by Paul Harding
A small island community made up of black and mixed race poor is forcibly evicted from their homes in a story, based on fact, about our inability to tolerate difference. It is a sombre tale, told brilliantly with a poetry to the language that makes the darkness of the story even more painful. It took me a while to get into it but I ended up racing through the second half 8/10
by Viktoria Lloyd Barlow
This is, I suppose, a story of three women set in a rural town not far from Lancaster. Dolly is sixteen and growing up fast. She lives with her divorced mother. There summer is disturbed when new neighbours move in next door. They are from London and looking to do some property deals in the area. Dolly becomes thick with Vita and starts spending more and more time with them. So far so normal but thrown into this mix is the fact Vita has always wanted a daughter and Dolly's mother, Sunday, is on the aspergers spectrum. The tale is told slowly and keeps and element of gentle tension throughout.
The book focuses a lot on pronunciation and hearing it read on an audiobook worked really well. It is spliced with humour but I felt it was too long in the end with repetition that was unnecessary. An interesting ending though 6/10
by Ayobami Adebayo
A story set in Nigeria detailing how the lives of two families from different parts of society are altered by external events. The stories overlap in a deadly way and from the moment the title of the book is explained it is clear the story can only end badly which is does for all concerned. Both sad and moving it is not a book I would read again. There was no redemption here, no hope. Must be in with a chance of winning! 5/10
by Sebastian Barry
Set in 1990's Dublin this is the story of a recently retired police officer dealing with grief and getting old, overshadowed throughout by child abuse in the Catholic Church and the impact on him and his immediate family.
The book constantly unsettles you from simple things like the main character's references to cheese on toast as welsh rabbit through to whole sections of the book, which are told as fact suddenly becoming dreams or the misplaced memories of the protagonist. Excellent novel 9/10
by Jonathan Escoffery
A collection of stories about a Jamaican family making its way in America which hangs together fairly well. The ending had some sort of resolution but felt rushed compared to much of the rest of the story.
The way it deals with feelings of belonging and displacement I found really good and there were also some shocks I was not expecting as well as moments of humour. 7/10
by Chetna Maroo
An unusual storyline that includes a lot about squash!
It is the story of a young teenage girl who has lost her mother. She has two sisters and their father at a loss what to do with them starts taking them to the local squash court.
The story unfolds of how they deal with grief and growing up. It was beautifully told and ends on a bitter sweet but positive note 8/10
by Sarah Bernstein
Bernstein has been listed as one of Granta's best young novelists in 2023 although her dust jacket biography says she is from Montreal. This ambiguity flows through into this book where it proves difficult to pin anything down.
The writing is superb in places but I ended the book feeling it was an exercise in style rather than a telling of tales. I found myself asking the question how much can a novel be pared down before it ceases to be. The book has little plot-a woman travels North to care for a brother and never is accepted by the locals due to certain events she believes the town blame her for. Little in the way of subplot. The location is never clarified other than North and it gets cold in winter. The two main characters are not named and we learn little of them other than mystery. There are few other characters, all anonymous and from the town.
Having said that I keep thinking it through and trying to work out what was going on and I like that. Vintage booker material :). 5/10
by Eric Hazan
A series of vignettes about the history and current state of the city of Paris. In Hazan's normal style it is a no holds barred account where he praises and disparages in equal measure. It is a short and very enjoyable read for anyone who loves the city and will certainly provoke discussion. 8/10
by George Simenon
Maigret is off to the Normandy coast following the poisoning of a maid. The glass she drank was meant for her mistress. As you would expect not everything is as it seems as we learn more about the family history the true story behind the poisoning comes to light. Vintage Maigret 9/10
by Pierre LeMaitre
A great novella featuring the french police officer Camille Verhoeven.
Following an explosion in the middle of Paris a man hands himself in and says he has planted six other bombs due to go off at 24 hour intervals.
The pace is relentless and nail biting. Lemaitre at his best 8/10
by Salman Rushdie
A complicated tale moving from India and the Moghuls to renaissance Florence with a cast of characters who appear to move through time and have several names to boot! But, Rushdie is such a great story teller that this is an enjoyable yarn about a beautiful princess and the way her life unfolds and her son?/grandson?/none of the above? who is telling her tale to try and be recognised as a prince. We are kept guessing until the end but it was a very enjoyable journey 8/10
by Han Kang
This is a very gentle, meditative book about a lecturer in ancient greek who is going blind, and one of his students whose life experiences have left her unable to speak. The language is beautiful in places even in translation but I was halfway through before I got drawn in to the story 6/10
by Victor Heringer
A brazilian author and set in Rio in the 1970's it is the story of a young man discovering his sexuality and love in the midst of a poor district of the city. Well written and engaging I found it hard to come into land with as it was dealing with things far outside my experience, 7/10
by E. M. Forster
A short story set in the future. It was written in 1928 but following a pandemic and the rise of AI this seems a very prescient story where a community rarely meets in person and lives are regulated by the machine. A little bit eerie! 6/10
by Georges Simenon
Maigret is back in America but this time on an exchange visit much like he hosted in an earlier novel, a guest from Scotland Yard.
In the same way Maigret tried to get rid of his English guest, his American hosts try to find ways of depositing Maigret in out of the way places and so he ends up in a coroner's court where they are trying to establish the cause of death of a young woman found dead on a railway line in the middle of desert. Four airmen were with her. Maigret begins to find that human nature is the same wherever you are even if the American's go about things in a different way. In true Maigret style we never do find out the verdict of the court. Really enjoyed this one. 9/10
