Sunday 31 July 2016

The Midnight Palace by Carlos Ruiz Zafon


The Midnight Palace by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Published in 1994. Translated by Lucia Graves.

Featured in Cover Characteristics: Railways and WorldReads: Spain

How I got this book:
Purchased a second-hand copy from Oxfam

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I didn't realise The Midnight Palace was a young adult title when I bought it. I loved Shadow of the Wind and was hoping for more of the same strong writing as I had encountered there. Midnight Palace does not have the beautiful poetic prose of Shadow Of The Wind as is far more concentrated on relaying action and suspense than on extended description. However, it does have good atmosphere with a strong sense of place, and is a gripping adventure story.

Set in 1930s Calcutta, the story follows the mysterious and magical adventures of teenager Ben and his friends as they leave the security of St Patrick's Orphanage where they have grown up. Zafon creates fabulous locations, especially the Palace itself which is actually a formerly fine and now disused railway station. I would recommend this to adults as a light fantasy thriller and a good holiday read.


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Books by Carlos Ruiz Zafon / Young adult / Books from Spain

Saturday 30 July 2016

The Children's Home by Charles Lambert


The Children's Home by Charles Lambert
First published by Aardvark Bureau on the 5th January 2016.

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:
Received a copy from its publishers, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Children's Home is set in an unspecified country that is vaguely enough described that it could be almost anywhere. A man in early middle-age, Morgan, lives reclusively behind the high walls of his private estate seen only by a housekeeper, Engel, who arrived mysteriously in the relatively recent past. An earlier accident left Morgan facially disfigured and he copes with his self-imposed isolation by spending hours amongst his grandfather's library of books. He catalogues these books and only occasionally opens one to read it. When a baby is discovered on the kitchen doorstep Morgan allows Engel to care for it and soon other children begin appearing too. All are given a home within the sprawling house.

The Children's Home is another novel which has wonderfully written scenes. Like another recent read, Silk, the prose is beautiful and there are numerous memorable images, although I am hoping that the dark moments towards the end of the tale do fade soon as some were disturbing to read. I have only awarded a three-star rating though because other aspects were irritating or baffling. Lambert has his characters be evasive on frequent occasions. One especially, a precocious boy named David who seems to age rapidly and soons becomes a kind of leader, repeatedly tells us, through Morgan, that we must be patient and the time is not yet right. However, the book isn't very long! Morgan is unbelievably passive and the children are never clearly defined. We don't even learn how many of them there are. The final denouement is graphic and powerful, but I ultimately thought it unsatisfying because I still didn't know what was really going on. The whys and hows aren't explained so it felt like I had read only the middle chapters. A shame because much of the writing itself is very good, but the overall story is so well hidden that, much like Morgan himself, I felt I had completely missed the point.


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Charles Lambert / Horror / Books from England

Friday 29 July 2016

The Knife Of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness


The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
Published by Walker Books in May 2008. Bolinda audio edition, narrated by Humphrey Bower, published in February 2011.

Where to buy this book:
Buy the audiobook download from Audible via 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:
Purchased the audiobook

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I downloaded the audio version of The Knife Of Never Letting Go from Audible when it was included in one of their two-for-one sales. Humphrey Bower's narration is perfect for the story and I think I enjoyed it far more as spoken word than I would have done in print. Todd, our young hero, speaks in a way that reflects his almost complete lack of education and continuously reading this would have become irritating, but as audio it worked.

I loved Patrick Ness' creation of New World. I could easily picture and believe in this newly settled planet and its native inhabitants. Noise is an interesting concept too and I liked how this aspect of life was explored. The huge stalking bird is fun and the whole set-up of talking animals is well thought through with their interactions reflecting ordinary human observations of their behaviour. Manchee, Todd's dog, was absolutely the star of the book for me!

Other than our main protagonists, Todd and Viola, who do blossom through the novel, the characters are pretty flat, either Good or Evil, and without any great depth. The unfolding horror of the Prentisstown story is nicely paced, but I did find Todd and Viola's repeated hairs-breadth escapes wearying after a while. Aaron's Terminator-like refusal to die is quite funny, but probably not intentionally so! There is a lot of repetition which gets dull, especially of Todd's woe-is-me litany and asking whether murdering someone is necessary to make a boy a man.

As a basic story, I would only have awarded three stars. There's a good unexpected twist at the end, although this does leave us with a cliffhanger, but the main story arc definitely ends so this isn't as irritating as with other series. However, the lift of the audio narration meant The Knife Of Never Letting Go did hold my interest throughout its twelve hours so I have given a four star rating. I am not sure I will return for the next two instalments though.


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Patrick Ness / Fantasy / Books from America

Thursday 28 July 2016

Riker's Calling by Rico Lamoureux


Riker's Calling by Rico Lamoureux
Published by Dramatic Novellas on 4th August 2016. Available to pre-order now through Amazon at a 25% discount. Price will go back up on the 4th.

Where to buy this book:
Buy the ebook from Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk

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

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

'From school bullies to the crime-ridden streets of his hometown of Los Angeles, Jeremy Riker has always felt the need to do something about the injustice surrounding him. Just as he sets out on his journey as an urban warrior, he unknowingly gives rise to an obsessive adversary, who ends up becoming one of the most notorious serial killers the city has ever known. Dubbed by the news media as The Spyderco Killer, the methodical psychopath roots himself deep into Riker's life for the long haul, until his own madness propels everything into an intense climax.'

I was pleasantly surprised by just how good this novella is! Despite its short length, there is gripping tension throughout and good character progression for the main two protagonists. I liked the contrasts between the locales in which scenes take place - the gentle harbour, pristine hospital, seedy city streets - and Lamoureux has paced his story perfectly so there is never a dull moment, but I didn't feel the narrative was overly rushed either. A smattering of typos do detract slightly from the atmosphere and there are several shockingly violent moments - this isn't a book for anyone with a knife phobia! The epilogue takes us into the beginning of a sequel, however Riker's Calling stands as a full story in its own right and has a satisfying conclusion. I very much enjoyed reading this novella.


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Rico Lamoureux / Thrillers / Books from America

Monday 25 July 2016

The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing


The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing
Published in 1988

Featured in Cover Characteristics: Windows

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

I registered this book at Bookcrossing

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

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The novella is billed as horror but I didn't find it fitted into what I would expect from that genre as, although the eponymous child is described as not human, the book is more an examination of social expectations and how we treat people who are different to ourselves.

Harriet and David meet during an office party in the swinging sixties. Both are considered 'old fashioned' by their friends and family. Neither wants to take advantage of the new freedoms of the era and both were effectively sidelined until they met each other. We see their brief courtship and the purchase of a ridiculously large house after their swift marriage. Harriet is soon pregnant with the first of the large family they both desire and, as the years go by and their brood increases, Harriet and David's house become the place to be. Family and friends descend at Christmas, Easter and the summer holidays filling the house with happiness. Instead of being mocked for being uptight and straight laced, the couple are now envied for their welcome and (assisted) generosity.

All is perfect until Harriet's more than usually difficult fifth pregnancy and the birth of Ben, a strange stocky child who physically develops faster than his age should allow, but mentally seems remote and unable to understand basic social concepts. The catalyst for visitors cutting short their stays or making excuses to be elsewhere, Harriet feels blamed for his existence and Ben's menacing presence upsets the other children. After violent acts, David and his parents arrange for Ben to be sent away, leaving Harriet apparently the only one experiencing guilt at his absence.

Lessing has written a compelling novella which I found difficult to put down. It does seem rather dated now although I can't quite put my finger on why, but asks deep questions about how difficult children are treated. Ben is presented as less (or perhaps more) than human, but does this mean he should be excluded? Does his right to a normal family upbringing override the potential safety of his siblings in the same environment? How much freedom should children be allowed in order for them to be happy? These questions are just as relevant today as in the 1980s when The Fifth Child was written and I don't think the answers are any easier. We know what we think we should do and feel, but if this was your family, what decision would you take?


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Doris Lessing / Horror / Books from England

Sunday 24 July 2016

Across The Silence by Caroline Gourlay & Sara Philpott


Across The Silence by Caroline Gourlay
Published in the UK in June 2015 by Five Seasons Press

Where to buy this book:
Buy from independent booksellers via Abebooks
Buy the hardback from Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk

How I got this book:
Briefly borrowed from a friend

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I visited friend's house last week and noticed this beautiful book lying on a side table. It is a collection of haiku by Caroline Gourlay which is illustrated with stunning artwork by Sara Philpott. Being the curious reader I am, I started glancing through and was soon swept up in both the poetry and the illustrated plates. I liked that the chosen images complemented the haiku, but without specifically reproducing the poems' imagery so I could get separate impressions from each with a third meaning often being revealed by their combination. Both Gourlay and Philpott are, I believe, based in Wales and the idea of a rural Welsh landscape is strong within the work.

To give you an idea of Gourlay's haiku, this one was my favourite:

return journey
the child's coat still hanging
on the hedge

Examples of Sara Philpott's fabulous illustrations can be seen on her own website, www.saraphilpott.com


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Caroline Gourlay or Sara Philpott / Poetry / Books from England

Saturday 23 July 2016

The Road To Soweto by Julian Brown


The Road To Soweto: Resistance And The Uprising Of 16 June 1976 by Julian Brown
Published by James Currey in April 2016.

One of my WorldReads from South Africa.

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 the publisher via NetGalley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

'This revisionary account of the Soweto Uprising of June 1976 and the decade preceding it transforms our understanding of what led to this crucial flashpoint of South Africa's history. Brown argues that far from there being "quiescence" following the Sharpeville Massacre and the suppression of African opposition movements, during which they went underground, this period was marked by experiments in resistance and attempts to develop new forms of politics that prepared the ground for the Uprising. Students at South Africa's segregated universities began to re-organise themselves as a political force; new ideas about race reinvigorated political thought; debates around confrontation shaped the development of new forms of protest. The protest then began to move off university campuses and on to the streets: through the independent actions of workers in Durban, and attempts by students to link their struggles with a broader agenda. These actions made protest public once again, and helped establish the patterns of popular action and state response that would come to shape the events in Soweto on 16 June 1976.'

Julian Brown is a Lecturer in the Department of Political Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg so was perfectly placed to research this detailed survey of the years between the Sharpeville Massacre and the Soweto Uprising. Other than having seen Cry Freedom and read Biko I didn't know much about this period of South African history and was pleased to learn a lot more whilst reading The Road To Soweto. The book is a particularly scholarly work, so quite dry in tone, and obviously expected its readers to already have a working knowledge of previous publications around the subject so I did find myself making leaps of understanding from time to time. The arguments for the progression of protest are well made though and I could clearly follow the links Brown made between the different organisations and movements. I wouldn't say that The Road To Soweto is a book that I enjoyed reading, but it was certainly rewarding to complete.

I know I have a South African novel about this historical period, Bitter Fruit by Achmat Dangor, waiting on my book shelf. My OH has read it and mentioned that he would have liked more background knowledge first. Hopefully The Road To Soweto will have provided me with that information!


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Julian Brown / History books / Books from South Africa

Thursday 21 July 2016

Outsider In Amsterdam by Janwillem van der Wetering


Outsider In Amsterdam by Janwillem van der Wetering
First published in 1975. Republished by Soho Press Inc, most recently in 2013.

One of my WorldReads from the Netherlands

Where to buy this book:


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

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

'On a quiet street in downtown Amsterdam, the founder of a new religious society/commune—a group that calls itself “Hindist” and mixes elements of various “Eastern” traditions—is found hanging from a ceiling beam. Detective-Adjutant Gripstra and Sergeant de Gier of the Amsterdam police are sent to investigate what looks like a simple suicide, but they are immediately suspicious of the circumstances.
This now-classic novel, first published in 1975, introduces Janwillem van de Wetering’s lovable Amsterdam cop duo of portly, worldly-wise Gripstra and handsome, contemplative de Gier. With its unvarnished depiction of the legacy of Dutch colonialism and the darker facets of Amsterdam’s free drug culture, this excellent procedural asks the question of whether a murder may ever be justly committed.'

Outsider In Amsterdam is very much a book of its time reflecting the chauvinistic attitudes of the 1970s to both gender and race. This frequently jarred my concentration on the story and took a conscious effort to overcome. Once I had done so however, the police procedural story was engaging and even elegant in its structure. Our sort-of-heroes, the policemen Grijpstra and de Gier are perfectly real characters with eminently believable flaws and prejudices - these, sadly, can't be as easily dismissed as historic! Van der Wetering worked as a policeman in Amsterdam and his experience shines through the text. I was also reminded of the realism and mundane detail of Sjowall and Wahloo's Martin Beck series. Outsider In Amsterdam was first published just a few years after those books and I wondered if they were an influence.

I enjoyed van der Wetering's portrayal of Amsterdam, its inhabitants and the social problems within the city. Much of the patronising post-colonial attitude was familiar to me from similar British history and Papuan van Meteren's calm dignity provided a powerful contrast to this. The plot line is sufficiently complex to be engrossing and has a satisfying conclusion, albeit perhaps a little overdramatic. I had to remind myself that the now-familiar police procedural novel structure perhaps wasn't so well-used back in the 1970s so occasional cliches would have become so since Outsider In Amsterdam was written. I can see why the book is considered a classic of its genre and would certainly recommend it to crime and mystery novel fans.


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Janwillem van der Wetering / Crime fiction / Books from The Netherlands

Tuesday 19 July 2016

The Other One by Nico Reznick


The Other One by Nico Reznick
Published in March 2016 by B*Star Kitty Press

Where to buy this book:
Buy the ebook from Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk

How I got this book:
Purchased the ebook

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"My name is Cordelia... not like that means anything. I’m not the interesting part of this story. No one has any reason to invest in me as a character. I’m ill-defined and incidental. This entire thing: it’s never been about me. It’s always been about her."
Cordelia has a twin sister. That is to say, she used to. Maybe she still does. No one’s too sure exactly where Annabel is now. But at least – alive or dead – she hasn’t been forgotten. Since Annabel’s abduction, aged six, Cordelia has come to learn that there are other ways of vanishing besides simply disappearing. Overlooked by her own traumatised parents, patronised by police investigators and marginalised by teachers and former friends, growing up in the long, dark shadow of her absent sister, Cordelia realises that she has simply become “the other one”.

Regular blog visitors will already know that I am a big fan of Nico Reznick's writing. This is my third five star review for her work with the others being for her poetry collection Gulag 101 and her novel Anhedonia. The Other One is short and sharp and I am finding it difficult to write about without giving away anything important. I definitely appreciated discovering and unravelling its mysteries for myself so don't want to reduce that enjoyment for anyone else! Reznick's narrator, Cordelia, is a great character - bitter in her isolation, but without being overly self-pitying - and, despite her sixteen years, makes acute observations on the world as it appears to her and the factors which influence peoples' relationships with each other. The Other One is a particularly chilling novella and I loved how Reznick slowly ramps up the unease and, although I had by then sort of worked out what had happened, the truth of the ending was an expertly timed shock.


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Nico Reznick / Novellas / Books from England

Sunday 17 July 2016

Songs Of Exile by Banoo Zan


Songs Of Exile by Banoo Zan
Published in Canada in April 2016 by Guernica Editions

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

How I got this book:
Received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

'The poems, arranged chronologically, give an impressionistic account of the poet as an immigrant, in quest of her inner voice and her core self, in the new land. They reveal intense isolation, despite engagement with the so-called political, religious, and cultural disparities between the two countries. The poems tell the story of how the speaker comes closer to her roots by leaving her country behind. They reveal her concern about the Middle East; the negative associations with her country, Iran; her preoccupation with the possibility of reconciliation between the three Abrahamic religions; her concerns about her family back home, and her newly found friends and lover. For the persona in these poems, the political is personal.'

I have struggled to read this poetry collection a couple of times now, but unfortunately it is beyond me and I haven't been able to connect with Banoo Zan's words. There are powerful image flashes in a few of the poems and I am sure that if I were more knowledgeable about Persian culture and about ancient Greek mythology I would get a lot more out of the work. Sadly I was mostly just baffled.


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Banoo Zan / Poetry / Books from Iran

Saturday 16 July 2016

A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry


A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry
First published in 2005 by Faber and Faber. Ebook edition published in 2010.

One of my WorldReads from Ireland

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

How I got this book:
Purchased the ebook

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

'One of the most vivid and realised characters of recent fiction, Willie Dunne is the innocent hero of Sebastian Barry's highly acclaimed novel. Leaving Dublin to fight for the Allied cause as a member of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, he finds himself caught between the war playing out on foreign fields and that festering at home, waiting to erupt with the Easter Rising. Profoundly moving, intimate and epic, "A Long Long Way" charts and evokes a terrible coming of age, one too often written out of history.'

It was very interesting to read about the First World War from an Irish perspective although, being English myself, this was another novel which made me groan at the terrible way my country treated not only Ireland and the Irish but many other countries around the world. Thousands of young and not-so-young Irishmen joined the British Army on the promise of Home Rule at the end of The Great War and were actively encouraged to do so with enthusiastic send-offs and a white feather campaign against those who didn't volunteer. A couple of years later these same men, or the ones that survived at least, were being lined up to shoot at their own people and spat on in the streets for being 'English' soldiers.

Barry doesn't hold back in his descriptions of the horrific conditions in the trenches. Our young hero, Willie, is at Ypres and fights the Somme battles, his initial heartbreakingly naive optimism slowly giving way to emotional numbness and debilitating shock. I loved the strong Irish feel throughout this story and the repeated inclusion of the many peoples from all over the world who came to fight. The global aspect is often overlooked in war fiction, but A Long Long Way draws a powerful portrait of a truly World War. Most of all for me, A Long Long Way felt like an honest picture of a man and his family at the time. This isn't a saccharine novel of jolly lads together and faithful sweethearts back home. Reading this book almost exactly a century after one of its most remembered battles was a moving experience and, even though Barry wrote disgusting images that I would much rather not have imagined, I think this is an important story for a wide audience.


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Sebastian Barry / War books / Books from Ireland

Tuesday 12 July 2016

The True Picture by Alison Habens


The True Picture by Alison Habens
Self published in 2015.

One of my Top Ten Books of 2015 and one of my Top Ten Books for IndiePrideDay 2016.

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

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Nothing is known about the real St Veronica. She’s never mentioned in the bible but appears at the sixth Station of the Cross. 
True – Vera, Picture – Icon: Veronica might be a myth but in ‘the true picture’ she is a glamorous dye-dealer from ancient Tyre, an ex-temple dancer with a dark past, who gives up the purple trade, a towering hairstyle and all her jewellery, to follow Jesus to Jerusalem in around AD 33. 
Her story is closely based on gospel history but with a quirky modern twist! 

I received a copy of The True Picture via its author, Alison Habens, who contacted me on Twitter asking if I would be interested in reading her book to review. I wasn't sure at first as the cover art led me to expect a certain style of 'Life of the Saints' Christian novel. My impression could not have been more wrong, however, and I am delighted to have taken a chance on what turned out to be a great historical novel.

I saw my first Stations Of The Cross - a series of images depicting the Christian crucifixion story - in Cullera earlier this year. One showed a woman, Saint Veronica, about whom practically nothing is known historically. Habens has imagined her a life in which a career as a temple-dancer and songstress for Venus is viciously cut short, and a privileged position as saleswoman in the prosperous family business leads to her meeting a charismatic travelling man.

I loved the character of Veronica. She has a certain world-weariness, but is also vivacious, determined and proud of her status as a Roman businesswoman in the city of Tyre. Her shop selling purple-dyed fabric trim to the upper echelons of society has made her rich so we learn about her fashionable clothing and towering hairstyles. Habens vividly describes the sounds, fragrances, brilliant colours and mingling cultures of Roman life in energetic prose. She manages to keep up this energy throughout the novel, making The True Picture a truly exciting read. Her clever melding of italicised latin words with modern-day slang expressions is nicely done to evoke the historical setting and to show her characters as people with whom I could easily identify.

We learn of the arrival of Jesus through Veronica's eyes, learn how she is smitten by him yet is uncertain about throwing over her traditional gods, and how she sets out - alone and in totally inappropriate footwear - to follow him. Her learning to trust again is sensitively handled, as are the changing relationships with her sister and friends. The solidarity engendered by long distance walking rang true with me as did Veronica's thrill at being involved in the start of a something new. I appreciated the almost incidental inclusion of Biblical events and stories. Veronica might be at the back of the crowd or catching up with a gossipy chat, so The True Picture is always her tale, not simply a rehash of gospel stories. We also meet people harmed by their connection with Jesus' life - the woman whose son was murdered by soldiers is a memorable image - which adds a poignant depth to the novel.

I thoroughly enjoyed The True Picture and will no doubt be 'singing its praises' for a long time to come. I would highly recommend it to fans of historical fiction, journey stories and tales of strong sassy heroines.

Etsy Find!
by Maria Santissima Shop in
Lisbon, Portugal

Click pic to visit Etsy Shop

Search Literary Flits for more:
Books by Alison Habens / Historical fiction / Books from England

Sunday 10 July 2016

Silk by Alessandro Baricco


Silk by Alessandro Baricco
First published in Italian as Seta in 1996. English translation by Ann Goldstein in 2006.

Featured in 5Books1Theme: Books To Film and WorldReads: Italy

How I got this book:
Borrowed from a friend

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


In 1861 French silkworm merchant Hervé Joncour travels to Japan, where he encounters the mysterious Hara Kei. He develops a painful longing for Kei’s beautiful concubine – but they cannot touch; they don’t even speak. And he cannot read the note she sends him until he has returned to his own country. But the moment he does, Joncour is enslaved.

Subtle, tender and surprising, Silk is an evocative tale of erotic possession.

I borrowed a paperback copy of Silk by Alessandro Baricco from my friend who absolutely loved this book. Written by an Italian author, the story is set in 1860s France and Japan. A French merchant, Herve Joncour, leaves his small town every year to buy silk worm eggs. He travels for a couple of months to the Middle East and always returns on the same date. However, diseased silk worms threaten bankruptcy for the town's silk mills so Herve is encouraged to travel much further, to isolated Japan, in search of healthy silk worm eggs.

The story in Silk is almost incidental to the book itself. The novella's great strength is its beautifully understated writing style which often feels Japanese. The incredible journey to Japan is described briefly, but this passage is repeated word for word each time Herve undertakes the voyage. The repetition reinforces our understanding of his effort. Once in the island nation, his clandestine purchases lead him to meet a concubine. Although the two never even speak, he becomes obsessed with her, taking his obsession home alongside his silk worm eggs. The scenes are so delicately written that they were unlike pretty much anything else I remember reading. At times I found the prose almost too ethereal and I couldn't completely accept the premise of such deep love based on such fleeting encounters. I would recommend Silk though, purely for the beauty of its prose.

Etsy Find!
by Jasuin in
London, England

Click pic to visit Etsy Shop

Search Literary Flits for more:
Books by Alessandro Baricco / Historical fiction / Books from Italy

Saturday 9 July 2016

The Arrival Of Missives by Aliya Whiteley


The Arrival Of Missives by Aliya Whiteley
Published in May 2016 by Unsung Stories

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:
Received a review copy from the publisher via Contemporary Small Press

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Arrival Of Missives is set in a small village in the years following the First World War. The community is very traditional with the same families having worked the land for generations, and men and women keeping to their strictly defined roles. We meet our narrator, Shirley Fearn, when she is sixteen years old. Singled out as the oldest student in the village school and also by her family's landowning status, precocious Shirley believes she is 'marked out for something else', some higher purpose than the role of wife that she seems to look down on in her own mother. Shirley believes the War's aftermath will allow great social changes for women and she will be in the vanguard. Encouraged by the overwhelming crush she has on her teacher, injured ex-soldier Mr Tiller, she envisions herself also as a teacher working and living by his side to guide future generations of boys.

I particularly liked Shirley's breathless enthusiasm for her plan and its childlike naivete. Of course Mr Tiller will return her love and she will be accepted to college! Against the backdrop of the annual May Day preparations we follow Shirley's attempts to both follow her dreams and to make Mr Tiller notice her. As we only see the world through Shirley's eyes, I found it difficult to really get a feel for the other characters. Her strong personality is so much to the fore that even someone as important to the tale as Mr Tiller seems shadowy and unclear. As an older man and with a teacher's responsibility he is understandably reticent with Shirley which made it difficult for me to buy into his sudden decision to reveal to her the supernatural secret of his war injuries.

Arrival Of Missives is interestingly written throughout and I liked Whiteley's detailed observations of everyday lives at the time. The mixed-age schoolroom has almost completely vanished from Britain now, as has the acceptance that a person would remain in a area because their family had always been there. The repeating motif of a three man jury is a neat plot device to reinforce a message of women's desires being ignored and irrelevant. Shirley' realisations of her real purpose to both Mr Tiller and to her family are important and well-portrayed moments. I was convinced by her emotional growth into a woman as the book progresses. I haven't read any of Whiteley's other writing so don't know if meshing science fiction and historical fiction is a recurring theme of her work, but in this novel I am undecided whether it really works. When I consider the science fiction storyline in isolation I quite like the idea, but reconciling it with the existing narrative required quite a leap of faith.


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Aliya Whiteley / Science fiction / Books from England

Friday 8 July 2016

Anne Of Green Gables by L M Montgomery


Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
First published in 1908 by L C Page. Post Hypnotic Press audiobook edition published in 2014.

How I got this book:
Downloaded the audiobook from AudioSYNC

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


'Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert, siblings in their 50s and 60s, had decided to adopt a boy from the orphanage to help Matthew run their Nova Scotia farm. Through a misunderstanding, the orphanage sends Anne Shirley. Bright and quick, eager to please, talkative, and extremely imaginative,' Anne isn't at all what the Cuthberts had in mind, but her exuberance and joie de vivre bring great changes to their lives.

I know I read Anne of Green Gables as a child, but I can’t remember now how I felt about the book at the time. I am sure I must at least have enjoyed discovering so many long words! Revisiting the tale, I found it a thoroughly enjoyable listen and this audiobook version benefits from the excellent narration skills of Colleen Winton.

Orphan Anne is delightfully infuriating and I also love Rachel Lind whose immense self-belief reminded me of Miss Mapp. We meet many Avonlea characters, all convincingly real people, and the clever portrayal of the changing seasons as Anne grows up makes it easy to picture how life must have been within the community. I do think the story loses some of its spark once Anne reaches Queens. I missed the interplay between her and the Cuthberts and that whole year seemed to go by too fast with hardly any of the detail that makes the earlier chapters so fascinating.

Much like Black Beauty, which I also not so long ago revisited, the writing contains an overwhelming amount of moralising and bold statements about correct behaviour. I suppose, reading some thirty years ago, I would have been so used to being told what to do day to day that this would have seemed normal. However reading as an adult, I was surprised at the sheer volume of rigid demands. I had not remembered Anne Of Green Gables being such a bossy book!

Etsy Find!
by Autumn Leah Designs in
Texas, USA

Click pic to visit Etsy Shop


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Books by L M Montgomery / Children's fiction / Books from Canada

Sunday 3 July 2016

Orthokosta by Thanassis Valtinos


Orthokosta by Thanassis Valtinos
First published in Greece in 1994. The Yale University Press English language edition translated by Jane Assimakopoulos and Stavros Deligiorgis was published on the 28th June 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 paperback from Waterstones

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

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

'First published in 1994 to a storm of controversy, Thanassis Valtinos's probing novel Orthokostá defied standard interpretations of the Greek Civil War. Through the documentary-style testimonies of multiple narrators, among them the previously unheard voices of right-wing collaborationists, Valtinos provides a powerful, nuanced interpretation of events during the later years of Nazi occupation and the early stages of the nation's Civil War. His fictionalized chronicle gives participants, victims, and innocent bystanders equal opportunity to bear witness to such events as the burning of Valtinos's home village, the detention and execution of combatants and civilians in the monastery of Orthokostá, and the revenge killings that ensued.'

The first tenth of this Orthokosta edition is a very scholarly but nonetheless interesting essay by Stathis N Kalyvas which introduces the experimental writing style Valtinos used for many of his books, the historical period in which Orthokosta is set, and the book's reception in Greece on its initial publication in 1994. I was quite relieved to successfully get through this essay and settled in to read the book itself.

Orthokosta is written as a series of first person speeches where various men and women who lived through the Second World War and Greek Civil War in the Peloponnesian region of Greece tell their versions of the events surrounding the burning of a village and the power struggles there between various Resistance factions. Unfortunately the unnamed characters all speak in pretty much the same voice - consisting of short sentences and frequent references to a huge cast of other characters spread between dozens of villages - and there is no obvious differentiation between speakers in the text so I found it incredibly difficult to follow. I don't read Greek and haven't seen a Greek edition of Orthokosta so I don't know if this is a result of the translation. I struggled through the first third of Orthokosta before giving up altogether. I found the dense text very slow going and was baffled by the relationships between characters. Perhaps a good knowledge of this part of Greece would help my understanding, but this book really wasn't suitable for me.


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Books by Thanassis Valtinos / War books / Books from Greece

Friday 1 July 2016

The Cup That Made You Stagger by Katherine Hayton


The Cup That Made You Stagger by Katherine Hayton
Self-published in March 2016.
I am reviewing this book today to coincide with my IndiePrideDay Top Ten indie books post on Stephanie Jane

Where to buy this book:
Not for sale. Download link included at the end of The Three Deaths Of Magdalene Lynton

How I got this book:
Free download from author

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

'There was more than one person involved in Magdalene’s death but there’s only been one who paid with his life. So far. Marge Maples thinks everything will finally be easier: there’s money from the farm sale, she’s no longer on her feet ten hours a day, and her husband Kelvin’s about to retire. Life is finally coming good. Pity karma’s such a bitch.'

The Cup That Made You Stagger is a fifteen page short story which complements Katherine Hayton's crime novel The Three Deaths Of Magdalene Lynton. My having read that book first did give the short story greater depth although I think it could also be read as a stand-alone tale. We revisit events at The Prophet's farm through the eyes of one of the minor characters of the original novel, Marge, and gain greater understanding of her motivations and suffering. However, Marge isn't the only person who has been thinking about those past times and I enjoyed the build-up of unease and menace throughout the story as we readers begin to realise the danger Marge is in, even though she seems oblivious to it herself.


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Books by Katherine Hayton / Mysteries / Books from New Zealand