Book Reviews: 11 July
OUT NOW
A MAN CALLED OVE by Fredrik Backman, translated by Henning Koch (Sceptre, £14.99; offer price, £13.49)The Swedish blogger and columnist wrote this book by popular demand: readers of his blog featuring the eponymous protagonist just couldn’t get enough of Ove and voted for a novel. The result is a series of quirky scenes from the life of a suburban 50-something, laced with black humour and Scandinavian understatement. Geeky, misanthropic and treading the fine line between very eccentric and slightly deranged, Ove is a character we’d like to dislike – but just can’t. His mordant critique of his neighbours’ ineptitudes and the parlous state of the world today is funny and irresistible – because there is so much truth in it. Watching a man failing miserably to reverse-park his trailer, Ove despairs – then insults him and takes over. He does not suffer fools – or their miscreant pets – gladly. But he is also a bastion of good old-fashioned values and common sense, and ultimately, a man with a big heart.
By turns bleakly sad and off-the-scale hilarious, it is easy to see why this uplifting tale became an overnight sensation in Europe and has been picked up by the BBC Radio 2 Book Club.
Juanita Coulson
TOMORROW IS D-DAY by Stella Rutter (Amberley Publishing, £16.99; offer price, £14.99)In June 1944, a girl in her 20s makes a promise to keep a secret for 60 years. The girl was Stella Rutter and the secret was that she hosted a farewell party for Field Marshal Montgomery’s commanders before they set off for the beaches of Normandy.
Stella’s story is set in the long-vanished world of the drawing office, where draughtsmen and engineers produced the plans to build the ships and aircraft that would win the war.
One of the first female draughtsmen, Stella worked in the Naval drawing office in Portsmouth before taking a job with Supermarine, manufacturer of the Spitfire.
There, she gained a reputation for discretion, which brought her to the attention of the Army when they decided to hold the farewell party near her office.
A captivating story about the war, with memories of life at Supermarine told by Rutter’s colleagues.
Stephen Coulson
ALL OUR NAMES by Dinaw Mengestu (Sceptre, £17.99; offer price, £14.99)An intricately constructed novel by the Ethiopian-American writer, winner of multiple prizes, including The Guardian First Book Award. It recounts the parallel stories of two young people whose lives become more tightly interwoven with each page – both have astonishingly different pasts, and have lived very different lives, but find themselves forging a relationship in 1970s America.
Mengestu has skilfully entwined the anticipation in the air in post-colonial Uganda with the stifled segregation of the American Midwest, to draw the reader into a truly gripping and beautifully told tale. Highly recommended for anyone in search of a meaningful and enthralling read for the summer.
Tsakani
BOOK OF THE WEEK
The Virgin Queen THE MARRIAGE GAME by Alison Weir (Hutchinson, £18.99; offer price, £15.99)
It is 1558, and on a chilly November morning at Hatfield House, Elizabeth Tudor receives the news that her sister Mary is dead. She is now Queen of England, the Virgin Queen… Except in historian Alison Weir’s novel, good Bess is no virgin at all. Having been seduced in her youth by Thomas Seymour, her own stepfather, she suffered a miscarriage – events that left her scarred for life, and themes the author explored in this novel’s prequel, The Lady Elizabeth.
Now, Weir has resumed her reimagining of the monarch’s life and set about addressing one of history’s great conundrums: why did Elizabeth fail to marry? Her attraction to the bold and ambitious Robert Dudley was beyond doubt, despite his traitorous ancestors, and their affair sparked and smouldered throughout Elizabeth’s life. But other suitors abounded and Weir’s Elizabeth, a formidable character, plays them all expertly, albeit (if this novel is to be believed) while in the grip of immense inner turmoil.
‘The “what if” aspect of history is always fascinating,’ writes Weir in an afterword, and while her style rather lacks flair, the story that she has spun from contemporary gossip and rumour – as well as the facts of which she is an assured mistress – is both sympathetic and insightful.
Stephanie Cross
COFFEE TABLE BOOK
ALL-AMERICAN ADS OF THE 40s by Jim Heimann and WR Wilkerson (TASCHEN, £27.99; offer price, £24.99)
While Britain went grey with austerity, the prosperity of the post-war years in America resulted in a colourful explosion of products and services – and the advertisements to sell them. This illustrated book features the iconic brands and items that defined the era: labour-saving devices like the Hoover, Campbell’s soup, the Cadillac, Revlon’s red lipstick.
As much a social and design history as a study of the decade’s anxieties, dreams and fashions, with glossy, glamorous images and informed commentary. A prequel to the real Mad Men.
JC
PAPERBACKS
CASTING OFF by Emma Bamford (Bloomsbury, £8.99; offer price, £8.54)Restless Independent news journalist Emma Bamford longs for a life free of deadlines, budget cuts and bullying bosses. Looking on the internet, she finds a job with a man (and his cat) on a yacht in Borneo – and throws in her high-flying post and comfortable life.
Wryly funny, fast-paced, with a good plot and tons of adventure, this entertaining debut would make a great holiday read. At first, I wrongly classed it as chick lit but, part memoir, part travelogue, part romance, it is much more profound.
Rebecca Wallersteiner
COMBAT CAMERA by Christian Hill (Alma Books, £14.99; offer price, £13.49)
The Media Operations Group has the job of presenting the work of the Royal Navy, the British Army and the Royal Air Force to the world’s media. Nowhere is this harder than on operational service on the frontline in Afghanistan, where the hardest task the Group faces is to show journalists the realities of the confl ict, while keeping them safe.
As a captain in the Group, Hill served with a combat camera team during the summer fi ghting season in Helmand in 2011. His memoir of the tour is a mix of humour and tragedy, bravery and bumbling: Drop The Dead Donkey meets the military.
SC
ALSO ON THE SHELF
THE WAY BACK HOME by Freya North (Harper Collins, £12.99; offer price, £11.69)Oriana, Malachy and Jed grow up together in an artists’ commune in Derbyshire. The novel deals with the momentous events of one summer, when they were aged 15 – and Oriana’s return, years later. Skilfully written and full of interesting – if not always likeable – characters.
Julie Hall
3 GREAT BOOKS: SET IN SCOTLAND
- THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR by Sir Walter Scott
- MACBETH by William Shakespeare
- TRAINSPOTTING by Irvine Welsh
AUDIO BOOK OF THE WEEK
WILBUR SMITH: THE EARLY YEARS COLLECTION (The Wilbur Smith Almanac Ltd, £19.99; offer price, £18)In these interviews, the novelist discusses influences in his early career. There are recordings of On Flinder’s Face and When The Lion Feeds, read by Tim Pigott-Smith.
Martyn Colebrook
POETRY ROUNDUP
From haunting explorations of solitude to verse for those who don’t ‘do’ poetry, Juanita Coulson looks at three new collections
Moontide by Niall Campbell (Bloodaxe Books, £9.95; offer price, £9.45) With precise language, musicality and insight, Campbell’s fi rst collection explores solitude, companionship and memory against a backdrop of closely observed nature. His intimate poems draw on the seascapes and myths of his native Eriskay, in the Outer Hebrides, but take the same sharpfocused eye to other places, too. A horse in a fi eld might be a shapeshifting kelpie, as she ‘drink[s] the moon from a moon-fi lled trough’. Meditative and haunting – my favourite poetry book of 2014 so far.
Track by Annemarie Austin (Bloodaxe Books, £9.95; offer price, £9.45) Austin’s poems are full of intriguing images, with journeys and transitions as their main themes. Another concern is the capturing of fl eeting details. Sheets of paper are dipped into ‘the lit surface of the night water’ to record a river’s swirling patterns: ‘silver/and graphite, dove grey, a steel/engraving’. But beneath the plain language and form, the uncanny and the terrible are never far away.
This Is The Way Of The World by Felix Dennis (Ebury Press, £12.99; off er price, £11.69) The late Felix Dennis’s work is an ideal introduction for readers who don’t usually ‘do’ poetry, with its accessible language, splashes of humour and use of conventional rhyme schemes. His eighth book, including new poems and old favourites, comes with an audio CD. Billed as ‘real life poetry’, there are no verbal pyrotechnics or metaphysical insights, but plenty of warm or wry observations most people can relate to.
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