The Sea of Innocence

28 Feb 2014 By
Comments 0 In Fiction Books

The Sea of Innocence, Kishwar Desai, book reviewWhen Simran Singh and her adopted daughter, Durga, go for a holiday in Goa, they’re not looking for any excitement. They just want to take things easy, soak up the sun, hang out on the beach and relax. But when Simran is sent a video of a young blonde girl dancing with some local men, followed by footage of the girl lying on a bed with the men, she’s instantly concerned about what might have happened to the girl. The clips have been sent to her by Amarjit, the policeman who’s her old ‘friend’ and occasional lover and he wants Simran’s help. Simran’s resistant – she’s on holiday, she wants to spend time with Durga, she’s not looking for a ‘case’ to investigate but Amarjit’s newly single, getting a divorce and might it be worth her while to help him out? Wouldn’t her mother be thrilled if Simran could get herself a man as well as a tan?

This is Kishwar Desai’s third Simran Singh novel – The Sea of Innocence.


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The Copper Promise

28 Feb 2014 By
Comments 0 In Fantasy fiction, Fiction Books

The Copper Promise by Jen Williams, book reviewI’m rather glad now that I didn’t know a week or so ago that Jen William’s The Copper Promise had been previously published as four e-book only novellas. Call me a literary snob, but it would likely have put me off trying the new release of the four parts drawn together into one thumping great paperback. Weighing in at a hefty 500-plus pages, it is Tolkienesque in size if not so much in content. (And that is not a criticism – after being force fed Farmer Giles of Hamm in school, it soured any enjoyment that may have been left to find in reading Tolkien’s other books). While not a great reader of the fantasy genre, I can confirm that this book has the expected swords, sorcery and quests, but it also has rather a lot more.


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Under the Wide and Starry Sky

28 Feb 2014 By
Comments 0 In Fiction Books, History fiction

Under the Wide and Starry Sky, Nancy Horan, book reviewFanny Osbourne is running away from America with her three children. She’s had enough of her husband’s cheating ways; surely Antwerp is far enough away. But when her youngest son falls ill and then dies, she’s encouraged to recuperate in provincial France. There she meets Robert Louis Stevenson, who immediately falls in love with her. As he’s several years her junior, she doesn’t initially return his affections. But soon she’s under his spell, and thus begins the whirlwind lifetime of land and sea, from frozen mountains to tropical rainforests, in sickness and health, for richer and poorer and until death did them part. This is Nancy Horan’s Under the Wide and Starry Sky.


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The Puttermesser Papers

21 Feb 2014 By
Comments 1 In Contemporary fiction, Fiction Books

The Puttermesser Papers, Cynthia Ozick, book reviewRuth Puttermesser is a keenly intelligent woman and a fervent feminist, who by all rights should have been living an exceptionally amazing life. But despite her Ivy League law degree and total dedication, at age 34 she seems stuck with her lack of ambition in an ambiguous sounding New York City municipal department. But that doesn’t mean she’s boring. In fact, she’s anything but that, mostly because she’s been observing things – everything. So when work suddenly turns sour she takes things into her own hands. But are the upheavals and chaos that ensue her own doing, or not? This is The Puttermesser Papers by Cynthia Ozick.


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The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey

19 Feb 2014 By
Comments 0 In Contemporary fiction, Fiction Books

The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey, Hansda Sowvendra Sekhar, book reviewThe Santhal villages of Bengal and Jharkhand remain much of a mystery for most readers. Visitors to Shantiniketan admire their art and silver work or glimpse them in Satyajit Ray’s Aranyer Din Ratri. What is known is that the women are liberated, beautiful and drink haandi and that the Santhals are a very private, fiercely independent people. Hansda Sowvendra Sekhar’s debut novel takes us into the heart of the villages and into the stories behind their lives. Witchcraft or dahni-bidya is rife and women are rumoured to feast on human livers. In the middle of this comes the story of Rupi Baskey who delivers a child in the paddy field – an opening that reminds me of another novel, possibly Sarita Mandanna’s Tiger Hills, but one which seems to work here, though the story of Rupi gets diverted to the back story of her family, her step mother and her mother in law Purki.


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Sheila

13 Feb 2014 By
Comments 1 In Biography

Sheila, Robert Wainwright, book reviewSheila by Robert Wainwright is the biography of Sheila Chisholm, an Australian later known as Lady Loughborough, Lady Milbanke and Princess Dimitri. Born on her family’s homestead of Wollogorang, two days from Sydney, Sheila met her first husband, Lord Loughborough, while working as a volunteer nurse in Egypt during the First World War. In London, she was an immediate success in society, and remained at the top of social circles in the decades to come. She became Lady Milbanke on her second marriage, and then in later life she married the exiled Prince Dimitri of Russia, ending her days as Princess Dimitri.

Prior to spotting this book in a list of upcoming publications from Allen & Unwin, I had never heard of Sheila Chisholm.


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Season to Taste or How to Eat Your Husband

12 Feb 2014 By
Comments 0 In Contemporary fiction, Fiction Books

Season To Taste or How To Eat Your Husband by Natalie Young, book reviewLizzie Prain is a fifty-something housewife in rural Surrey. She has been married to her dull husband Jacob for thirty years, and enjoys cooking, gardening and walking their dog Rita in the local woods. When the neighbours at the farm up the road mention they haven’t seen Jacob for a while, Lizzie tells them that he has left her for another woman and won’t be coming back. In fact, last Monday morning she spontaneously caved Jacob’s head in with a spade as he was planting a tree in their garden. Ever the practical sort, Lizzie’s thoughts turned immediately to how she will dispose of the body. Worried that burying Jacob in the woods will lead to his discovery – and be unpleasant for whoever did the finding – and burying him at the house would prevent her from ever moving away, she comes to a firm decision. The only way to dispose of Jacob is to eat him. After all, it would be morally wrong to waste all that meat.


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When the Hills Ask for Your Blood

12 Feb 2014 By
Comments 0 In Biography, History

When The Hills Ask For Your Blood, David Belton, book reviewDuring the Rwandan genocide in 1994, David Belton was working as a producer and director for the BBC’s Newsnight programme, for which he covered the genocide along with a reporter and small crew. He also co-wrote and produced the feature film Shooting Dogs, which was based on real events during the genocide. Twenty years later, he tells his story in When the Hills Ask for Your Blood, revisiting a country trying to recover from those horrific events. He also tells the stories of Jean-Pierre and Odette, a Rwandan couple fearing for their lives and those of their children, and Vjeko Curic, a Bosnian missionary who tried to save as many lives as he could.

The genocide in Rwanda is one of the most horrific periods in recent history, the pain of which Rwandans continue to live with.


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The Thread

12 Feb 2014 By
Comments 0 In Contemporary fiction, Fiction Books

The Thread, Victoria Hislop, book reviewDuring the 20th Century, the sea-side Greek city of Thessaloniki saw it all – fires, wars and earthquakes. This is the backdrop of Victoria Hislop’s novel The Thread. In it, we get to know the story of this city through a fictional cast of characters. As the book opens, Katerina and Dmitri’s grandson has come to visit. He asks them why they still live in this city, since their children and their families are all in England or the USA. The answer to his question is the story of these two people and this special city.

Novelist Hislop is well known for her love of the Mediterranean. Her first novel “The Island” was about Crete, and her second “The Return” was about Granada, Spain.


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Snowblind

11 Feb 2014 By
Comments 0 In Fiction Books, Thriller fiction

Snowblind, Christopher Golden, book reviewChristopher Golden’s new novel Snowblind reads like Stephen King light. Here is the New England setting, complete with a town past its prime following the departure of the main local industry some years previously. Here is the ensemble cast of all-American characters. Here is the strange event that is about to impinge upon the lives of said characters without warning or explanation. It is perhaps, therefore, not surprising that that King himself gives the book its cover quote, endorsing the contents within as “the real deal”.

In Snowblind, we visit the town of Coventry as the worst winter storm in living memory is sweeping through, depositing huge amounts of snow and blowing it into thick drifts that block roads and bring down power lines.


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The Kitchen Daughter

11 Feb 2014 By
Comments 0 In Contemporary fiction, Fiction Books

The Kitchen Daughter, Jael McHenry, book reviewGinny has Asperger’s, and one of the few things that calms and comforts her during times of stress, is cooking. So when she’s trying to cope with the sudden death of her parents by making one of her grandmother Nonna’s recipes, and Nonna’s ghost appears in the kitchen, she’s not sure what to think. Is she being cursed or has she got a gift? One thing for certain, she can’t tell her sister Amanda, or she’ll certainly have to move in with her and her family. More importantly, what was the message Nonna was trying to tell her, just as she faded away? Whatever it was, Ginny knows one thing – she wants to be left alone to find out and take care of herself, no matter what Amanda thinks. This is The Kitchen Daughter by Jael McHenry.


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A White Trail

31 Jan 2014 By
Comments 1 In Fiction Books

A White Trail: A Journey into the Heart of Pakistan's Religious Minorities, Khalid Haroon, book reviewWhen Pakistan was divided during Partition, it became a nation frantically seeking identity through religion. However it was also a country where religious minorities still existed because people would not leave their hearth and home believing that their neighbours would remain their friends and life would continue as before. But Pakistan was not what it had been and the minority faiths began to find themselves more and more marginalised and many were forced to take Muslim names so that they could go around publicly without drawing attention to themselves. 45 year old Shazia Waleed, for instance, a Hindu convert to Islam working for a prominent global NGO was Sandhya Gupta before her parents were murdered in 1981. Journalist Haroon Khalid courageously embarked on a series of articles about these communities and how they were managing to survive.


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