Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Graham

NarcopolisJeet Thayil’s Narcopolis made it onto the shortlist for the Booker Prize. Set in the drug dens of Bombay through the 1970s and 1980s it is a compelling and disturbing novel. Narcopolis follows the underclass of addicts through the years as the drug scene changes from the more “gentle” and “refined” use of opium onto the ravages of heroin, and finally out the other side into survival for some. Continue reading →

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NW by Zadie Smith

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Graham

NWZadie Smith’s latest book, NW, which has recently been shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, or ex-Orange Prize, is both fascinating, and complex. NW, standing for the postcode of North-West London is a mix of semi-overlapping stories told in a variety of experimental styles. Continue reading →

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A History of the World in Twelve Maps by Jerry Brotton

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Graham

A History of the World in Twelve MapsJerry Brotton’s A History of the World in Twelve Maps has a title which describes itself. It is a serious, academic, and heavily researched (and physically heavy) study of global history illustrated by twelve cartographic examples. The maps selected by Brotton span a chronological range of nearly two thousand years from Ptolemy to Google Earth. Many of the maps that one would expect to find are included, such as the Hereford Mappa Mundi, Gerard Mercator‘s world map, and the twentieth century Peter’s Projection. However, there are also a number of maps that won’t be so familiar including the Korean Kangnido world map and the Cassini map of France. Continue reading →

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Bad News by Edward St Aubyn

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Graham

Bad NewsBad News is the second novel in Edward St Aubyn’s Patrick Melrose series of books, following on from Never Mind. In Bad News, Patrick is no longer a child, but a drug-addled man in his twenties. While the monstrous David Melrose, the father of Patrick, was a central character of the first book, Never Mind, in this one he has died, with Patrick travelling to New York to collect the ashes. Continue reading →

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Boxer Beetle by Ned Beauman

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Graham

Boxer BeetleHaving read Ned Beauman’s excellent novel The Teleportation Accident I had to go back and read his first book, Boxer Beetle. Falling somewhere in between historical fiction and sci-fi, the novel has one of the most bizarre cast-lists imaginable. There are collectors of Nazi memorabilia, amateur eugenicists, and a short, nine-toed, Jewish Boxer among others. And beetles, with swastikas on their wings. Continue reading →

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Swimming Home by Deborah Levy

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Graham

Swimming HomeA lot of the attention around the 2012 Booker Prize was focussed on Deborah Levy’s Swimming Home, in part because it was published by the independent, subscription based publisher, And Other Stories. However, it is likely that this novel would have received a lot of well-deserved attention regardless of the publishing house. Set during a bizarre family holiday in Nice in the 1990s, Swimming Home is a powerful story of hidden emotions and depression. Continue reading →

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Spies and Commissars by Robert Service

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Graham

Spies and CommissarsRobert Service has written acclaimed biographies of the leading Bolsheviks, Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky. In Spies and Commissars he takes a look at the October Revolution from the outside. In the aftermath of the Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917 there were a myriad of conflicting relations and interventions between the new Red government and the Western powers. Both sides tried to get to grips with the change in the world order that had come about. Continue reading →

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The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng

Posted on February 23, 2013 by Graham

The Garden of Evening MistsTan Twan Eng’s first novel, The Gift of Rain, was longlisted for the Booker Prize back in 2007. With his second book, The Garden of Evening Mists, he has gone one better and made the shortlist. Again set in his native Malaysia, but this time in the hillstations of the mainland, rather than the island of Penang.

Yun Ling is Chinese Malaysian who was imprisoned in a Japanese labour camp along with her sister during World War Two. She survives the war, and goes on to become a judge, prosecuting Japanese war criminals, but her sister does not. After the war Yun Ling learns of Aritomo, a Japanese gardener living in the Cameron Highlands, who was formerly the gardener of Emperor Hirohito. Continue reading →

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Caribou Island by David Vann

Posted on January 19, 2013 by Graham

Caribou IslandEver since reading the shocking and stunning Legend of a Suicide I have been wanting to read David Vann’s recent book, Caribou Island. While his first book was a semi-autobiographical collection of stories/novel about the suicide of his father, Caribou Island is a fictional work, albeit with some similarities. From the very first page there is reference to parental suicide, with Irene telling her daughter Rhoda how she found her mother dead when just a young girl. The ghost of that death hangs over the entire novel. Continue reading →

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The Lighthouse by Alison Moore

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Graham

The LighthouseAlison Moore’s short, but ominous novel, The Lighthouse, made it on to the shortlist for the 2012 Booker Prize. It follows the unlikely-named Futh, a recently separated man in his forties on a walking holiday to Germany. While he walks Futh recollects the separation of his parents, and the subsequent holiday he took to Germany with his father. Continue reading →

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