin again as I’d completely forgotten it) and stopped. I can’t remember why, because this time round I found it very readable. It’s historical fiction set in England and France in the late 1700s/early 1800s during the French Revolutionary period.

The Author’s Note at the beginning of the book explains that although she began with the idea of writing a novel about William Wordsworth’s love affair at the beginning of the French Revolution, with Annette Vallon, but as she wrote it, it turned into a novel about William Saygood a fictional friend of Wordsworth’s. Mary Wollstonecraft appears in the novel but Roberts has ‘plundered various aspects of her life’  for the character, Jemima Boote.  I like the fact that upfront you know that some of the events, places and people are fictional and that she hopes readers will forgive her ‘for the liberties’ she has taken. Well, I do.

It begins in France in 1792, thus:

In her youth Louise Daudry, née Geuze, had committed a wicked and unusual crime. At that time, autumn 1792, she wanted money very badly, so she put aside her knowledge that what she was doing was wrong and would hurt others. She told herself that virtue was a luxury the poor could not afford. She let herself be persuaded that no one would ever find out. (page 3)

Then it goes back in time and place to England years earlier when Jemima Boote met Mary Wollstonecraft. As you would expect there is a fair bit in this book about women’s rights and their place in society, and about the question of nurture versus nature in bringing up children. Jemima is a strong character, a free spirit but her life doesn’t turn out how she expected, affected not only by the Revolution but also by events in her personal life.

Intertwined with Jemima’s life are those of Louise, who works for the Vallons,  Annette Vallon, who falls in love with an English poet, and William Saygood, and Polly his sister (based on William and Dorothy Wordsworth?). When Annette discovers she is pregnant, Louise takes her to live in her mother’s house in the countryside and it is there that Annette and Jemima (also pregnant) meet, thus setting in motion the events that change both their lives.

I liked the ambiguity in this book, the uncertainty of what exactly was the crime that Louise had committed. It’s well written and kept me guessing almost to the end of the book. It’s one I’d like to re-read (if only I had the time!) to see if I could pick up the hints about what happened.

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Virago Press Ltd; New edition edition (3 Feb 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1860497640
  • ISBN-13: 978-1860497643
  • Source: my own copy (a Christmas/Birthday present)
  • Rating: 3/5

Crime Fiction on a Euro Pass: Turkey

Published on by Margaret4 Comments

The last stop on Kerrie’s Crime Fiction on a Euro Pass is Turkey. The challenge has been to write posts linked to the country of the week. This time I’ve focused on the British author:

Barbara Nadel

Born in the East End of London, Barbara Nadel trained as an actress before becoming a writer. Now writing full-time, she has previously worked as a public relations officer for the National Schizophrenia Fellowship’s Good Companion Service and as a mental health advocate for the mentally disordered in a psychiatric hospital. She has also worked with sexually abused teenagers and taught psychology in schools and colleges, and is currently the patron of a charity that cares for those in emotional and mental distress.

She has been a regular visitor to Turkey for more than twenty years.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Nadel

Her Turkish crime novels feature Inspector Cetin Ikmen. The list below is from Fantastic Fiction

1. Belshazzar’s Daughter (1999)
2. A Chemical Prison (2000)
aka The Ottoman Cage
3. Arabesk (2001)
4. Deep Waters (2002)
5. Harem (2003)
6. Petrified (2004)
7. Deadly Web (2005)
8. Dance With Death (2006)
9. A Passion for Killing (2007)
10. Pretty Dead Things (2008)
11. River of the Dead (2009)
12. Death by Design (2010)
13. A Noble Killing (2011)
14. Dead of Night (2012)

Barbara Nadel  writes for the International Crime Authors Reality Check, where you can also read an interview with her. 

Sunday Selection

Published on by Margaret4 Comments

Today I’ve not done much reading because I’ve been doing an index to my ABC Wednesday posts. Clicking on the link goes to the page and it is also linked in the Indexes tab at the top of the blog.

Other than that I’ve been reading Wherever You Go by Joan Leegant. I’ll be writing my thoughts about the book later on, but for the time being there is a discussion about it on Carrie’s Books and Movies blog.

I’ve read some more of Faulks on Fiction by Sebastian Faulks. So far I’ve read his thoughts on Robinson Crusoe, Tom Jones and Becky Sharp – all very interesting. I didn’t see the TV programmes, so it’s all new to me, although I have read these three books.

I also been looking through the newbooks magazine which came a couple of days ago. It’s time to decide which of the ‘free’ books to choose or indeed whether to pick any of them. Two of them are collections of short stories – not my favourite genre. The other two books look interesting – French Lessons by Ellen Sussman, but it’s written in the present tense, so I won’t bother with that. The last choice is more promising – Dark Matter: a Ghost Story by Michelle Paver. I’ve seen some good reviews of this, so I’ll read the extract and make up my mind later on.

The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin: an Introduction

Published on by Margaret1 Comment

I’d forgotten I’d pre-ordered Ian Rankin’s latest book The Impossible Dead, so it was a nice surprise yesterday when it was delivered. I don’t often buy a hardback book so that’s an additional pleasure, even if at nearly 400 pages it is quite heavy.

It is, of course, the follow-up book to The Complaints, starring D I Malcolm Fox and his team investigating other cops. I thoroughly enjoyed The Complaints and am hoping this will be as good if not even better.

From the back cover:

Asked to take on a simple case of police abuse, Malcolm Fox suddenly finds himself digging up a macabre death from the eighties. Little does he know that the answers he finds in that dark period of Scottish history will lead him to the highest echelons of power …

Now officially called Professional  Ethics and Standards (you only need to add Team to the title to get the acronym PESTS!) they still call themselves The Complaints at least among themselves and other cops are never happy to see them or cooperate either.

I’m off to start reading!