Book Previews 2008 - Pearcedale Book Group
Book Previews 2008
Book Previews 2008 - Pearcedale Book Group
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The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell
Set between the 1930s and the present, Maggie O'Farrell's new novel is the story of Esme, a woman edited out of her family's history and of the secrets that come to light when, sixty years later, she is released from care, and a young woman, Iris, discovers the great aunt she never knew she had. The mystery that unfolds is the heartbreaking tale of two sisters in colonial India and 1930s Edinburgh - of the loneliness that binds them together and the rivalries that drive them apart, and lead one of them to a shocking betrayal.
Old filth by Jane Gardam
Old filth is the nickname for Sir Edward Feathers, a very old judge as the novel opens. His wife has just died and he's remembering his life, beginning as Raj Orphan when his mother died during his birth in Malaysia. He was raised in Wales with other orphans by a vicious foster mother. He eventually became a successful lawyer and judge in Hong Kong, retiring back to an England he doesn't recognize anymore. He's been a proper man of the Imperial Age distinguished by duty and honour and now without his wife, he's just a lonely icon to an earlier era. Jane Garam's portrait of a good man ignored by his world has received positive reviews with The Guardian saying, "This novel is surely Gardam's masterpiece. On the human level, it is one of the most moving fictions I have read for years".
A man's got to have a hobby by William McInnes
It is his father's sense of the absurd and love of playing jokes that William believes was behind his decision to become an actor. While this Australian biography will make you laugh out loud at McInnes' dry wit and humorous recollections, you will also be touched by his homage to his family and in particular his father. It is about the importance of family, letting go of the past and treasuring the gifts it has passed on.
Jigs & reels by Joanne Harris
Joanne Harris, author of 'Chocolat', 'Blackberry Wine' and 'Five Quarters of the Orange', cooks up a surprise for her many fans in this anthology. Not only can she write short stories; she can also display an amazing range. These pieces are completely unlike her dreamily delicious food-oriented novels, some dipping into human nature's dark and secretive aspects. In her foreword, Harris muses on how delightful it is to find short stories back in vogue. Her anthology should help keep them in style.
So many ways to begin by Jon McGregor
In this British novel, David Carter becomes a museum curator in Coventry. Like his meticulous files, his life is ordered, known and understood until his Aunt Julia begins to suffer from dementia and reveals the truth about his birth. Jon McGregor explores what happens when our lives fail to take the turns we expect, and the ways we learn to let go of the people we might have been.
These foolish things by Deborah Moggach
In 'These foolish things', Ravi Kapoor finds his household with an unwanted guest. His father-in-law, Norman, a self-absorbed lecher with poor hygiene, has been kicked out of another nursing home. Ravi and his cousin have a brainstorm and buy a building in Bangalore, India and turn it into a nursing home for British ex-pats. Norman agrees to go when he's told he'll be popular with Eastern women. Deborah Maggoch's novel humorously examines the alienation and loneliness of retirement and the fresh start a new setting can give.
Runaway by Alice Munro
Alice Munro's set of short stories, 'Runaway', all concern Canadian women facing pivotal moments in their lives, even if they're not aware of it at the moment. Each of the women stand aloof from the mainstream, choosing a path, consciously or subconsciously, that varies from society's expectations for women. In doing so, they explore the themes, not just of women's lives, but of the interaction with lovers, husbands, parents and children that provide the fabric to everyone's life.
Salvation Creek by Susan Duncan
At 44 Susan Duncan appeared to have it all. When her beloved husband and brother die within three days of each other, her glittering life shatters. In shock, she zips on her work face and soldiers on - until one morning eighteen months later when she simply can't get out of bed. Heartbreaking, funny and searingly honest, 'Salvation Creek' is the story of a woman who found the courage not only to walk away from a successful career and begin again, but to beat the odds in her own battle for survival and find a new life - and love - in a tiny waterside idyll cut off from the outside. From the terrifying first step of quitting the job that had always anchored her to abandoning herself to a passionate affair that she know will break her heart. Even when she finds a paradise on earth only to discover that it may be too late.
Death in the Truffle Wood by Pierre Magnan
Banon is a small, peaceful village in Upper Provence, where the loval community's principal source of income comes from the cultivation and sale of truffles. Tourists and outsiders rarely venture to this remote region, but a small group of society's drop-outs have chosen to set up home on the outskirts of the village and trouble ensues. When one of them is found dead in the freezer of a local hotel, and when a further five bodies are discovered hanging by their feet and drained of blood in the family vault of the cemetry, it takes all Commissaire Laviolette's considerable resources to unravel crimes that have been committed in a climate of centuries-old superstition and secret animosity.
Coronation Talkies by Susan Kurosawa
Travel writer Susan Kurosawa has hit the jackpot with her first novel, an engaging mix of human comedy and manners set in the declining days of the British Raj. Most of the drama plays out in the fictional Indian hill station of Chalaili - home to various British ex-pats and their assorted servants. Chalaili has no particular distinguishing features, except perhaps that it is the second wettest place in India when the Monsoon season descends. When newly-wed English school teacher Lydia Rushmore, and flamboyant cinema owner Premila Banerjee arrive in town, their lives become entwined and connected through a combination of gin, clouds and movies.
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