Bestsellers for March 2009
1 The Secret Scripture Sebastian Barry Faber & Faber $32.95
Roseanne McNulty, perhaps nearing her one-hundredth birthday - no one is quite sure - faces an uncertain future, as the Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital where she's spent the best part of her adult life prepares for closure. Over the weeks leading up to this upheaval, she talks often with her psychiatrist Dr Grene. This relationship, guarded but trusting after so many years, intensifies and complicates as Dr Grene mourns the death of his wife. Told through their respective journals, the story that emerges - of Roseanne's family in 1930s Sligo - is at once shocking and deeply beautiful. Refracted through the haze of memory and retelling, Roseanne's story becomes an alternative, secret, history of Ireland. Exquisitely written, it is the story of a life blighted by terrible mistreatment and ignorance, and yet marked still by love and passion and hope.
2 The White Tiger Aravind Adiga Atlantic $32.95
Born in a village in heartland India, the son of a rickshaw puller, Balram is taken out of school by his family and put to work in a teashop. As he crushes coals and wipes tables, he nurses a dream of escape - of breaking away from the banks of Mother Ganga, into whose depths have seeped the remains of a hundred generations. The White Tiger is a tale of two Indias. Balram’s journey from darkness of village life to the light of entrepreneurial success is utterly amoral, brilliantly irreverent, deeply endearing and altogether unforgettable.
3 A Most Immoral Woman Linda Jaivin Harper Collins $32.99
This novel draws on the larger-than-life character of George Ernest Morrison, the famous Australian journalist - Morrison of Peking, who it turns out was not only an intrepid explorer, doctor, adventurer and China correspondent, but also a romantic adventurer. Set in China at the turn of the 20th century, the novel tells of Morrisons' obsession with Mae Perkins, a free-living American heiress and the exciting world of politics and journalism in the Far East. Inspired by a true story, this is an erotic and beautifully written tale from one of Australia's most exciting writers.
4 Elegance of the Hedgehog Muriel Barbery Peribo $24.95
Rene is the concierge of a grand Parisian apartment building, home to members of the great and the good. Over the years she has maintained her carefully constructed persona as someone reliable but totally uncultivated, in keeping, she feels, with societys expectations of what a concierge should be. But beneath this faade lies the real Rene: passionate about culture and the arts, and more knowledgeable in many ways than her employers with their outwardly successful but emotionally void lives. Down in her lodge, apart from weekly visits by her one friend Manuela, Rene lives resigned to her lonely lot with only her cat for company. Meanwhile, several floors up, twelve-year-old Paloma Josse is determined to avoid the pampered and vacuous future laid out for her, and decides to end her life on her thirteenth birthday. But unknown to them both, the sudden death of one of their privileged neighbours will dramatically alter their lives forever. By turn moving and hilarious, this unusual novel became the top-selling book in France in 2007 with sales of over 900,000 copies to-date. The French publishing phenomenon of 2007 from an initial print run of 4,000, sales of over 900,000 in hardback. Translation rights sold to 34 countries Cited in Paris Match magazine in highlights of 2007 along with the i-phone and facebook Winner of the prestigious 2007 French booksellers award
5 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Mary Ann Shaffer Allen & Unwin $29.95
A moving tale of post-war friendship, love and books, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society is a captivating and completely irresistible novel of enormous depth and heart. It's 1946, and as Juliet Ashton sits at her desk in her Chelsea flat, she is stumped. A writer of witty newspaper columns during the war, she can't think of what to write next. Out of the blue, she receives a letter from one Dawsey Adams of Guernsey - by chance he's acquired a book Juliet once owned - and, emboldened by their mutual love of books, they begin a correspondence. Dawsey is a member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and it's not long before the rest of the members write to Juliet - including the gawky Isola, who makes home-made potions, Eben, the fisherman who loves Shakespeare, and Will Thisbee, rag-and-bone man and chef of the famous potato peel pie. As letters fly back and forth, Juliet comes to know the extraordinary personalities of the Society and their lives under the German occupation of the island. Entranced by their stories, Juliet decides to visit the island to meet them properly - and unwittingly turns her life upside down. Gloriously honest, enchanting and funny, ‘The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society’ is sure to win your heart.
6 Revolutionary Road Richard Yates Random House $24.95
Hailed as a masterpiece from its first publication, Revolutionary Road is the story of Frank and April Wheeler, a bright young couple who are bored by the banalities of suburban life and long to be extraordinary. With heartbreaking compassion and clarity, Richard Yates shows how Frank and April's decision to change their lives for the better leads to betrayal and tragedy.
7 Valley of Grace Marion Halligan Allen & Unwin $29.95
Marion Halligan's intoxicating novel of love and children relates the interwoven lives of a group of friends in contemporary Paris. Ranging from a loving couple who can't have children to Jean-Marie, the lecturer who leaves a trail of unwanted babies in his wake and Agnes and Claude, the lesbian lovers who also long for children, "Valley of Grace" explores the links between love and sex, family and friendship and emotion and personal responsibility. From the Left Bank bookshops to the apartments and renovated old estates of the suburbs, the book captivates with the tastes, sights and smells of France. The book contains a lovely mix of well-observed characters going through loss and new beginnings.
8 The Slap Christos Tsiolkas Allen & Unwin $32.95
At a suburban barbecue, a man slaps a child who is not his own.
This event has a shocking ricochet effect on a group of people, mostly friends, who are directly or indirectly influenced by the event.In this remarkable novel, Christos Tsiolkas turns his unflinching and all-seeing eye onto that which connects us all: the modern family and domestic life in the twenty-first century. The Slap is told from the points of view of eight people who were present at the barbecue. The slap and its consequences force them all to question their own families and the way they live, their expectations, beliefs and desires.
What unfolds is a powerful, haunting novel about love, sex and marriage, parenting and children, and the fury and intensity - all the passions and conflicting beliefs - that family can arouse. In its clear-eyed and forensic dissection of the ever-growing middle class and its aspirations and fears, The Slap is also a poignant, provocative novel about the nature of loyalty and happiness, compromise and truth.
9 Still Alice Lisa Genova Simon & Schuster $29.95
This is a compelling debut novel about a 50 year-old woman's sudden descent into early onset Alzheimer's disease, written by Lisa Genova, who holds a Phd in Neuroscience from Harvard.
Alice Howland, happily married with 3 children, is a celebrated Harvard professor at the heoght of her career, when she notices a forgetfulness creeping into her life. As confusion sets in and she comes to terms with her devastating diagnosis, Alice struggles to maintain her lifestyle and live for the moment. But her sense of self is being stripped away... In turns heatbreaking, inspiring and terifying, "Still Alice" captures in remarkable detail what it's actually like to lose your mind.
Previous Bestsellers Lists
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3 September 2010
3 August 2010
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3 March 2010
2 February 2010
28 October 2009
29 September 2009
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30 July 2009
Book of the Month
September 2010
Freedom
by
Jonathan Franzen