Unquiet by Linn Ullmann

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Unquiet

A luminous example of fictionalised autobiography

In 2014, when Unquiet by Linn Ullmann was still in the process of being written, the Norwegian writer and journalist was asked by Vogue what she was currently working on. ‘I am writing a memoir’, she replied, ‘or at least I thought it was a memoir. But since my memory is both very vivid and not entirely reliable, it could just as well be a novel.’ At the time, Ullmann was promoting her book Det dyrebare (The Cold Song) in America. The ‘memoir’ she described became the 2015 sensation De urolige, which was recently published in English as Unquiet in a translation by Thilo Reinhard.

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The Order of the Day by Eric Vuillard

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The Order of the Day

Sleepwalking into disaster

What really happened in the 1938 meeting when Hitler told the Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg to roll over or be rolled over? Or during the dinner at 10 Downing Street where Foreign Minister Ribbentropp waxed lyrical about macaroons while watching Chamberlain receive the news that Germany had invaded Austria? In The Order of the Day by Eric Vulliard, the author has pieced together the facts, filled in the gaps and created a fascinating and frightening account of a sleepwalk into disaster.

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Need something to cuddle up with this January?

Try the delightful Cazalet Chronicles - Jane Austen meets Downton Abbey

I was inspired to pick up The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard after hearing snatches of the Radio 4 a while ago, and reading reviews of Artemis Cooper’s biography of the author – about whom I knew little apart from the fact that she was unlucky enough to have been married to the old devil himself, Kingsley Amis. How glad I am that I did, particularly in the dying days of this particularly dismal year. The experience of reading the Cazalet series (The Light Years, Marking Time, Confusion, Casting Off and All Change) is like stepping into a warm bath. Comforting, life-affirming, immersive – and you absolutely don’t want to pull the plug.

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Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

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Things Fall Apart

Colonialism in the eyes of the colonised

A respected clansman – the strongest, fiercest and proudest – Okonkwo is the very symbol of masculinity and power in his Nigerian clan. Enter the British colonialists, waving their God and Queen and, within a few years, both Okonkwo and his Igbo village Umoufia are crushed. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, published in 1959, was the first account of colonialism from the perspective of the colonised. It was written in English and widely published in the West and is an arresting portrayal of the destruction of an indigenous community.

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Colette film – book lovers porn

If you’re heading to the cinema this weekend, I can highly recommend recently released film Colette starring Keira Knightley and Dominic West as French author Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette and her literary ‘middle-man’ and would-be-author husband Willy. Part of Paris’ wilder circles, Colette and Willy led anything but a conservative life, sharing a mistress, amongst other things. Penniless and desperate, Willy needed a blockbuster to finance his drinking and betting and convinced Colette to ghost-write a book, to be published under his name. The book Claudine à l’École, a raunchy, semi-autobiographical coming-of-age novel went on to become a huge best-seller and was followed by three equally successful books in the same series. After fighting for the rights to her books following their separation, Colette became one of France’s most celebrated female authors. Excellent entertainment.

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Ghost Wall

The Iron Age throws chilling echoes to our times

A short novel that delivers a big punch, Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss takes an unusual premise – a students’ archaeological trip – to expose the seam of violence underpinning our modern lives, and to draw chilling parallels between ancient worlds and our own. The disturbing prologue in which an iron age girl is sacrificed in front of her family and friends sets the tone for this unsettling novel which raises themes of gender equality, nationalism, misogyny and domestic violence.

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Hooray! Sally Rooney wins the 2018 Costa Novel Award

I’m very excited this morning to see Sally Rooney win the Costa Novel Award for her excellent novel Normal People. Rooney, at 27 the youngest winner ever, has pulled off a breathtaking feat in writing a novel about love that will appeal as much to an 18 year old as an 80 year old.

Here are the winners in the other categories. The Costa Book of the Year will be chosen from the list of category winners and announced on the 29th of January.

Best first novel: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton(Raven Books)

Best biography: The Cut Out Girl by Bart van Es (Penguin)

Best poetry: Assurances by JO Morgan (Jonathan Cape)

Best children’s book: The Skylarks’ War by Hilary McKay (Macmillan)

Travelling in a Strange Land by David Park

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Travelling in a Strange Land

Moving and tender about parenting

While a snow storm rages, Tom sets off from Belfast by car to collect his sick son at Sunderland University. All flights are cancelled and driving is perilous, but Tom doesn’t have a choice, his son needs help. On his journey through the deserted, snow covered landscape, he reflects on some uncomfortable truths about his family and parenting. Travelling in a Strange Land by David Park, one of Ireland’s most prominent contemporary writers, is a tender, atmospheric read which I highly recommend.

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