Bellies - Nicola Dinan

 

Sometimes I get anxious when I see a book labelled as a coming-of-age story because I came of age so long ago it’s a fading memory. I worry because I fear I’m too old to understand the younger point of view. Sometimes I don’t think I know a millennial from a snowflake or a Gen X. And I so dislike labels and compartments. But I needn’t have feared because I think this book transcends those labels and identifiers that we feel compelled to place upon things and people.

‘ It begins as your typical boy meets boy. While out with friends at a university drag night, Tom buys Ming a drink. Confident and witty, a charming young playwright, Ming is the perfect antidote to Tom's awkward energy, and their connection is instant. Tom finds himself deeply and desperately drawn into Ming's orbit, and on the cusp of graduation, he's already mapped out their future together. But, shortly after they move to London to start their next chapter, Ming announces her intention to transition.

From London to Kuala Lumpur, New York to Cologne, we follow Tom and Ming as they face shifts in their relationship in the wake of Ming's transition. Through a spiral of unforeseen crises - some personal, some professional, some life-altering - Tom and Ming are forced to confront the vastly different shapes their lives have taken since graduating, and each must answer the essential question: is it worth losing a part of yourself to become who you are?’

It’s a pretty spot-on blurb! As a story this is overwhelmingly topical and pertinent for the times we live in. The whole transgender issue has become a contentious one if social media is anything to go by. But this book seems to set things into a far more accessible perspective. And one of the most wonderful things about this story is that it doesn’t seek to wave banners and flags and by the time you finish the book you understand, if you didn’t already, that gender and sexuality do not define a person.

Yes, this is a coming of age story but it is also a story about love, loss, relationships and friendship. Nicola Dinan has created such beautiful characters, beautiful because they are real and flawed. Life doesn’t come with an instruction manual. Most of us flounder our way through life making mistakes and making amends. And this novel captures that so perfectly.

I found it to be a well-paced narrative, swapping between Tom and Ming as narrators so the reader is treated to both points of view which gives us the balance a book like this needs. There are always two ways of looking at most things and I think that comes across in this story. 

I found the title intriguing and the exposition offered was delightful. I’d love to divulge it here, but I’m not going to! Because to discover it as you read the book was one of the high points for me. I wanted to punch the air and say yes!

Life these days is multistranded. It probably always has been, but somehow it seems more and more so today. Relationships are complicated. Pressures are many. This book doesn’t shy away from anything. So many of the characters display traits that we’ve seen, we’ve dealt with in our lives and if we can’t necessarily identify with some of the more specific issues in the book, we understand where everyone is coming from.

But for all of the serious issues covered in the book, there are some moments of light relief and humour. I loved the part where Cindy, Ming’s stepmother, visits New York and they attend the theatre to see a production of the Little Shop of Horrors. But there are some heartbreaking moments in this book, and I’d be surprised if you don’t shed a tear or two.

This is a most impressive debut novel and my ‘bookstinct’ is telling me it could be very important. Time will tell. But it’s certainly in my top 10 this year, so far. My thanks to Milly Reid at Doubleday for a gifted copy.

Banyan Moon - Thao Thai

 

Described by some as a “mother – daughter” story there’s more to this debut novel than meets the eye. It does, in fact, chronicle three generations of the Tran women from grandmother Minh, whose voice endures throughout the story in one way or another - if that sounds a little cryptic I am unapologetic, read the book and you’ll understand what I mean, through to mother, Huong, and daughter Ann. The relationships between all three are as complex and protracted as familial relationships often are but this story is shaped in part by the history of their country and the Vietnamese war. The Tran women move to Florida or more precisely Minh does. 

The novel explores the past, present and potential futures of the women, each being given a voice in the arrangement of the different chapters. This gave a real sense of all of them discovering themselves as well as the secrets of others. With a measured and balanced pace the past is revealed, secrets unfold and the truth emerges from its chrysalis closet, and all the women are forced to confront their own selves.

Underpinning, the whole story is love and how it is affects lives and decisions running through all three generations. Some of those decisions are questionable and throw up some moral considerations.

But it is not a novel that seeks to offer any judgements. It tells a story rich in Vietnamese heritage and culture, and offers us a glimpse of what it is to leave your homeland and re-assimilate yourself somewhere else where you strive to hang on to your origins, but also to embrace the culture into which you’ve entered.

It’s a very compelling story. You sense from the start that matters are not really straightforward. The narrative unfolds its secrets, slowly and thoroughly, drawing the reader along with them.

I found all three women very real. There were times when I didn’t agree with what they did, or said, but I never found myself disliking them. Life and love, don’t come with instruction books, we’re all flawed in some way, and this book deals with that very realistically. I also thought the sense of time passing through the decades was achieved, very subtly and seamlessly. As attitudes and society changed there was a subtle shift in the shapes of the women’s’ lives.

I loved the sustained metaphor of the banyan tree. Notable in Hindu culture because of its ability to live for centuries and is seen as a symbol of immortality, the irony of that, alongside the lives of these women was quite powerful. And the naming of the house, the Banyan House takes on a whole other dynamic.

The prose is delightful, intelligent and well structured, which elevates the book beyond a mere family saga. There is a depth to the writing that evokes a tangible atmosphere. It’s a most impressive debut.

My thanks to Patrice Nelson at Quercus Books for a gifted copy.

The End of Us - Olivia Kiernan

 

Oh, my days! Talk about an  audacious plot! Is this the right time to admit that this is the first Olivia Kiernan book I’ve read? Well, if all the plots are as good as this I’m going to be devouring her back catalogue!

Myles and Lana, almost a stereotypical happy young couple with good jobs, a big house when…… and there has to be a when doesn’t there…. otherwise we wouldn’t have a story, one of Myles’ investments fails.  Problems. But then new neighbours, Gabriel and Holly Wright seem to have a possible solution. Insurance fraud! As long as they get their cut the Wrights will help.

And that’s as much as I’m going to say because I don’t live in Spoiler City! But oh my goodness this is a dark, sinister, kind of tale. Very much character driven, and I have to say I didn’t warm to any of the characters particularly. And I’m never sure whether that’s intentional on the part of an author. I have a hunch that it doesn’t do to get too emotionally invested in characters who are capable of doing questionable things. I did quite like Nathan and Daniel who played their parts in the narrative very well.

This is one of those books that is described as a thriller, but it’s not an action packed thriller, very slow and brooding which really racks the tension up. One of those books where even while you’re reading you’re glancing over your shoulder….just in case. It almost had a Patricia Highsmith feel to it, and some of those B-movies that Hollywood did so well in black-and-white. And the ending! Oh, my! 

The end of us? I don’t know about that, but it was nearly the end of me as I hurtled on to find out what an earth was going to happen! But there has to be more to a book than a good story, doesn’t there? Or maybe that’s just me. But this book had a lot to say about acquisitiveness, avarice, implicit entitlement and subterfuge. It also taps into the 21st-century, social media type consciousness of how things look on the outside. 

It’s a book that keeps you guessing, and although on the surface it seems like a completely unrealistic premise it is written so well that your belief rarely falters and given what goes on in this contrary world of ours today I guess all things  are possible.

My thanks to Ana McLaughlin at riverrun for a gifted proof. Olivia Kiernan is very firmly on my radar now. 

After That Night - Karin Slaughter

 

I understand that Will Trent is the lead character in a 10 previous thrillers by this author! But not having read any of the others has by no means diminished the pleasure I got from reading this book. It’s made me hungry to read some more, in fact!

Assaults on women is a challenging topic and not enjoyable to read about, but whilst this issue is central to the story the way it is dealt with and the outcomes,  dilute the horror to a degree.

I found it an engrossing and riveting read. As a police procedural, it’s absolutely fascinating. As a tightly plotted thriller, it’s excellent. It’s an intelligent story where the reader has to concentrate fully to keep up and the way it’s written encourages the reader to solve the clues alongside our intrepid investigators. The medical sequences are also extremely realistic, so the research is impeccable on all sides.

I enjoyed all the characters Will, Sarah, Faith, and even Amanda! It’s wetted my appetite to find out if these characters are in the previous books, and what part they play there. There’s lots of tension in the climax the  final denouement was mind blowing! I never suspected for a moment. This is consummate storytelling. This is a writer who understands her readers and how to craft an entertaining and thought-provoking novel. The pacing is perfect. 

And whilst you can enjoy this simply as a good story, there’s also room for the reader to consider some of the issues contained within it. Quite harrowing at times, and I’m sure I’m not alone at feeling anger towards the perpetrators. But as well as the main story, there are also the stories of the characters, The book has much to say about parenting and relationships and the work life balance. Also about privilege and money and abuse of trusted positions. It’s a substantial work.

My thanks to Readers First for the copy that I won in their prize draw.

Flatlands - Sue Hubbard

 

This has whizzed its way up my favourite books of the year list. It’s just beautiful. Inspired by Paul Gallico’s Snow Goose it stays true to that writer’s intent and tells of a friendship kindled against the backdrop of the second world war and Dunkirk. The location shifts to the East Anglian fens but the names remain the same. Fritha is an evacuee from London and Philip is a conscientious objector. A injured goose brings them together. 

The writing is delicate, lyrical, pastoral, high quality work that fills and uplifts a reader in spite of the gravity within some aspects of the story. It’s vivid writing and you’re quickly transported into Fritha/Freda’s world. I was so impressed by this author’s ability to, not just understand the world from a child’s point of view, but a child in wartime, evacuated into a less than warm household, missing, needing her mother. Her characterisation of Philip, too, an adult male caught up in the lunacy of war, is so sensitively portrayed and the balance between the two is exquisite. And there is never any descent into sentimentality.

Interestingly the two don’t meet until you’re a way into the book but we need their back stories to fully appreciate the tenor of their relationship so it doesn’t matter. Unlike Gallico Sue Hubbard deals with some pertinent issues. There’s no shying away from life’s brutality.

Philip waxes philosophical on the nature of war in one of the book’s most poignant and insightful passages.

‘…I believe that killing people is wrong. It solves nothing. War is a failure of the imagination. An act of the petty-minded. We live in an advanced industrial society yet have hardly developed emotionally since we lived in caves. Peace and love, Frith, are skills. A choice. Not just feelings. That’s something I’m slowly beginning to learn. Most catastrophes between people and nations occur from a lack of emotional intelligence. We can choose to escape our fate. Write our lives differently….’

Such powerful words. And yet in many ways this is a calm book, unhurried and full of depth, mirroring the passage of the natural world, a patient book until it needs to impose the urgency of an operation like Operation Dynamo. The older Freda is endearing in her musings on her present and her past, trying to make sense of her childhood and her friendship with Philip. 

This is the first Sue Hubbard book I have read but I am keen to explore more of her work. My thanks to Kate Wilkinson at Pushkin Press for a gifted copy. 

Tiny Pieces of Enid - Tim Ewins

 

I read Tim Ewins’s first novel, We Are Animals,  and I loved it unequivocally. So I was curious to read his next book and was wondering whether he would succumb to that ‘difficult second album syndrome’.  Not that I would blame him, it’s happened to many. But he didn’t. ‘Enid’ is as different a book to ‘Animals’ as you could find - on the surface. Thematically it’s darker, with dementia and troubled marriages central to the storyline. And if that sounds like a heavy read, it is, yes, but the quirky humour that so endeared ’Animals’ to me is still there in a subtler, more nuanced way. This is a more poignant book that will make you think as well as weep for it touches upon some fundamental aspects of the human condition, ageing, love and the need for connection on simple and complex levels. But underlying the narrative is the developing style of Tim Ewins. I love to see how a writer progresses, how they work at their craft, learning and growing. 

Enid and Roy will break your hearts, their situation is touching yet there is no practical solution. Olivia will touch you in a different way for she does have a solution once she admits to herself the need to act to save herself. I’m not wishing to give anything away so I hope I’ve not said too much!

To get inside the head of a dementia sufferer is nigh on impossible. To convince a reader that, as a writer, you’re doing just that is downright dangerous! It has to be believable and convincing for without that the story would fall apart. Research alone won’t do it. Observation and understanding are required in swathes. And that’s clearly, or certainly it seems to me, exactly what Tim Ewins has. 

I loved the avian imagery sustained throughout from Enid’s imaginary parrot to her daughter’s fledgling blackbirds. So many concepts are contained within these metaphors that I felt contributed to the novel being that little bit more than ‘just’ story telling. 

My copy of this book was acquired for me by my local library. They had to source it from another library. I had to pay a small fee for the service but it was worth every penny. 

Black River - Nilanjana Roy - Blog Tour

 I had a clear sense of the cinematic as I read this book. Testament to the skill of the writer to describe and detail both events and surroundings with such palpability. And whilst it sounds like a paradox to describe a thriller as poetic Black River is exactly that.

Set in Teetarpur, a village in India a few miles from Delhi, the novel examines the police investigation of a child’s murder amidst a backdrop of simmering religious tension between Hindus and Muslims. If that sounds like a relatively straightforward premise, then don’t be fooled for there’s a pleasing complexity to the book that delves back into the past of the murdered child’s father, Chand, and the friends and family who populate his world. It’s an intelligent crime novel that allows the reader to dig beneath the surface and consider other matters alongside the offence. It’s very well balanced.

Chand impresses as a man of dignity and integrity. He is loyal and self effacing. And we learn a lot of this as we read about his past. It draws the reader to him and we grieve along with him for the daughter he loves and has lost. The policeman, Ombir, is another character we warm to because we believe that he is on the side of good, the side of justice, as far as he is able within the somewhat limited resources that he has to work with. He, too, has his own story.

The novel is culturally rich and a modern India is presented to the reader; the contrast of the quiet village of Teetarpur with the overcrowded Delhi are both resplendent with the sights and sounds of the country. As you read you are there with Chand on his journey and with Ombir, the policeman, as he puzzles out this jigsaw he’s required to piece together.

I have to smugly say that I did figure out who the perpetrator was. I say smug, but maybe I’m a little premature?  For I often wonder whether writers of crime and thriller fiction, after laying out their clues, expect the reader to figure out the perp? I guess I would call myself an experienced reader of crime novels! And one thing I’ve learnt is that you know that one of the characters offered to you in the narrative will be the perpetrator. But is it up to the writer as to how easy or difficult they make it for the reader to figure it out or is it up to the reader to unravel the clues?

I also found it interesting that the opening of the novel was fleshed out in a way that the prologues of many crimes and thrillers aren’t. They offer the barest bones and are often enigmatic. But here we are totally engaged with Munia which engages our emotions and anger at the crime more emphatically.

The police procedural side of the book is fascinating and it reminded me of some Australian crime novels I’ve read recently because it shows how other countries, other cultures deal with crime and how resources especially limited ones encourage resourcefulness in the law enforcers!

Of any genre crime novels tend to be the most ‘unputdownable’ because the natural curiosity of an astute reader dominates and the desire to read on is compulsive. But I found my desire to read on and on with this book transcended merely solving the crime. I was invested in the characters and their lives. It was an absolute treat to read and my thanks to Steven Cooper at Pushkin Vertigo for a gifted copy and a place upon the blog tour.

A Good Night to Kill - Amen Alonge

 

My review for A Good Day to Die, was minimalist and unconventional by my terms. But it’s just what came into my head after I’d read Amen Alonge’s debut novel. Somehow, it deserved more than the linear type of review I normally write. 

And here it is.

Gut wrenching, pistol packing, hard-hitting, fast acting,

Butt clenching, rifle toting, diamond dangling, crazy driving,

Gangs ganging, money talking, bouncers bouncing, women walking,

 Hearts pumping, legs pounding, heads buzzing, minds fuzzing,

Drug dooming, fear looming, bakers doesn’t, cheesecake slicing,

London’s earning, ears burning, kneecap zapping, cowards flapping, 

Lucas dukas , Yellow bellow, Topper stopper, Sean yawn,

Revenge not sweet,

Pretty Boy no cheat

In the ‘hood and the street,

Is this A Good Day To Die?

I was delighted when Riverrun publicist Ana McLaughlin of Quercus Books sent me a gifted copy of Alonge’s next book A Good Night to Kill. Straight off, as a wordsmith, I loved the wordplay of the two titles. I was hooked from the start. And even though I’ve finished the book, I’m not unhooked yet! So how shall I go about reviewing this one I’ve been asking myself?  Shall I go back to a straightforward plot, narrative, structure, character type of review? Nah!

Brothers bleed, blood flows.

Russians rush, Oleg knows.

Libraries beckons, someone reckons.

Pretty Boy is  back in town.

Meiling’s musing, Michael’s boozing.

Bracelets bouncing, ninjas, trouncing.

Franka’s fierce, Alan Pierce

Stays ahead of the game.

Guns loading, drugs foreboding 

Farrukh fencing, Michael’s menacing

Tyrone, Callum, Priyanka beefing

Pretty Boy is back in town.

Jamal is juice, ain’t no truce.

Lenkov’s rule, Rebecca’s no fool.

Stake outs, shake outs, 

No time for make outs

This is a good night to kill.

I’m sorry. I just couldn’t help myself. 😉

This is a high octane, no punches pulled thriller with plenty of brutality and gangland conflicts. But there is an element of subtle, humour, in spite of the violence. It’s a very compelling and immersive read. I look forward to the next!

The Girls of Summer - Katie Bishop

 

Girls of summer? Bright cover showing a couple of youngsters in their sun tops. You might think you’ve got your hands on a nice, little romantic fiction, a poignant holiday romance, maybe. Think again. This is a powerful novel that renders that dalliance ‘romangst’.

‘ Rachel has loved Alistair since she was seventeen.

 Even though she hasn’t seen him for sixteen years and she’s now married to someone else.

 Even though she was a teenager when they met. 

Even though he is almost twenty years older than her.

 Now in her thirties, Rachel has never been able to forget the golden summer together on a remote, sun -trapped Greek island. But as dark and deeply suppressed memories rise to the surface, Rachel begins to understand that Alistair – and the enigmatic, wealthy man he worked for – controlled much more than she ever realised. 

Rachel has never once considered herself a victim – until now.’

With a dual narrative that ping-pongs between THEN and NOW we are drip fed the account of an ostensibly, idyllic, summer of love for a group of carefree, backpacking, gap-yearing teenagers learning to live and learning to love. But these lessons can be hard ones, and they can be costly.

Rachel is the main protagonist and we learn of the events through her eyes. There were times when I wanted to shake her and say open your eyes, you silly girl, can’t you see what’s happening here?  But she was a young girl in love, and we all know what that feels like, don’t we? There is no logic, there is no rational thinking. There is that blindness and tunnel vision that love infects us with. And even sixteen years later Rachel is unable to completely let go. 

In many ways it is a bit of an unnerving, disconcerting read. There’s a great deal of tension and raw emotion. The reader is caught in the middle of a relationship with the protagonist and how events are unfolding. I often found it difficult to like Rachel especially in the way she treated Tom, but it’s one of those books where as you read and understand the situation she’s been in you start to soften a bit.

This is a debut novel, but I think the writer has shown the wisdom and sensitivity of a seasoned novelist in the way she deals with the events in this book and the portrayals of the characters she has created. It’s not an action packed narrative. It’s quite slow in places but it needs to be in order to perpetuate the sense of apprehension and anxiety that you feel is lurking behind every car trip to the rich and enigmatic Henry Taylor’s house. It’s a well constructed plot too. The intrigue about Henry is racked up until we finally meet him and it’s a very powerful and disturbing moment in the book. If, as a reader, you had suspicions before, then they are confirmed at this point.

You feel that this is a story that needs to be told. I think particularly in recent campaigns of awareness such as #MeToo. It doesn’t make for a happy, pleasant story, so this book might not be for everyone, it’s dark, but at its root, I think, is a desire for women everywhere to understand that they have to tell the truth, whatever the odds, whatever the obstacles.I will look forward to any future work from this exciting novelist.

My thanks to Milly Reid at Transworld Books for a gifted copy.