Thursday 30 June 2016

The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa


The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
First published as Il Gattopardo in Italian in 1958. English translation by Archibald Colquhoun published in 1960.

One of my WorldReads from Italy

Where to buy this book:
Buy the book from Amazon.com / Amazon.co.uk
Buy the paperback from Speedyhen
Buy the paperback from The Book Depository
Buy the paperback from Waterstones

How I got this book:
Purchased at a charity shop

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I found my copy of The Leopard in the OXFAM shop in Hailsham months ago and took a while to get around to reading it. I liked the cover art and was interested to learn more about the Garibaldi period of Italian history. The eponymous Leopard, Don Fabrizio, is an Italian aristocrat in a fading family and, through his eyes, we see how family reacts and adjusts to the new political climate. The main arc of the story is a love triangle between Fabrizio's daughter, Concetta, his nephew and ward, Tancredi, and a nouveau riche village girl, Angelica.

Tancredi goes off to fight with the Garibaldini, but only ever offstage from the main story and Lampuseda doesn't explore the aims of this army - the reader is expected to already know - so I didn't get my history lesson! I did appreciate his descriptions of the towns and countryside of Sicily, the characteristics of her people and how they have been moulded not only by their unforgiving climate, but also by waves of invaders over the centuries. I felt that the writing came alive far more when about Sicily itself than about the family we were following. They appeared to me as always aloof and detached so I didn't really get into their story and finished the book feeling let down.


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa / Historical fiction / Books from Italy

Tuesday 28 June 2016

The Kite Family by Hon Lai Chu


The Kite Family by Hon Lai Chu
Translated by Andrea Lingenfelter. Published in English by Muse in 2016.
The original Chinese edition won the New Writer's Novella prize from Taiwan's Unitas Literary Association

Where to buy this book:
Buy from independent booksellers via Abebooks
Buy the ebook from Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk
Buy the paperback from The Book Depository

How I got this book:
Received a review copy from the publishers via NetGalley

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I don't think that I have read any Hong Kong fiction before so I was interested to try this highly praised short story collection by Hon Lai-Chu. The book consists of six stories including an award-winning novella which gives the collection its name, The Kite Family.

Unfortunately, I struggled to understand what the author was trying to say in most of the stories. Forrest Woods, Chair is perhaps the most accessible and, in this tale, a man who is unable to find any other employment trains his body to take the form of various types of chair so he can hire himself out for other people to sit on. Surreal and weird, but I think I managed to comprehend everything that happened. For the final story, Notes On An Epidemic, I understood the general gist - a woman recovering from a type of influenza caused by living alone is forced to cohabit in a pretend family environment in order to recover - but feel as though I missed layers of meaning that were in small details. The other four tales were way over my head and, even though I read them slowly from start to finish, I couldn't figure out how their disparate elements connected or what the underlying plot was so found them very frustrating and unsatisfying.


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Hon Lai Chu / Short stories / Books from Hong Kong

Sunday 26 June 2016

The Swimmers by Joaquin Perez Azaustre


The Swimmers by Joaquin Perez Azaustre
First published as Los Nadadores in Spain in 2012 by Editorial Anagrama. English edition translated by Lucas Lyndes and published by Frisch And Co on the 13th June 2016.

Featured in Cover Characteristics: Swimming and WorldReads: Spain.

How I got this book:
Received a copy from the publisher via NetGalley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


'Jonás Ager is disappearing: a recent separation has left him aimless, his once promising photography career has ground to a halt, and his assignments at the newspaper are drying up. And an ever-deepening mystery is threatening to engulf him. His mother disappeared without a trace two weeks ago; his gallerist can’t locate his fellow photographer Oliver; and every time he and his best friend Sergio visit the pool for their regular swim, another lane is empty. An entire city seems to be evaporating into thin air.'

I was disconcerted throughout reading The Swimmers by the thought that I had somehow completely missed the point. I did find it difficult to maintain my concentration and was unusually easily diverted away so that might explain my lack of enthusiasm. The writing itself is of a literary style with great sweeps of description and eloquent evocations of art, philosophical concepts and the act of swimming itself. The novel should have been right up my street, but I just could not connect on a satisfactory level. I think Azaustre wants to portray individual alienation within our modern urban societies. I think Jonas' wish to create photography 'showing the stage after the actors have left' so the viewer is unsure whether they will return is reflected in the disappearances of people formerly close to him. However, I didn't understand whether this phenomenon was intended to be real or purely existed within Jonas' own reality. Or was Jonas that was actually disappearing from these other lives and he couldn't see that for himself?

After reading the entire novel, I am none the wiser as to what The Swimmers is actually about! I did enjoy several of the chapters as scenes in their own right and Azaustre has written a convincing portrait of a man unsure of his own identity and purpose so this has allowed my overall three star rating. I just wish the overall story arc had been given greater clarity.

Etsy Find!
by New Media Canvas in
Varna, Bulgaria

Click pic to visit Etsy Shop


Search Literary Flits for more:
Books by Joaquin Perez Azaustre / Contemporary fiction / Books from Spain

Friday 24 June 2016

Victorian by Jordan Elizabeth


Victorian by Jordan Elizabeth
Published by CHBB today, 24th June 2016

Where to buy this book:
Buy the ebook from Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk
Search for this author on Alibris

How I got this book:
Author offered a review copy

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

'Celeste struggles with finding her way from a dark past until she gets a summer volunteer gig at the local historical fair. Enter outrageous actors, dominating psychics, and ghosts stirred by a medium’s presence. With the help of the psychic’s son, who isn’t at all what her dream date would look like, but rather endearing all the same, Celeste uncovers secrets about the village left hidden among the dilapidated buildings. Searching deeper will mean opening her heart, a part of her she’s locked up tight and been petrified of freeing.'

I have enjoyed several Jordan Elizabeth books before so was pleased to be offered a pre-publication copy of Victorian. The story is told from the points of view of two young women, Celeste and Weronika, both of whom have traumatic events in their childhoods. They meet at a Counseling Circle and despite the differences in their outlooks, they swiftly become friends. I liked the realistic way their relationship was portrayed and how Elizabeth gave us time to get to know them before we really ventured into the supernatural element of the story. Other characters weren't so clearly defined so I was still muddling a few names even towards the end, but I felt I understood Celeste and Weronika and could sympathise with their journeys towards emotional healing.

The historical Victorian fair is a complete farce of inaccuracies, much like similar ventures over here. Some people go to great lengths to get everything perfect for the period, others don't even seem to have grasped the right century and the whole effect is great fun. I can imagine the exasperation of the organisers and the eventual triumph as it all begins to come together. I am relieved that Elizabeth didn't dwell on the British accents! The fair provides an unusual and interesting backdrop for the ghostly mystery and that is a satisfying tale in itself. Celeste does seem to spend most of her time not actually working for the fair though which I thought someone might have noticed!

I thought Victorian was a good mystery story with varied cross-genre elements. The potential romance is chaste enough for younger readers although I thought the traumas ultimately revealed by Weronika and Celeste were surprisingly dark for a young adult novel.


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Jordan Elizabeth / Young adult / Books from America

Thursday 23 June 2016

Enver Hoxha: The Iron Fist Of Albania by Blendi Fevziu


Enver Hoxha by Blendi Fevziu
Originally published in Albanian in 2011 by UET Press. English language edition translated by Robert Elsie. Published by I B Tauris in May 2016.

Where to buy this book:
Buy from independent booksellers via Abebooks
Buy the ebook from Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk
Buy the hardback from The Book Depository
Buy the hardback from Waterstones

How I got this book:
Received a review copy from its publishers via NetGalley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Other than a couple of Kiva loans to entrepreneurs in the country I knew practically nothing about the tiny Balkan country of Albania. Reading this newly translated biography of its former dictator, Enver Hoxha, has helped me to understand more about their forty year exclusion. Author Blendi Fevziu is an Albanian journalist and the whole book is written in a reportage style, not dry at all, but firmly factual and pragmatic. Where truth is uncertain this is clearly indicated by the language used and many key events, particularly during Hoxha's ascent and early years of power, are now difficult to establish exactly due to his having since ordered the deaths of witnesses who might have refuted his own version. A prolific writer, Hoxha wrote over 70 books during his lifetime many of which apparently were 'revised' versions of his life so, while Fevziu had extensive material from which to research this biography, gleaning the truth must have been incredibly difficult.

Hoxha's unremarkable early life and dissolute student years in France seemed a strange beginning for a paranoid dictator. His selection as Communist Party leader was more due to his lack of personal drive meaning that he hadn't alienated any of the factions fighting for control, but once he got the nomination, there was no way he was going to relinquish power and maintained absolute control for forty-one years. An incredible achievement even though he effectively destroyed his country and totally isolated himself in the process. I found Fevziu's biography absolutely fascinating both as a overview history of post-war Albania and as a portrait of Hoxha himself. It was disappointing to learn of underhand British interference and finances helping the Communist regime to establish itself as the war ended (is there anywhere we haven't helped to destroy?). I did find it difficult to keep track of who everybody was, especially during the early chapters when timelines frequently jumped around, but once the narrative settled into a more linear approach, identification became easier.

As a cautionary tale against the effects of personality cults and an illustration of how large numbers of people can be convinced to follow self-destructive ideologies, this is an important book. Details of Hoxha's obsessive public relations campaign to present himself as he wanted to be seen and remembered are interestingly similar to celebrity and brand campaigns nowadays and it worked. On its launch a quarter century after Hoxha's 1985 death, some Albanians burned original language copies of this biography in the streets because it dared to criticise their former leader even though he left their country technologically worse off than when he took power, with hundreds dead, thousands imprisoned or interned, and hundreds of thousands starving.


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Blendi Fevziu / biography / Books from Albania

Tuesday 21 June 2016

Gulag 101 by Nico Reznick


Gulag 101 by Nico Reznick
Published in January 2016 by B*Star Kitty Press

Featured in Cover Characteristics: Barbed Wire

How I got this book:
Purchased the ebook

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Three weeks of Literary Flits blogging have just about passed us by already and I think it is high time I reviewed some poetry! I am very happy to start with Nico Reznick's second collection, Gulag 101. I have already reviewed her first poetry collection, Over Glassy Horizons, and her first novel, Anhedonia, over on Stephanie Jane and have been looking forward to exploring more of her work.

'Nico Reznick's second collection of poetry is an exploration of profoundly human themes, such as loss, desire, oppression and the search for meaning, calling upon a disparate array of muses, including Slovakian strippers, the Conservative Party and brain-damaged cat-gods. Reznick's style favours realness over beauty, directness over decoration. Sensitive while avoiding sentimentality, Reznick writes with a savage and soul-baring sincerity that cuts right to the bleeding, beating heart of the human condition.'

Gulag 101 is also a twenty-six poem collection and, unlike Over Glassy Horizons, I don't think I missed the point on a single poem here! I love Reznick's evocative imagery which presents familiar and often mundane concepts, but from her own distinctive viewpoint to show up their inherent madness. Slow Death Among The Toner Cartridges and Life Among Vampires certainly hit home with me. As the last line of the first poem, Talking Small, says, 'Can't we talk just a little bit bigger than this?' and I thought that one line perfectly sums up many of the other poems. We are all so much more than vehicles for inane consumerism and hamster-wheel lives, although reaching for the deific heights of felines is probably overly optimistic. I like the anger of Rejection and its immediate contrast to the world-weariness of Laureate. The King Of Sutton Park is a beautiful lament to ageing and our society's lack of connection with elderly people, and I loved the sordid vulnerability in Lenka.

While reading both The New Breed and Reptiles As A Metaphor I found myself in the weird situation of having identical thoughts about two books read back to back. The thought was 'how apt these words are for the current Brexit hysteria' even though they weren't written directly about it. (The other book was Waiting For The Barbarians which I will be reviewing tomorrow) In these two poems Reznick nails exactly what is unsettling about our political elite!

I think Gulag 101 is a strong collection of contemporary poetry with a lot to say about life in 2010s Britain. Nothing rhymes, but the poems have an insistent and effective rhythm and pace which I loved, especially when reading them aloud.


Search Literary Flits for more:
Books by Nico Reznick / Poetry / Books from England

Monday 20 June 2016

The Life Of Elves by Muriel Barbery


The Life of Elves by Muriel Barbery
Translated by Alison Anderson. Published in English in May 2016 by Gallic Books. I am not sure when or if a French edition was published as I could only track down the English translation. This seems to have first been published by Europa Editions in February 2016.

Where to buy this book:
Buy the ebook from Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk
Buy the paperback from Speedyhen
Buy the paperback from The Book Depository
Buy the paperback from Waterstones

How I got this book:
Offered a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Life Of Elves is very different to Barbery's previous novels such as The Elegance Of The Hedgehog which I have noticed upset other reviewers. I couldn't actually remember much about the former book, other than being very impressed by it, and I think it helped me not to have any preconceptions.

Set in a timeless France and Italy, the story revolves around the mystical connection between two young girls. Maria was abandoned in a French village as a baby, the only clue to her origins being two Spanish words embroidered onto her wraps. Clara was brought up in Italy and finds herself a child prodigy pianist. I loved Barbery's descriptions of music and the evocations of sound. Clara's flights of imagination at these points, seeing mountains and streams or the stone cages that are cities intricately woven through the melodies she plays, are superbly written and some of the most visionary prose passages I have ever read. This alone is the reason why I would urge people to buy The Life Of Elves.

However, alongside such beauty also comes frustration as, even after finishing it, I still don't really know what this book is about. Supernatural beings in the form of Elves have come into the human world and Maria's village comes under attack, but I never understood why or even really who by. Perhaps experienced readers of fantasy novels would find the overriding story ar so obvious that Barbery felt she didn't need to make it explicit. Personally, at the time, I was happy to simply be swept along in the whirl of words, but now I am trying to write a review I think it would have been nice to have known exactly what was going on!


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Muriel Barbery / Fantasy / Books from France

Saturday 18 June 2016

Gotta Find A Home by Dennis Cardiff


Gotta Find a Home: Conversations with Street People by Dennis Cardiff
Published by Karenzo Media on the 4th June 2014.

One of my WorldReads from Canada.


How I got this book:
Purchased the ebook

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I discovered Gotta Find A Home on twitter where its author posts as @DennisCardiff. I will admit that I am one of those who generally averts their eyes when I notice beggars on the street so, other than the usual political platitudes, I know very little about the people themselves. Intrigued by Dennis' synopsis, I bought his book. All the profits from Gotta Find A Home are donated to homelessness alleviation projects in Toronto so I thought even if I didn't like the read, I was doing a good thing with its purchase.

As it turned out, this is a pretty fascinating book. Written in diary form, Dennis recounts daily conversations he has had with members of a fluctuating group of homeless panhandlers (beggars) who live near to where he works in Toronto. Conversations aren't recorded, but related from memory, so I did find the speaking style a little odd to begin with. What surprised me most though was the lack of a stereotype within the group. These people are of all ages from their twenties to their sixties (although many will die much younger than they might if they weren't homeless) some are abuse victims but not all, some are alcoholics or drug addicts but not all, some have a university education while others can barely write, some are mentally disturbed while others are highly intelligent and articulate. There is apparently no such thing as A Typical Homeless Person.

Dennis makes no claims to have the answers to homelessness, neither does he defend or vilify the behaviour and actions of the people about whom he writes. Instead he simply presents their day-to-day lives and leaves us readers to make our own decisions. Formerly anonymous grey shapes, as appear in every town in Britain in the same circumstances as in Canada, now define themselves into 'normal people' (if you'll excuse that phrase). This is Joy. This is Ian. This is Hippo. This is Lucy. They talk about their friends and relationships, what they might have for dinner, how much they've earned today, and whether there is enough to pay the rent. Then they mention an acquaintance who had his teeth kicked out and another who was doused in gasoline and set alight.

I think Gotta Find A Home would make a very interesting Book Club choice as I found my assumptions being challenged, but without my being made to feel defensive or hectored. I would definitely like to hear opinions from other readers as I hope that this memoir will remain memorable for me.

Etsy Find!
by Rosy Pads in
Missouri, USA

Click pic to visit Etsy Shop


Search Literary Flits for more:
Books by Dennis Cardiff / Memoirs / Books from Canada

Wednesday 15 June 2016

From The Mouth Of The Whale by Sjon + Giveaway


From the Mouth of the Whale by Sjón
Originally published in 2008. English translation by Victoria Cribb published in 2011. Shortlisted for the 2012 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the 2013 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

One of my WorldReads from Iceland
I registered this book at Bookcrossing

How I got this book:
Purchased a second-hand copy at Totnes Community Bookshop

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The year is 1635. Iceland is a world darkened by superstition, poverty and cruelty. Men of science marvel over a unicorn's horn, poor folk worship the Virgin in secret and both books and men are burnt. Jonas Palmason, a poet and self-taught healer, has been condemned to exile for heretical conduct, having fallen foul of the local magistrate. Banished to a barren island, Jonas recalls his exorcism of a walking corpse on the remote Snjafjöll coast, the frenzied massacre of innocent Basque whalers at the hands of local villagers, and the deaths of three of his children. From the Mouth of the Whale is a magical evocation of an enlightened mind and a vanished age. 

In From The Mouth Of The Whale Sjon blends fact with fiction to produce a bewildering portrait of 1600s Iceland. Genuine historical figure Jon Gudmundsson the Learned really did exist, did marry as astronomer wife and did witness the massacre of Basque whalers. Here he is imagined as Jonas Palmasson, a boy prodigy who becomes a learned man and is ostracised by his community. Outlawed and isolated on a tiny island off Iceland's coast, he must survive as best he can without any help and bereft of his library, but eventually with the company of his wife.

We see the story through Jonas' eyes and it is difficult to tell what is truth, what would have been seen as truth four centuries ago, and what is delusion within Jonas' mind. I was fascinated by scenes such as the devout Catholic village unearthing their banned idols in order to worship them and the text is dotted with short textbook extracts describing the bizarre properties believed of plants and animals. Jumping around in place and time, I was able to piece together Jonas' memories to make sense of his life and the politics of his time. Having visited Iceland, I was easily able to imagine locations such as Thingvallir parliament, but I would have liked more detail in some of the descriptive passages. From The Mouth Of The Whale cleverly brings historic Iceland to life and I would be interested to read more of Sjon's work.


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Sjon / Historical / Books from Iceland


And now for the Giveaway!

I have a unique handmade Red Beanie Hat to giveaway simply for answering the following question on this blog post. How easy is that?!

The Question:
Name a book which is set somewhere really cold?

Comment your answer on this post before midnight (UK time) on the 22nd of June to be in with a chance of winning.

I hand crocheted the beanie from a thick sport weight acrylic yarn in a gorgeous red shade. It is even brighter than the photograph makes it appear so this is a really eye-catching hat. The hat is about 6 inches / 16 cm tall and has a 1 inch turn up which can be unturned if an even taller hat is needed. The unstretched inner circumference is about 20 inches / 50 cm and the crocheting means a little stretchiness to ensure a snug and cosy fit. (Other designs of Headwear are for sale through My Blog Shop)

The Giveaway is open worldwide. Answers must be commented by midnight (UK time) on the 22nd June and I will randomly pick a winner on the 23rd. The winner will be notified by replying to their Comment so if you think you might miss this response please also include other contact info such as your blog URL, twitter name or FB page. If the winner does not respond within 7 days, they will forfeit the prize and I will re-offer the hat in another giveaway.

Good luck!

Tuesday 14 June 2016

Shuttered Life by Florentine Roth


Shuttered Life by Florentine Roth
First published as Der Duft von Bergamotte by Amazon Publishing in Germany in 2014. English translation by Jennifer Marquart published by Amazon Crossing in 2015.

One of my WorldReads from Germany


How I got this book:
Purchased the ebook

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

'When her uncle suffers a heart attack, young Berlin photographer Elisa Westphal returns to her family home in Düsseldorf for the first time in many years. Relations have been strained ever since her father’s death, and Elisa finds the reunion desperately uncomfortable. It seems that everyone in town is behaving oddly, even her childhood crush. Is it simply old tensions reemerging, or is something more sinister at play? When Elisa begins receiving menacing notes, she sets to work narrowing down the suspects. As the dangerous incidents pile up, it seems to Elisa that someone is trying to chase her away. But who? And why?'

Shuttered Life is a short novel which I easily read in a couple of hours. It starts with our narrator, Elisa, being forced off the road while driving in a rainstorm. She doesn't know who deliberately drove their car into hers and our story jumps back in time to lead us round in a complete circle before we find out. We see most of the story from Elisa's point of view except for italicised glimpses of her attacker's thoughts. I wasn't convinced by this device as the thoughts are repetitive and I didn't think the language used was effective for ramping up tension. The Westphal family make for a pretty large cast. They all behave oddly leading each to be a possible suspect to Elisa, but none are actually presented as fully created characters so it was difficult for me to understand or empathise with their revelations and motives.

The whole book struck me as young adult because it is simply written. There isn't much in the way of description and, for me, far too much emphasis was put on Elisa's long-running crush on David. Incidents are too easily brushed off and opportunities to make more of the mysterious notes were squandered. Shuttered Life is an ok read, but overall I thought the whole book felt rushed and lacked atmosphere and excitement.

Etsy Find!
by Foton Lamps in
Budapest, Hungary

Click pic to visit Etsy Shop

Search Literary Flits for more:
Books by Florence Roth / Young adult / Books from Germany

Monday 13 June 2016

King Arthur Goes To Wembley by Jake Nelson


King Arthur Goes To Wembley by Jake Nelson
Self-published in June 2012


How I got this book:
Purchased the ebook

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In King Arthur Goes To Wembley, two schoolboys, Thomas and Marc, stumble across the enchanted resting place of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table while searching for their lost football. Due to a misunderstanding, the awoken King Arthur believes that the ‘Honour of England’ is at stake in a forthcoming international football match. He commands the children to teach ‘the beautiful game’ to the men from Camelot so they can play for England against the world champions!

The story was inspired by the lionisation of present-day Premiership footballers. Jake believes that, if the ancient legends were true, the Knights would have been treated in the same way and there are distinct parallels between the two cultures. He says. “The idea that the finest knights in all the world might just be the finest natural athletes too is only one step away from imagining that, maybe, they could also be great footballers.

Although King Arthur Goes To Wembley is ostensibly a children's book, I enjoyed reading it. The intricacies of the football scenes were lost on me, but the story keeps up a great pace and I particularly liked the characterisation of Merlin and ideas such as the light bulbs' treatment! I also think that, if the right narrator was found, this story would make an excellent audio book.


Etsy Find!
by Tin Skulptures in
Kharkiv, Ukraine

Click pic to visit Etsy Shop


Search Literary Flits for more:
Books by Jake Nelson / Fantasy / Books from England

Sunday 12 June 2016

No Longer At Ease by Chinua Achebe


No Longer At Ease by Chinua Achebe 
Originally published in 1960.
Whole Story audiobook published in July 2010, now available as Recorded Books audiobook published in February 2015.

One of my WorldReads - Nigeria book choices and featured in Cover Characteristics: Hands


How I got this book:
Purchased from Audible

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I originally listened to No Longer At Ease in February 2013 and return to it again last month. The download is narrated by Peter Jay Fernandez who does a pretty good job although his British and Irish accents are mangled at times. I don't know Nigerian accents well enough to tell if those are accurate or not.

No Longer At Ease is the story of Obi Okonkwo, a talented young man whose village, Umuofia, clubbed together to pay for him to be the first from there to study in England - a fantastic honour. The village did want Obi to study law in order to further their interests legally and Obi switched courses to study English literature, but a university degree is still something to be very proud of and Umuofia welcomes back their son with celebrations. Swept along by expectations Obi lands himself a prized government job at the ministry dealing with scholarships, an apartment in a formerly whites-only enclave, a new Morris car and the fantastic salary of seventy pounds a month. It's all obtained fairly, above board and Obi feels he represents the new face of Nigeria.

I loved how Achebe chips away at Obi's naive beliefs and expectations for his life. We know from the very beginning of the story that he will be shamed by bribe-taking, but his downfall is so cleverly portrayed that I felt sorry for him and completely understood his predicament. Torn in many directions, Obi finds himself not only standing against matter-of-course corruption, but also small town views opposing Lagos city experiences, and ancient beliefs still strong under the veneer of his Christian upbringing. The scholarship was actually a loan that must be repaid and keeping up appearances in the city is pricey; his younger brother's school fees compete with those of his mother's hospital; his white boss repeatedly undermines Obi and his country; his girlfriend is of a forbidden caste; and then bills that he never imagined existed begin to pile up. From wonderful initial hope, No Longer At Ease is a portrayal of culture clashes between races, generations and belief systems and provides a valuable insight into how strong people need to be to live between all of those stools.


Search Literary Flits for more:
Books by Chinua Achebe / Audiobooks / Books from Nigeria

Saturday 11 June 2016

The German Messenger by David Malcolm


The German Messenger by David Malcolm
Published by Crime Wave Press in May 2016.

Featured in 5Books1Theme: The Great War and WorldReads: Scotland

Where to buy this book:



How I got this book:
Received a review copy from the publisher.

Author David Malcolm was born and grew up in Scotland so I am counting The German Messenger as my third book for the 2016 Read Scotland Challenge.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

'Late 1916. Europe is tearing itself apart in the Great War. Harry Draffen, part Greek, part Scottish, British secret agent, cosmopolitan, polyglot, man of violence, is having a bad war. Now he is instructed to uncover a plot by the Central Powers against England. From the slums of East London to an Oxford college, from the trenches on the Western Front to an isolated house on the Scottish coast, on to a bloody showdown in the North of England, he chases a phantom and elusive German messenger. Betrayed, deceived, under attack from many enemies, bringing death to those he does not hate and even to those he loves, he tries to reach the heart of the mystery. In a final reckoning in a London tenement, he at last understands the full scope of the plots centered on the German messenger.'

The German Messenger is narrated throughout by our career spy protagonist Harry Draffen. Formerly eager for adventure, he is now getting older and becoming more aware of both his own mortality and that of the people around him which provides a fascinating viewpoint on the Great War. With so many thousands lost every day, what difference can Harry's mission to find one man actually make?  Malcolm wonderfully evokes the 1910s across Europe, the suspicions and intrigues, and the reality of so many countries distrusting each other. The German Messenger is no predictable them-against-us thriller. Instead I enjoyed reading a nuanced and complex pan-European espionage mystery.

We do see everything from Harry's point of view so other characters, especially the women, aren't as fully portrayed as perhaps they could have been. Locations are beautifully described though so I could easily envisage smoky London clubs, a fusty Oxford college, the horror of the trenches and the cold Scottish rain. The prose is let down by a few too many distracting typos, but otherwise I found The German Messenger to be a nicely atmospheric literary thriller.


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by David Malcolm / War fiction / Books from Scotland

Monday 6 June 2016

The Generation Club by Annette Keen


The Generation Club by Annette Keen
Published in October 2012. Won the 2008 Yeovil Literary Prize for unpublished writing.

Where to buy this book:


How I got this book:
Purchased the ebook

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I knew of Eastbourne author Annette Keen because she used to run a monthly jazz night I enjoyed attending. However I didn't initially know that she was a writer. Apparently she began self-publishing stories aged only eight but was discouraged by the labour-intensive process of writing out pages by hand and stapling them together! Some years later, with the acquisition of a word processor, her talent came to the fore again.

Annette describes her debut novel, The Generation Club as 'Gran-lit' but I think this does the book a disservice as I am sure it has much wider appeal! The novel is a well-observed look at the lives of six people, all of whom are first-call carers for elderly relations. From the cover art, I was expecting a 'fluffier' read, but The Generation Club does go to dark places. It is a real page-turner that left me quite irritable when I needed to put it down to do other things. I felt included in the lives of the 'the girls' and, although I hope not to end up in the same situation, I enjoyed seeing into their world and missed them in the days immediately after I finished reading. I have no hesitation in recommending The Generation Club as a good cosy holiday read.


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Annette Keen / Women's fiction / Books from England

Saturday 4 June 2016

Spinsters' Rock by Caeia March


Spinsters' Rock by Caeia March
Published by The Women's Press in July 1999.

Featured in Cover Characteristics: Hands


I registered a copy of this book at Bookcrossing

How I got this book:
Swapped for at Dornafield campsite book exchange

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As a teenager in the late 1980s and early 1990s I went through a phase of reading Women's Press books, easily spotting their distinctive black and white spines in bookshops, but the books are harder to find now so I made a point to swap for Spinsters' Rock when I saw the novel in a book exchange last month. Set in two time periods - the late 1980s and then the late 1990s - the novel actually follows on from a previous Caeia March book, Three Ply Yarn, which I don't remember having read, but I had no problem with missing information in Spinsters' Rock. It works well as a standalone story in its own right.

At the beginning, lesbian couple Dee and Lotte discover a pair of derelict cottages near Brighton in Sussex and decide they must buy and renovate them. In the process of creating an idyllic rural home they also find themselves sharing their house with troubled teenager Gail who has nowhere else to go. Through the calm environment and supportive friendship offered by Dee and Lotte, Gail begins to heal, growing more confident in herself and eventually reaching out to help others around her as she was helped. Spinsters' Rock is very much a novel of friendship and women being strong for themselves and for other women. The fairly large cast of interlinked characters take it in turns to be the focus of chapters and we learn about their lives through conversations and letters. I didn't always find it easy to differentiate between speakers as some are not especially well defined and their stories seemed more like the recounting of real life events, picked and chosen without a strong overall narrative. This style took a little getting used to and felt like the slowing of life from town living to country retreat, a theme of the book that rang very true.

Sometimes I did think Spinsters' Rock had dated somewhat, other times it felt almost like historical fiction. Although published in 1999, it accurately evoked the 1980s - the fears surrounding Clause 28 legislation and the dreams and goals of lesbian women at that time. The dialogue isn't always convincing and I found elements of the spirituality too heavy handed. However I did enjoy the recounting of Spinsters' Rock's mythical history and, as the novel progressed, I was drawn more and more into the lives of these women.

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