A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding by Jackie Copleton

review by Maryom

For Amaterasu Takahashi life as she knew it came to an end when the US dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki in 1945, causing tens of thousands of deaths, including those of her daughter Yuko and grandson Hideo. After the war, she and her husband, Kenzo, attempted to build a new life in America, but distance wasn't enough to help her forget her grief. 
Now, after Kenzo's death, Amaterasu is living alone and friend-less in Pennsylvania when one cold winter morning, a middle-aged Japanese man arrives at her house, claiming to be her grandson Hideo. The scars on his face prove he's a survivor of the bomb, but his tale of being saved from the rubble of Nagasaki, raised first in an orphanage, then adopted by the doctor there, who happened to be Yuko's former lover, doesn't convince Amaterasu. In his briefcase though, Hideo has brought a packet of letters which force Amaterasu to confront the past, and particularly her actions which caused Yuko to be within the radius of destruction when the bomb fell.

A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding is both the story of a woman coping with the death of her closest family members, and the inevitable survivor's guilt that comes with having avoided the dreadful cataclysm that killed them, and of the unravelling of family secrets. It's told through a mix of Amaterasu's reminiscences, the entries in her daughter's diary and the letters that Hideo has brought from Japan, offering three sides to the story as it unfolds in the years before and during WW2, and each chapter is headed by an explanation of a facet of Japanese culture pertinent to the events that unfold in it. 

It's been a book club choice for both Radio 2 and Richard and Judy, and long-listed for the Bailey's Prize so I'd possibly built my expectations up too high, but something just didn't grab me about this book. Amaterasu's reminiscences definitely caught a feel of pre-war Japan, and it's undoubtedly clever in construction but, maybe because of how the story was told, through letters and diary entries, I didn't 'feel' for the characters, even the horror of Nagasaki in the aftermath of the atomic bomb seemed somehow played down and not as shocking as it might have done. On the other hand, it's bound to provoke discussion, about the characters' actions and which of them (if any) deserves sympathy, so I can see why it would make a good, if not excellent, choice for a book club;

Maryom's review - 3.5 stars
Publisher - Windmill Books 
Genre - adult fiction,

Spill, Simmer, Falter, Wither by Sara Baume

review by Maryom

When loner Ray finds One-Eye at the dog pound it's like the meeting of two lost souls. Both are misfits, viewed with suspicion by neighbours or dog-wardens, carrying with them an aura of 'otherness', and the potential for violence or danger. At first glance you'd trust neither of them.
 Raised in virtual isolation by a grief-stricken father, Ray's life has been warped from the beginning; he never mixed with children his own age, never had mates to hang out with or a girlfriend, never even had a job. His neighbours see him as a bit weird, and keep their distance. Now, he's 57, and following the death of his father is living alone for the first time - and just doesn't know how to carry on.
For his part, One-Eye isn't the sort of dog you'd pick for a family pet. Looking at the world lop-sidedly from his remaining eye, he has the battered beaten-up appearance of a fighter - but while his wild, ferocious traits have been encouraged and developed by his previous owner, he's also been on the receiving end of violence from both men and animals. Full of fear, it takes time for him to come to trust his new owner.
Gradually a bond forms between these two, but that streak of violence still lurks beneath the surface and events cause the pair to go on the run.

To get this clear from the start, this isn't a sweetly charming tale, not some sentimental mix of Marley and Me and The Shawshank Redemption, where man meets dog, they bond, and live happily ever after; both are too scarred by life for that. It is though a tale of both man and dog trying to recover from deep hurts, striving to put their pasts behind them and start again.
 One-Eye had my sympathy from the start. His fear of people spoke of an abused past, and I believe vicious dogs aren't born, but trained to be that way by man, and are then victimised when that 'training' emerges at an inappropriate time and place. Ray starts out as just a little odd; tolerated in the village where he grew up, eyed with suspicion but basically harmless; it was only as his secrets were revealed that I began to wonder if this view wasn't quite true.

From the moment Ray takes One-Eye home, he starts to talk to him; as One-Eye is introduced to the house where Ray has lived all his life, as they walk round the village or along the seafront, play football on a deserted beach, and as they drive away from the seaside through Ireland's countryside, Ray keeps up a rambling monologue, ostensibly aimed at One-Eye, describing all he sees, capturing the sights and sounds along the way, sharing secrets and gradually revealing the dark secret he hides. I started to feel that this was more about a dog giving a man a chance at redemption, than the other, more obvious, way round.

For a debut novel, I think this is just amazing.  Baume's writing enlisted my empathy for both of these outsiders, and had me hoping against hope that Ray and One-Eye would in some way be saved.

 Originally published in Eire by Tramp Press, this book came to my attention over summer via Irish book bloggers* singing its praises, and catching Sara Baume at Edinburgh Book Festival, hearing her read from it and speak about it, convinced me it was something I would love, so I'm delighted to see it now published in the UK by Windmill Books.

Longlisted - Guardian First Book Award 2015
Shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2015
Newcomer of the Year at the 2015 Irish Book Awards.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Windmill Books
Genre - adult fiction, literary, Guardian First Book Award,


* Bleach House Library review

The Last Boat Home by Dea Brovig

review by Maryom

Else was like any other teenager in her small Norwegian town, catching the ferry to school each day, sneaking out at night to meet her boyfriend Lars, and dreaming of the day she'd leave her close-knit community for the wider world. Dreams that end when she falls pregnant.
Now 30 years later, Lars' return to their home town, makes Else face up to her past and the events that shaped her life.

The Last Boat Home is a  deeply atmospheric novel, capturing the claustrophobic atmosphere of a close knit, isolated community, where religion plays a large part of people's lives and a visit from a travelling circus is cause for great excitement. Else's home is a beautiful but harsh place, squashed between the fjord on one side and mountains on the other, dominated by the moods of the sea and the weather.
 In such a place it's hard to keep a secret - so the neighbours know all about Else's father hiding out in his boat shed, brewing his moonshine liquor and drinking himself into a stupor most nights, and her mother's bruises which she tries to hide as she bustles about between house and church meetings. What they don't know, is who is to blame for fathering Else's child. 

It's a little like a murder-mystery, for as the story slips between the present day and that fateful time back in the 1970s, slowly teasing out the events leading up to Else's pregnancy, the reader can't help but try to work out the culprit, and, of course, keep turning the pages to find out.  

This is one of those books that I stumbled on completely by accident, following a retweet of one of the author's comments. The novel's setting and plot outline intrigued me, and reading it didn't disappoint.

Looking for the links I discovered this article about the place that inspired the author - though the photos are all sunny and summery, not of wintry snow and ice.

Maryom's review - 4 stars
Publisher - Windmill Books
Genre - adult fiction,