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My Friends by Fredrik Backman

I'm having an enforced rest from working my way through Paul Scott's Raj Quartet because I couldn't find book three when I went to the library on Wednesday. I picked this one up because it's by the same author as the A Man Called Ove, and that was one of those books that has stuck with me, so it seemed like a safe bet. Fredrik Backman has quite a distinctive writing style as he manages to deal with the darkest of subjects with a light touch that somehow doesn't diminish the impact. His books are translated from Swedish, and the dialogue flows well without losing that directness that I associate with nordic people. My Friends is set in an unnamed town on the coast of Sweden, and it neatly blends the stories of a group of people who were teenagers twenty five years ago with present day events happening to an eighteen year old called Louisa. Don't let the thought of so many teenagers put you off. This is no tale of hoodies, fast food and smart phones, more a ...

The Day of the Scorpion by Paul Scott

Book 2 of the Raj Quartet There are a couple of phrases that I would bet the author, Paul Scott, has never had occasion to use: 'to cut a long story short.....' and 'let me cut to the chase....' Never one to keep an answer to a question to a few short lines when three pages will do, and it seems every character in the book has the capacity to talk at length on any given topic. No thought is spared consideration and everyone is an amateur psychiatrist. However, it somehow works and I was captivated for another 530 pages. The book is set in India in 1942 in the immediate aftermath of the events described in The Jewel in the Crown. A young English woman, Daphne Manners, was raped by a gang of men on the night of a civil uprising, and by the start of Book 2, a group of young men have been arrested and sent to prison without trial. The arrested men included Hari Kumar, who had been in a relationship with Miss Manners but she has persuaded him to say nothi...

The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott

Book one of the Raj Quartet This is a novel that you have to commit to concentrating on because the level of detail is outstanding and every word counts. It's over five hundred pages of finely typed print, so that high level of concentration has to be sustained over quite a few days. I usually read a book in a week, but it took me two to read this one and it is just one of the four books that make up the Raj Quartet. It's set in India, 1942, which is right in the middle of the Second World War, and the country has been unsettled by the continued occupation by the British, and the idea of self-rule is gaining supporters. The police and military are struggling to keep control of the population and British people are setting up contingency plans to establish places of safety in the event of an uprising. In late summer when the heavy rains began, two events happened in Mayapore that shook the British to their core. The population had been gathering in numbers a...

Faithbreaker by Hannah Kaner

This is Book 3 of the Godkiller Trilogy, so if you haven't read the other two books, it's going to be hard to keep up with what's going on with this one. I have reviewed the first two already and they can be found at the following links: Godkiller Sunbringer There are six main characters that feature in all the books and they are: Lessa Craier who was a nobelwoman turned pirate after her home was burnt to the ground by a god; Lessa's daughter Inara whose father was a god and so she carries some god-like powers: Arren the king who carries the flame of the god Hestra in place of his heart; The knight Elo who once worked quietly as a baker but now command's the king's army; Kissen the godkiller and lastly Skedi, the small god of white lies, who is bonded with Inara and keeps her safe. The land of Mi...

Seven Dials by Agatha Christie

I have managed to get to the ripe old age of 67 without ever reading any books by Agatha Christie, and was starting to feel as though I was missing out on something. This feeling was bought about by a series of programmes fronted by Lucy Worsley that covered the life of Mrs Christie, particularly the period of time when she went missing from home. Everyone Lucy Worsley interviewed spoke enthusiastically about her books, and I suppose not surprisingly, there is even an Agatha Christie Society who can probably recite whole chapters off by heart. Then, last Wednesday when I went to the library, there were two big piles of Seven Dials sitting on the 'recommends' table so I almost felt that fate had intervened. Anyway, in the end I didn't really enjoy it, although to be fair it was first published in 1929 and the language is very much of its time. The conversation is in the 'what ho!' style with most of the lead characters living in big country houses and having...

The South by Tash Aw

I think I'm missing something in this novel. It made the Booker Longlist last year, and the cover is plastered with praise from other authors, but I struggled to find what was so special about it. My heart didn't stop because it was so vivid (as apparently happened to Oisin McKenna) and I wasn't mesmerised while I was reading it like Michael Cunningham and I was surprised to read that Jemimah Wei wanted to live in it forever. Oh well, I guess Tash Aw can't win us all. It's not a bad book, and it is certainly not often that I have read something by a Chinese author, so it offers me something different to think about. The story is about a teenage boy, Jay, and his family who inherit a family farm in the south and go to stay there while they consider what to do with it. Jay has the opportunity to explore his sexuality once he is away from home and he soon finds himself in a relationship with Chuan, the son of the farm manager. Being away from his ...