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The Loney

Mysterious winner of The Costa Book of the Year 2016

Praised by the likes of Stephen King and sporting one of the best covers I’ve seen for ages, this award-winning book has all the ingredients for a creepy, atmospheric, wintry read. A desolate stretch of English coastline, a gloomy old house, apocalyptic weather, evangelical practices, pagan rites, and a cast of eccentric characters. The story follows events one Easter in the 1970s as a group of evangelical Catholics take a mute boy to be ‘cured’ at a holy shrine. The writing is evocative and Michael Hurley certainly knows his Catechism, with biblical quotes lending a reassuring authority to the narrative. He sets up a series of intriguing mysteries – why did Father Bernard lose his faith? How did the old lady regain her sight? What happened to the baby? What are the dodgy men up to? Why does the younger brother feel the need to record what happened before it is too late? The themes are worth exploring too: witchcraft/nature vs scripture/civilisation; the innocence or otherwise of childhood vs the so-called wisdom of adulthood.

Disappointingly, the book meanders around these themes and never quite knows where it is going; the Gothic tropes, so crammed in the narrative, can hardly breathe; there are too many balls in the air; too many loose ends left untied and – worst of all – the final long-awaited denouement is unconvincing and baffling. The main mystery is why this book ever won the Costa Book of the Year.

The Loney is published by John Murray, 368 pages.

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Heroes of the Frontier

Eggers' Alaskan adventure fails to excite

What a disappointment! I usually devour Dave Eggers’ books, but this story about a woman running away to Alaska with her two young kids in an RV was just plain lifeless and boring, with a plot seemingly going nowhere. I forced myself to read 80 pages, didn’t laugh once and simply gave up. Read Dave Eggers’ The Circle or A Hologram for the King instead.

Heroes of the Frontier by Dave Eggers is published by Hamish Hamilton, 400 pages.

 

 

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The Go-Between

Coming-of-age - the brutal way

Novels don’t come more English than this: boys at boarding school, stately homes, social class, unspoken rules. Leo Colston, our narrator, looks back at his 12-year-old self during the summer of 1900, a summer that would shatter his naivety and change his life. A great English classic and an ominous, intense, coming-of-age novel. Highly recommended!

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Rush Oh!

Tender and Humourous Coming of Age in 19th C Australian Whaling community

A fascinating, partly true, tale of the tenuous relationship between a whaling community and the killer whales that help them catch their prey, set within hardships of a sparse whaling season in Australia in 1908.

Combining fact with fiction, Barrett tells the tale through the naïve and earnest Mary Davidson, the eldest daughter of the Headsman, whose humorous and surprisingly self-reflective voice guides us through this unknown world as she stumbles through adolescence, crush(es), hardship and pain. There are no attempts to give ready answers to life, and even the history of some of the characters (and the future of others beyond the year of 1908) are left open, giving the the reader much to mull over.

An unusual and endearing book: simultaneously full of a quiet suffering, hopeful yearnings, and indefatigable courage.

Rush Oh! is published by Virago, 368 pages. 

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The Book of Tea

The Art of Life

Tea with us became more than an idealisation of the form of drinking; it is a religion of the art of life.

This is not just a book about tea. It is an exceptional book about life, philosophy and beyond. Japanese philosopher and historian Kakuzo Okakura initially wrote the book 110 years ago, aiming to dispel the Western myths of Japanese barbarianism. He recalls the origins of tea, its philosophical ties to Zen and Taoism and the nuances of tea as an allegory for a philosophy of life. A unique book full of a wit and sagacity that makes it impossible to ignore and one of my favourite discoveries this year.

The Book of Tea is published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 54 pages.

 

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The Course of Love

Seasoned Sequel to The Romantic Movement

This is a mature love story. It charts the course of the love between a couple from mixed backgrounds, from their first meeting to post-children. Where it is thin on plot, it is jam-packed with insightful nuggets and, though not yet a guide to marriage, something each married couple should read to better remember the consideration due their partner. While the narrator’s interruptions admittedly sometimes feel slightly patronising and somewhat didactical, they well suit de Botton’s style of musings and I felt they worked within the framework of this pseudo-novel.

It’s been a long time since I read Alain de Botton’s The Romantic Movement, first published in 1994, but I remember being irritated by its tone and disappointed by its attempts at philosophical conclusions. But that was almost 20 years ago and The Course of Love reflects both his personal and intellectual growth with a book that I would recommend.

The Course of Love is published by Hamish Hamilton, 240 pages.

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We have a new book reviewer on our team!

I’m very excited to introduce Jane, our new book reviewer. Just like Meg and Michele, Jane has been handpicked for her impeccable taste in books. She also comes with a great deal of experience from the publishing industry and currently runs her own literary agency specialising in non-fiction books. Our Souls At Night is Jane’s first contribution. Welcome Jane!

Read more about Jane here.

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Our Souls At Night

A tender, contemplative novel about a late life relationship

This is the first book I have read by Kent Haruf, and it won’t be the last. It’s one of those tender, contemplative books in which nothing much happens but through which you feel your life has been immeasurably enhanced.

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Spring

A devastatingly truthful novel about the reality of a sexual affair

David Szalay was born in Canada but has been quite rightly described as a ‘very English novelist.’ In Spring, his third novel, he writes with humour and searing honesty about a relationship set in London one rainy spring. What makes this novel great is Szalay’s microscopic examination of the exquisite possibility of love versus the far more likely possibility of deep despair when this love isn’t reciprocated.

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