I'd
never heard of The Book of Ebenezer Le Page until my agent, Victoria,
recommended it recently, and I fell under its precious spell.
It purports to be
the autobiography of Ebenezer, a now elderly, cranky eccentric on the island of
Guernsey in the Channel Islands. Any momentum to the narrative given by the
chronology of Ebenezer's life – from the late nineteenth century to the 1960s -
is undermined by our narrator's endless digressions, asides, and opinions.
Instead,
you enter the novel as if stepping through a door into a different realm of
existence. Ebenezer tells us of his various relations and their resentments and
squabbles, the great thwarted love of his life, Liza Queripel, his work fishing
and gardening, and his deep friendships. I adored his company.
As
William Golding aptly put it, "To read it is not like reading, but living."
An autobiographical novel, written in an intense, exceptional voice, recounts the life of Ebenezer Le Page--born and bred on, and fiercely attached to, the Channel Islands--and his family, friends, feuds, and sorrows
Maror is a kaleidoscopic history of modern Israel (from
1974-2004) told through criminals, corrupt police, and morally bankrupt
politicians, a thrilling parade of fascinating monsters and shattered dreams.
One
gruesome crime or wild escapade follows another in an endlessly inventive epic.
Reading this novel was like a literary rollercoaster ride; I was breathless with
delight, admiration, and envy.
Instead of taking a year or two’s holiday to recover from
the endeavor, I just saw that Lavie Tidhar has a brand new four-hundred-page
book out, Adama, which is the second in a trilogy of modern Israel.
This one goes
back to a kibbutz after the end of the Second World War and forward through
four generations of dreamers building their new contested world.
'A masterpiece of the sacred and the profane... A literary triumph.' Jake Arnott, Guardian
How do you build a nation?
It takes statesmen and soldiers, farmers and factory workers, of course. But it also takes thieves, prostitutes and policemen.
Nation-building demands sacrifice. And one man knows exactly where those bodies are buried: Cohen, a man who loves his country. A reasonable man for unreasonable times.
A car bomb in the back streets of Tel Aviv. A diamond robbery in Haifa. Civil war in Lebanon. Rebel fighters in the Colombian jungle. A double murder in Los Angeles.
How do they all…
Born
in 1956, I was formed in the 1970s. After the liberations of the '60s, the 70s
saw clusters of people seeking new ways of living together beyond the nuclear
family. One such endeavor is the commune at the heart of Devoured, in which
Anna Mackmin encapsulates, dissects, and dismantles the secular dreams of a
generation in a way I found breathtaking.
Bo, the teen narrator, pinpoints the
absurdities of her self-deluded parents, useless poets, and unsavory predators
wallowing in the commune's laxity.
Her voice, present tense of hiccupping
inventiveness – interspersed with recipes by Bo and her mute younger sister,
Star - is solemn yet funny, naïve yet weirdly wise.
A wonderful book. I read it
and felt an entire layer of my youth had been laid to rest.
1973. Swallow's Farmhouse in deep, rural Norfolk is home to Your People, a commune of free-thinkers and poets seeking a better way. But beneath the veneer of a nurturing, alternative lifestyle, an atmosphere of jealousy and threat is pushing utopia towards the brink of its inevitable collapse. Raising herself amidst the chaos is a twelve year old survivor, desperately preoccupied with her transition into womanhood. With her mute sister, beloved dog and the re-defining force of her emerging appetites, she marches resolutely towards her future, venturing - with hilarious and horrifying results - through the minefield of an adult world…
A powerful novel about destiny, home, and surviving in a world in flux in Britain, AD 72.
Quintus, long exiled from his people, has travelled great odysseys in the retinue of a powerful Roman. Though a citizen of nowhere, is a man of reason, fluent in many languages. Olwen, imperious tribal royalty, is rooted in her native land - a volatile warrior, fiercely attached to the natural world.
Given away by her father as part of a peace treaty, Olwen flees during the night, taking Quintus with her. Hunted by an army, the two make their way across the country, living off the land, heading for the western shore...
