BOOKCLUB RECOMMENDATIONS AUGUST 2008
When Will There Be Good News Kate Atkinson Doubleday $32.95
In rural Devon, six-year-old Joanna Mason witnesses an appalling crime. Thirty years later the man convicted of the crime is released from prison.
In Edinburgh, sixteen-year-old Reggie works as a nanny for a G.P. But Dr Hunter has gone missing and Reggie seems to be the only person who is worried.
Across town, Detective Chief Inspector Louise Monroe is also looking for a missing person, unaware that hurtling towards her is an old friend Jackson Brodie himself on a journey that becomes fatally interrupted.
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. The Last Sky Alice Nelson Fremantle Press $29.95
Adrift in a failing marriage, Maya Wise is alone in a strange world far from home. Until, intrigued by an elderly Chinese man carrying a caged nightingale she begins to follow him through the streets and alleys of Hong Kong. Drawn to Ken Tiger and his painful tale of lost love in wartime Shanghai, Maya begins to piece together other stories, other histories from the world around her, and so comes to imagine another life, a different future for herself. A eulogy for the end of love, ‘The Last Sky’ is also a moving meditation on exile, memory and the ways in which we reconcile ourselves with loss. Winner of the 2007 TAG Hungerford Award, this novel was described as ‘elegant and freighted with exquisite perception’ by the Weekend Australian. The Behaviour of Moths Poppy Adams Virago $32.99
From her lookout on the first floor, Ginny watches and waits for her adored younger sister to return to the crumbling mansion that was once their idyllic childhood home. Vivien has not stepped foot in the house since she left, forty seven years ago; Ginny, the reclusive lepidopterist, has rarely ventured outside it. The remembrance of their youth, of loss, and of old rivalries plays across Ginny’s mind. Why is Vivi coming home? Ginny has been selling off the family furniture over the years, gradually shutting off each wing of the house and retreating into the precise routines and isolation that define her days. Only the attic remains untouched. There, collected over several generations, are walls lined with pinned and preserved moths: Bordered Beauties and Rusty Waves, Feathered Footmen and Great Brocades, Purple Cloud, Angle Shades, the Gothic and the Stranger . . . A haunting and compelling debut novel. Six Suspects Vikas Swarup Doubleday $32.95
Vicky Rai, the playboy son of a prominent Indian Cabinet minister has been shot dead by persons unknown at his farmhouse (No. 6) outside Delhi. Six people were partying at his house immediately preceding his death - each one equally liable to have pulled the trigger.
In this elaborate mystery reminiscent of Agatha Christie, we the reader are the detective, as six suspects' lives unravel before our eyes - a bureaucrat, a cannibal, an idiot, an actress, a politician, and a nobody. Each character has their own chapter, three times over, the first being under SUSPECTS; the second under MOTIVES; the third - when all is revealed - under EVIDENCE.
Vikas Swarup's finely schematic and audacious plotting wil delight the many fans of the acclaimed ‘Q & A’.Life in Seven Mistakes Susan Johnson William Heinemann $32.95
After years of patient, passionate effort, Elizabeth Barton's career as a ceramicist is finally taking off. She's about to fly to New York for her first solo show at one of the world's most prestigious galleries. First, though, she has to survive Christmas with her family on the Gold Coast. Why is it impossible to act our age in front of our parents? And how can we begin to care for ageing parents we've spent our lives trying to avoid? ‘Life in Seven Mistakes’ is a black family comedy with an unexpected, and deeply moving, climax. Beautifully written, and imbued with a rich sense of irony, it is acclaimed Australian novelist Susan Johnson's finest achievement to date. Loving Frank Nancy Horan Sceptre $24.99
In the early 1900s polite Chicago society was rocked by terrible scandal as renowned architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, ran off with Mamah Cheney, a client's wife. Abandoning their families and reputations, the lovers fled to Europe and exile. Mamah's actions branded her an unnatural mother and society relished her persecution. For the rest of her life Mamah paid an extraordinary price for moving outside society's rules, in a time that was unforgiving of a woman's quest for fulfilment and personal happiness. Headstrong and honest, her love for Frank was unstoppable. This portrait of her life as his muse and soulmate is a moving, passionate and timeless love story. In this ambitious debut novel, fact and fiction blend together brilliantly. Bookcaffe Bookclubs
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