Although the title of the book, Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi, a play on Thomas Mann’s famous Death in Venice, may appear to be one single title, it isn’t – there are two separate novellas in the book. Jeff in Venice is about a middle-aged journalist called Jeff who goes to Venice for the Biennale (a contemporary art exhibition). He is there to cover the Biennale and to interview the wife of a famous artist, but he manages to find plenty to do to entertain himself as well. As well as the huge number of parties that he has access to, he meets a beautiful American woman called Laura, with who he takes drugs and lots of sex. Will he manage to do the job that he has come to do and will the relationship with Laura go anywhere?

Geoff Dyer

Continue reading

Tonia Shulman should be a happy-go-lucky teenager, with very few cares. Instead, living in British-mandate Palestine with her Jewish family, she is forced to see things that a teenager shouldn’t see and to live her life on a kibbutz near Jerusalem which has very few amenities. Her father, Josef has a dream of helping to establish a Jewish state and the kibbutz they live on, Kfar Etzion, is the beginning of that dream. Tonia, however, has other dreams. She wants to go to the US and is determined to do so at any cost, even if that means leaving the love of her life, Amos, and the rest of her family behind. Will her dreams ever come to fruition, or will she remain with her family to become bitter and twisted? And will Amos ever forgive her for wanting to leave him?

Yael Politis

Continue reading

Easy Rawlins is living in 1940′s Los Angeles. A war veteran, he has just been given the sack and, with mortgage payments to meet, he is terrified that he is going lose his house. Then his friend, Joppy, steps in with a suggestion. If Easy helps a man called Mr Albright find a woman called Daphne, Albright will cover Easy’s mortgage payment for the next month. It sounds simple enough and, after an initial foray into the illegal bar scene of Los Angeles, he manages to track Daphne down – or at least can give Mr Albright an address where he can find her. This proves to be just the start, however, and before Easy knows it, he is in the middle of a murder investigation and the theft of a large sum of money, and the police think that he is responsible.

Walter Mosley

Continue reading

Mark Tully wrote this book with his partner, Gillian, although his is the only name on the front cover of the version I have. Tully was born in India, but educated in the UK. He then returned to South Asia as a journalist with the BBC. He later left the BBC and became a journalist in New Delhi, working with Gillian, a translator. He has written two other books on India, also with Gillian.

The book is a description of one of Tully’s journeys around India, investigating a number of issues related to India’s governance. During their journey, they meet a number of men and occasionally women who are trying to contribute, in their individual ways, to the smoother running of the country. These issues include politics, economics, religion and culture, such as child labour in the Indian rug-making industry, corruption, Kashmir and the IT industry.

Gillian Wright, India, Mark Tully

Continue reading

Sian has recently joined an archaeological dig in Whitby. Troubled by horrifying nightmares after an accident in Bosnia that left her badly injured, she is trying to get by one day at a time, while trying to forget about the pain in her leg that she believes could be cancer. When she meets Mack and his gorgeous dog, Hadrian, she feels a flash of life return to her again; even more so when Mack presents her with a centuries old murder mystery that she feels compelled to solve. She also hopes that the fact that she can do something so satisfying will bring her closer to Mack. Will she be successful? Will she forge a new relationship with Mack – or are her deep-rooted issues too great to overcome?

Set in Whitby around the Abbey, there is a very Gothic theme to the book, backed up by the numerous references to Dracula. This is perfect for a murder mystery, because it sets the scene perfectly.

Michel Faber

Continue reading

Pearl Buck (1892-1973) was the first person to make China accessible to the West. She recreated the lives of ordinary Chinese people in “The Good Earth“, an overnight worldwide bestseller in 1932, later a blockbuster movie. “The Good Earth” still sells around 10,000 copies in the UK every year. Buck went on to become the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938.

Pearl Buck

The biography of Pearl Buck has been published by Profile Books on April 1st, 2010. Apart from reviewing the book “Burying the Bones – Pearl Buck in China” we were curious to hear a little bit more from Hilary Spurling, the author of this extraordinary biography.

***

Burying the Bones, China, Hilary Spurling, Pearl Buck

Continue reading

Pearl Buck was born to missionary parents in America, but the family moved to Zhenjiang in China while she was still very small and Pearl grew up bilingual – in many ways, she was more Chinese than English. Her father, Absalom Sydenstricker, was a determined man and although his beliefs were frequently rejected by the Chinese, he forged ahead with his teachings. Carie, his wife, supported him as best she could, although they often argued over what was best for the children. Pearl grew up into a determined young woman herself, who also became a missionary, although her views were much less forthright. Marrying John Lossing Buck, an agricultural missionary, she lived through one of the most violent periods of unrest in Chinese history, until finally forced to move to the US permanently in 1935.

Apart from the fact that her experience of China and the Chinese people at that time was second to none, her main claim to fame is that she was an author, using her storytelling skills to educate the West about the ordinary Chinese people. Her most famous book, The Good Earth, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932 and she was later awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.

China, Hilary Spurling, Pearl Buck

Continue reading

Leo Deakin, who has been travelling in South America, wakes up in hospital to find out that his beloved girlfriend, Eleni, died in the same coach crash in which he was injured. Devastated, he arranges for her body to be flown home to her native Greece, but her loss forces him to fall into a deep depression and he pushes his family and friends away. 75 years earlier, Moritz Daniecki is in Siberia, after surviving the Great War, and is desperately trying to make his way to his home in Poland to find the love of his life, Lotte. Yet the conditions suggest that he will never finish his journey. Will Leo eventually get over the grief of Eleni’s death? Will Moritz ever be reunited with his love? And do Leo and Moritz have more in common that being separated from the loves of their life?

Romance is not a genre that I enjoy, but in this case, the historical aspect of Moritz’s story appealed to me.

Danny Scheinmann

Continue reading

Above a dingy bar in the French Quarter of New Orleans, a vampire child is born, killing his mother as he fights his way out of her womb. Unaware of the devastation he has caused, that same child, called Nothing, is brought up by non-vampire parents. By the time he is 15, however, he knows that something is missing from his life. He leaves home, aiming to find his favourite group, Lost Souls, to see if they can help him find his way. He is picked up by a strange group of people, the beautiful Zillah, Molochai and Twig, who appear to live life by partying hard. Before long, it becomes clear that Zillah and Nothing have a strong bond. But is it a healthy one? And can his friends Ghost and Christian help him to see the truth before it is too late?

horror, Poppy Z Brite, sex

Continue reading

Tender Branson is on a plane and now he has already cleared the plane of all other passengers and he is the only man left, he is planning on letting it crash. Before dying, he wants to tell the world about his life. Tender is Creedish and brought up in the beliefs of a religious cult. As the second child (his twin brother was born a few minutes before him), he is destined for a life of servitude, and, as soon as he was old enough, he was sent out to make his living. Then the police began investigating the Creedish, and rather than share their world with the outside one, all the Creedish, with the exception of those working outside the Creedish camp, commit suicide. Tender’s entire family is wiped out, while Tender is one of the few survivors. As all Creedish people are programmed to commit suicide eventually in this situation, he knows his fate. Or will he be able to find a way to override this fate?

Chuck Palahniuk

Continue reading

In the 1920s, Lydia Aspen moves to Evensford after the death of her father to live with two elderly aunts. She leads a solitary existence until a local lad, Richardson, introduces her into Evensford society. She loves her new life, especially when Richardson  falls in love with her. However, the path to true love doesn’t run smoothly – Lydia flirts with two of Richardson’s closest friends, Alex and Tom right in front of him, and others outside the group of friends. Then it appears that Alex is going to ask Lydia to marry him. Richardson is devastated by this news and the way he responds is completely out of character. Life for the friends will never be the same again.

H E Bates

Continue reading