August 2015 Blurbs
Murdoch, Iris – The Good Apprentice
Stuart Cuno has decided to become good. Not
believing in God, he invents his own methods, which
include celibacy, chastity and the abandonment of a
promising academic career. Interfering friends and
relations question his sincerity, his sanity and his
motives. Stuart's step-brother Edward Baltram is
tormented by guilt because he has, he believes, killed
his best friend. He dreams sometimes of redemption,
sometimes of suicide. Funny, compelling and
extremely moving, THE GOOD APPRENTICE is about
guilt ridden despair, and the difficult problem of how
to try to be good - and the various magical devices
which console those who are sensible enough not to
try.
White, Patrick – The Vivisector
Hurtle Duffield, a painter, coldly dissects the
weaknesses of any and all who enter his
circle. His sister's deformity, a grocer's
moonlight indiscretion, the passionate
illusions of the women who love him-all are
used as fodder for his art. It is only when
Hurtle meets an egocentric adolescent whom
he sees as his spiritual child does he
experience a deeper, more treacherous
emotion in this tour de force of sexual and
psychological menace that sheds brutally
honest light on the creative experience.
Dean, Neamus - Reading In The Dark
A haunted childhood, lived out in two dimensions.
One is legendary: the Sun-fort of Grianan, home
of the warrior Fianna; the Field of the
Disappeared, over which no gulls fly; the house in
Donegal where children are stolen away by
demonic forces. The other is actual: the city of
Derry in the Northern Ireland of the 40s and 50s;
a place that is also haunted by political enmities,
family secrets, lethal intrigue. The boy narrator of
READING IN THE DARK grows up enclosed in
these two worlds, sensing that they are
intertwined in some mysterious ways that he both
wants and does not want to discover. Through the
silence that surrounds him, he feels the truth
spreading like a stain until it engulfs him and his
family.
Trevor, William – Children Of Dynmouth
The 1970s was a decade of anger and
discontent. Britain endured power cuts and
strikes. America pulled out of Vietnam and
saw its President resign from office. Feminism
and face lifts vied for women's hearts (and
minds). And for many, prog rock, punk and
disco weren't just music but ways of life. The
Children of Dynmouth is a classic account of
evil lurking in the most unlikely places. In it
we follow awkward, lonely, curious teenager
Timothy Gedge as he wanders around the
bland seaside town of Dynmouth. Timothy
takes a prurient interest in the lives of the
adults there, who only realise the sinister
purpose to which he seeks to put his
knowledge too late.
Levy, Deborah - Swimming Home
As he arrives with his family at the villa in the hills
above Nice, Joe sees a body in the swimming pool.
But the girl is very much alive. She is Kitty Finch:
a self-proclaimed botanist with green-painted
fingernails, walking naked out of the water and
into the heart of their holiday. Why is she there?
What does she want from them all? And why does
Joe's enigmatic wife allow her to remain?
A subversively brilliant study of love, Swimming
Home reveals how the most devastating secrets
are the ones we keep from ourselves.
Shields, Carol - Unless
Unless you’re lucky, unless you’re healthy, fertile,
unless you’re loved and fed, unless you’re offered
what others are offered, you go down in the
darkness, down to despair. ”Reta Winters has
many reasons to be happy: Her three almost
grown daughters. Her twenty-year relationship
with their father. Her work translating the largerthan-life French intellectual and feminist Danielle
Westerman. Her modest success with a novel of
her own, and the clamour of her American
publisher for a sequel. Then in the spring of her
forty-fourth year, all the quiet satisfactions of her
well-lived life disappear in a moment: her eldest
daughter Norah suddenly runs from the family
and ends up mute and begging on a Toronto
street corner, with a hand-lettered sign reading
GOODNESS around her neck.
Farrell, T.G – Troubles
Major Brendan Archer travels to Ireland - to the
Majestic Hotel and to the fiancée he acquired on
a rash afternoon's leave three years ago.
Despite her many letters, the lady herself proves
elusive, and the Major's engagement is shortlived. But he is unable to detach himself from
the alluring discomforts of the crumbling hotel.
Ensconced in the dim and shabby splendour of
the Palm Court, surrounded by gently decaying
old ladies and proliferating cats, the Major
passes the summer. So hypnotic are the faded
charms of the Majestic, the Major is almost
unaware of the gathering storm. But this is
Ireland in 1919 - and the struggle for
independence is about to explode with brutal
force.
Pratchett, Terry - Night Watch
Don't put your trust in revolutions. They always
come round again. That's why they're called
revolutions. People die, and nothing changes.'
For a policeman, there can be few things worse
than a serial killer at loose in your city. Except,
perhaps, a serial killer who targets coppers, and
a city on the brink of bloody revolution. The
people have found their voice at last, the flags
and barricades are rising...And the question for a
policeman, an officer of the law, a defender of
the peace, is:
Are you with them, or are you against them?
Barnes, Julian - Flaubert’s Parrot
A kind of detective story, relating a cranky
amateur scholar's search for the truth about
Gustave Flaubert, and the obsession of this
detective whose life seems to oddly mirror
those of Flaubert's characters.
Morrall, Clare - Astonishing Splashes Of Colour
Kitty Wellington the narrator of Clare Morrall's
absorbing sure-footed first novel has been
brought up in a large family by her painter
father. Surrounded by older brothers she has no
real recollection of either her mother who was
killed in a car crash or her sister who ran away
from home. The great strength of the novel is
Kitty herself. Morrall has provided her with a
compelling narrative voice - wry confiding
perceptive. Echoes from JM Barrie's disturbing
masterpiece are quietly sounded with particular
emphasis on missing mothers and "lost boys".
Mistry, Rohinton - Such a Long Journey
It is Bombay in 1971, the year India went to
war over what was to become Bangladesh. A
hard-working bank clerk, Gustad Noble is a
devoted family man who gradually sees his
modest life unravelling. His young daughter
falls ill; his promising son defies his father’s
ambitions for him. He is the one reasonable
voice amidst the ongoing dramas of his
neighbours. One day, he receives a letter from
an old friend, asking him to help in what at first
seems like an heroic mission. But he soon finds
himself unwittingly drawn into a dangerous
network of deception. Compassionate, and rich
in details of character and place, this
unforgettable novel charts the journey of a
moral heart in a turbulent world of change.
Grenville, Kate – The Secret River
William Thornhill, an illiterate Thames bargeman
and a man of quick temper but deep feelings,
steals a load of timber and is transported to New
South Wales in 1806. Like many of the convicts,
he's pardoned within a few years and settles on
the banks of the Hawkesbury River. Perhaps the
Governor grants him the land or perhaps he just
takes it - the Hawkesbury is at the extreme
edge of settlement at that time and normal rules
don't apply. However he gets the land, it's prime
riverfront acreage. It looks certain to make him
rich. There's just one problem with that land: it's
already owned. It's been part of the territory of
the Darug people for perhaps forty thousand
years. They haven't left fences or roads or
houses, but they live on that land and use it,
just as surely as Thornhill's planning to do. They
aren't going to hand over their land without a
fight.
Mo , Timothy - Sour Sweet
Sour Sweet’s primary narrative thread follows
the fortunes of the Chen family as they create
a life for themselves in an alien culture.
Determined to succeed, Chen and Lily emigrate
from Hong Kong to London, where Chen finds a
comfortable if unexciting job as a waiter in a
Chinese restaurant. Lily works at being a
perfect wife and an even more exemplary
mother to their son, Man Kee, whom she spoils
relentlessly. While Chen seems content with
their life, Lily has vague yearnings for
something better, and she manages to save
almost half of her housekeeping money for the
future, when the Chens might start their own
business—a grocery store or a restaurant.
Carey, Peter - Parrot and Olivier in America
Olivier—an improvisation on the life of Alexis
de Tocqueville—is an aristocrat born just after
the French Revolution. Parrot is the
motherless son of an itinerant English
engraver. Their lives are joined when Olivier
sets sail for the New World to save his neck
from one more revolution and Parrot is sent
with him as spy, protector, foe, and foil. With
the story of their unlikely friendship, Peter
Carey explores the adventure of American
democracy with the dazzling inventiveness and
richness of characterization, story, and
language that we have come to expect from
this superlative writer.
Mill, Magnus - Restraints of Beasts
'Tam and I took hold of Mr McCrindle and
lowered him into the hole, feet first. We decided
to leave his cap on'. Fencers Tam, Richie and
their ever-exasperated English foreman are
forced to move from rural Scotland to England
for work. After a disastrous start involving a
botched fence and an accidental murder, the
three move to a damp caravan in Upper Bowland
and soon find themselves in direct competition
with the sinister Hall Brothers whose business
enterprises seem to combine fencing, butchering
and sausage-making.
Ali, Monica - Brick Lane
A Bangladeshi immigrant in London is torn
between the kind, tedious older husband with
whom she has an arranged marriage (and
children) and the fiery political activist she lusts
after. A novel that’s multi-continental, richly
detailed and elegantly crafted."
Taylor , Elizabeth - Mrs Palfrey At The Claremont
On a rainy Sunday in January, the recently
widowed Mrs Palfrey arrives at the Claremont
Hotel where she will spend her remaining days.
Her fellow residents are magnificently eccentric
and endlessly curious, living off crumbs of
affection and snippets of gossip. Together,
upper lips stiffened, they fight off their twin
enemies: boredom and the Grim Reaper. Then
one day Mrs Palfrey strikes up an unexpected
friendship with Ludo, a handsome young writer,
and learns that even the old can fall in love . . .
McEwan, Ian - Comfort Of Strangers
Set in Venice, two unsuspecting tourists, Colin
and Mary, are vulnerable prey for those who
know their way around. When searching for a
restaurant, the couple encounters a polite man
called Robert, who offers help, and then they
enjoy a night of storytelling and drinking. Yet
somehow they will meet him again and
become drawn into a fantasy of violence and
obsession.
Bowen, Elizabeth - Eva Trout
Orphaned at a young age, Eva has found a
home of sorts in Worcestershire with her
former schoolteacher, Iseult Arbles, and
Iseult's husband, Eric. From a safe distance in
London, her legal guardian, Constantine,
assumes that all's well. But Eva's flighty,
romantic nature hasn't entirely clicked with
the Arbles household, and Eva is plotting to
escape. When she sets out to hock her Jaguar
and disappear without a trace, she unwittingly
leaves a paper trail for her various
custodians–and all kinds of trouble–to follow.
Eva Trout, Elizabeth Bowen’s last novel,
epitomizes her bold exploration of the territory
between the comedy of manners and cutting
social commentary.
McCabe, Patrick - Butcher Boy
"When I was a young lad twenty or thirty or
forty years ago I lived in a small town where
they were all after me on account of what I
done on Mrs. Nugent." Dark, haunting, often
screamingly funny, The Butcher Boy
chronicles the pig boy's ominous loss of
innocence and chilling descent into madness.
Atwood, Margaret - Cat’s Eye
Cat’s Eye is the story of Elaine Risley, a
controversial painter who returns to Toronto,
the city of her youth, for a retrospective of
her art. Engulfed by vivid images of the past,
she reminisces about a trio of girls who
initiated her into the fierce politics of
childhood and its secret world of friendship,
longing, and betrayal. Elaine must come to
terms with her own identity as a daughter, a
lover, an artist, and a woman—but above all
she must seek release from her haunting
memories. Disturbing, hilarious, and
compassionate, Cat’s Eye is a breathtaking
novel of a woman grappling with the tangled
knot of her life.
Mo, Timothy - Insular Possession
The author of the acclaimed Sour Sweet
presents a sweeping historical novel about
corruption and greed, class, race, love and
treachery set in Macao and Canton before
and during the Opium Wars of the 19th
century. Nominated for England's prestigious
Booker Prize.
Atwood, Margaret - Orys and Crake
This is an unforgettable love story and a
compelling vision of the future. Snowman,
known as Jimmy before mankind was
overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to
survive in a world where he may be the last
human, and mourning the loss of his best
friend, Crake, and the beautiful and elusive
Oryx whom they both loved. In search of
answers, Snowman embarks on a journey–with
the help of the green-eyed Children of Crake–
through the lush wilderness that was so recently
a great city, until powerful corporations took
mankind on an uncontrolled genetic engineering
ride.
Gunesekera, Romesh – Reef
Reef explores the entwined lives of Mr.
Salgado, an aristocratic marine biologist and
student of sea movements and the
disappearing reef, and his houseboy, Triton,
who learns to polish silver until it shines like
molten sun; to mix a love cake with ten eggs,
creamed butter, and fresh cadju nuts; to
marinade tiger prawns; and to steam parrot
fish. Through these characters and the forty
years of political disintegration their country
endures, Gunesekera tells the tragic,
sometimes comic, story of a lost paradise and a
young man coming to terms with his destiny.
Bainbridge, Beryl - Bottle Factory Outing
Freda and Brenda spend their days working in
an Italian-run wine- bottling factory. A work
outing offers promise for Freda, and terror for
Brenda, passions run high on that chilly day of
freedom, and life after the outing never returns
to normal.
Renault, Mary - Fire From Heaven
The story of young Alexander the Great:
Alexander’s beauty, strength & defiance were
apparent from birth, but his boyhood honed
those gifts into the makings of a king. His
mother, Olympias, & his father, King Philip of
Macedon, fought each other for their son’s
loyalty, teaching Alexander politics & vengeance
from the cradle. His love for the youth
Hephaistion taught him trust, while Aristotle’s
tutoring provoked his mind & Homer’s Iliad
fueled his aspirations. Killing his first man in
battle at the age of twelve, he became regent at
sixteen & commander of Macedon’s cavalry at
eighteen, so that by the time his father was
murdered, Alexander’s skills had grown to match
his fiery ambition.
O’ Hagan, Andrew - Our Fathers
Hugh Bawn was a modern hero, a dreamer, a
man of the people who revolutionized
Scotland's residential development after World
War II. Now, as he lies dying in one of his own
buildings, his grandson Jamie comes home to
watch over him. It is Jamie who tells the story
of his family, of three generations of pride and
delusion, of nationality and strong drink, of
Catholic faith and the end of political idealism.
It is a tale of darkness amidst the search for
Utopia. A poignant and very powerful
reclamation of the past, Our Fathers is also a
clearsighted and beautifully crafted look at
public and personal history.
Boyd, William - Ice Cream War
In An Ice-Cream War, William Boyd brilliantly
evokes the private dramas of a generation
upswept by the winds of war. After his German
neighbor burns his crops--with an apology and a
smile--Walter Smith takes up arms on behalf of
Great Britain. And when Felix's brother marches
off to defend British East Africa, he pursues,
against his better judgment, a forbidden love
affair. As the sons of the world match wits and
weapons on a continent thousands of miles from
home, desperation makes bedfellows of enemies
and traitors of friends and family. By turns
comic and quietly wise, An Ice-Cream
War deftly renders lives capsized by violence,
chance, and the irrepressible human capacity for
love.
Rubens, Bernice - The Elected Member
Norman is the clever one of a closely-knit
Jewish family in London's East End. Infant
prodigy, brilliant barrister, the apple of his
parents' eyes—until at 41 he becomes a drug
addict, confined to his bedroom, at the mercy of
his hallucinations and paranoia.
Walsh, Jill Paton - Knowledge of Angels
It is, perhaps, the fifteenth century and the
ordered tranquillity of a Mediterranean island is
about to be shattered by the appearance of two
outsiders: one, a castaway, plucked from the sea
by fishermen, whose beliefs represent a
challenge to the established order; the other, a
child abandoned by her mother and suckled by
wolves, who knows nothing of the precarious
relationship between Church and State but
whose innocence will become the subject of a
dangerous experiment.