The following are fiction titles missed while I was recovering
from my accident that occurred the day before the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival in
May.
I am so far behind in my reading as a result of the accident
that I am not going to be able to read all the books that have piled up so what
follows is a brief mention of each.
Apologies to the authors and publishers who
deserve much more but I hope this is better than nothing!
The Last Days of the National Costume
I am so far behind in my reading as a result of the accident
that I am not going to be able to read all the books that have piled up so what
follows is a brief mention of each.
Apologies to the authors and publishers who deserve much more but I hope this is better than nothing!
Apologies to the authors and publishers who deserve much more but I hope this is better than nothing!
The Last Days of the National Costume
Anne Kennedy - - Allen & Unwin - $36.99
A heartwarming novel about illicit love, sewing, blackouts and Belfast, featuring GoGo Sligo, one of the funniest, wisest literary observers of all time with a unique and spellbinding voice.
PerfectRachel Joyce
Doubleday - $36.99
Countless readers around the world have fallen in love with harold fry. Now let his creator, Rachel Joyce, introduce you to another unlikely hero: Byron Hemmings from her new novel, perfect.
Samantha Hayes
Century - $29.99
Claudia seems to have the perfect life.
She's heavily pregnant with a much-wanted baby, she has a loving husband, and a beautiful home.
And then Zoe steps into her life. Zoe has come to help Claudia when her baby arrives.
But there's something about Zoe that Claudia doesn't like. Or trust.
And when she finds Zoe in her bedroom, Claudia's anxiety turns to real fear........
The SonPhilipp Meyer
Vintage - $37.99
Eli McCullough was born in 1836, the year that Texas was declared an independent state. Eight years later he and his brother are kidnapped.
Three stories of one family combine to porduce an epic of and for our time.
The Keeper of SecretsJulie Thomas
Harper Collins - $24.99
Beautiful and mysterious, this debut novel follows a priceless violin across five decades - from WWII to Stalinist Russia to the gilded international concert halls of today - and reveals the loss, love, and secrets of the families who owned it.
Julie Thomas lives in Cambridge, New Zealand. She wrote The Keeper of Secrets over a seven year period while writing and producing full-time in television and film
Louise Doughty
Faber - $36.99
Yvonne Carmichael has worked hard to achieve the life she always wanted: a high-flying career in genetics, a beautiful home, a good relationship with her husband and their two grown-up children. Then one day she meets a stranger at the Houses of Parliament and, on impulse, begins a passionate affair with him – a decision that will put everything she values at risk.
Catherine Robertson
Black Swan - $36.99
Another entertaining novel from this internationally published writer, about tangled relationships, misunderstandings and truculent toddlers.
Sign of the Cross
Thomas Mogford
Bloomsbury- $29.99
When his uncle and aunt are found dead, Spike Sanguinetti must cross the Mediterranean to Malta for their funerals, leaving the courtroom behind. But the more he learns about their violent deaths, the more he is troubled by one thing: what could have prompted a mild-mannered art historian to stab his wife before turning the knife upon himself?
The Yellow BirdsKevin Powers
Sceptre - $29.99
An unforgettable depiction of the psychological impact of war, by a young Iraq veteran and poet, THE YELLOW BIRDS is already being hailed as a modern classic.
A Constellation of Vital PhenomenaAnthony Marra
Hogarth - $37.99
Chechnya. Close your eyes, say the word, and most likely images of burnt-out tanks, villages in rubble, peasants trudging through the snow, and the ashes that used to be their lives will flash through your mind. This is what most of us know about that faraway land and the brutal conflict that raged there for a very long decade. The bare facts: it is a Russian republic that did not manage to splinter off with the rest of the Eastern Bloc, and its population has suffered years of conflict and war. Most recent wars in other parts of the world have spawned books and novels, but strangely this one seems to remain invisible for a Western audience. Anthony Marra is changing this with his beautiful debut.
The HangingLotte & Soren Hammer
Bloomsbury - $29.99
On a cold Monday morning before school begins, two children make a gruesome discovery. Hanging from the roof of the school gymnasium are the bodies of five naked and heavily disfigured men. Detective Chief Superintendent Konrad Simonsen and his team from the Murder Squad in Copenhagen are called in to investigate this horrific case - the men hanging in a geometric pattern; the scene so closely resembling a public execution.
A nerve-wrenching look at justice and retribution, The Hanging is a spectacular crime tale straight from the heart of Scandinavia.
If You were Here
Alafair Burke
Faber - $36.99When McKenna Jordan, a magazine journalist investigating the story of the heroic and unidentified woman, finds the video footage, she thinks she recognizes her as Susan Hauptmann. But Susan disappeared without a trace ten years earlier, having just introduced McKenna to her future husband, Patrick. McKenna's complex search for her missing friend forces her to unearth secrets that lie deep in all their pasts. A sublimely plotted mystery and a devastating thriller about marriage, private security and journalistic scandal, "If You Were Here" further underlines Dennis Lehane's assertion that 'Alafair Burke is one of the finest young crime writers working today'.
And for good measure, a non-fiction title, (something more cheerful), to end this round-up:
All Good Things
Sarah TurnbullHarper Collins - $36.99
For many people, finding the love of your life and moving to Paris would come pretty close to having it all.
Having shared her story in the bestselling Almost French, Sarah Turnbull seemed to have had more than her fair share of dreams come true. But there was still one dream she was beginning to fear might be impossible.
Then out of the blue an opportunity to embark on another adventure offers a new beginning - and new hope.
Leaving Paris behind was never going to be easy. But it helps when your destination is known as paradise on earth, Tahiti...
1 comment:
This is a very interesting list of books. I am sad that you will not be able to do a review for all of these but I hope that you start to feel better. Thank you for adding this list.
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