Lean, Fall, Stand by Jon McGregor

Robert 'Doc' Wright has years, almost a lifetime, of experience in Antarctic field work, spending months there at a time. Then one day things go horribly wrong. What should have been an easy, fun excursion, merely to take photographs, turns nasty when an unexpected storm blows up, cutting visibility and communications, and disaster strikes. One of the men dies, and Doc suffers a stroke. He is the only one who can say for certain what went wrong, but he's now in a position where he can't put even the simplest ideas into words.

This latest novel from Jon McGregor takes the reader from a situation where men are fighting for survival in Antarctic wastes to a different kind of fight for the return of normality and the ability to express oneself. 

The story is split into three parts, relating to the three words that make up the title; the incident in Antarctica, Anna's trip to South America to visit Robert in hospital and organise his return to Britain, and the beginning of Robert's recovery. I hadn't quite understood the nature of the story from the blurb, and found it a rather difficult read for personal reasons; family members have suffered strokes and some of it is a little close to home. Having said that I found this a perceptive insight into how the stroke victim themselves must find the strange new world they find themselves trapped in. 

Something that I would have liked to see explored further was the relationships between Doc and his wife, Anna. There's a hint that their marriage, while seeming fine on the surface, is not as solid as it might be, and that their relationship depended on them leading very separate lives. Now, not only are they forced together, but Anna has to abandon her work to become a carer (not really part of the story here but I felt the automatic assumption that his wife would drop everything to help was worth more consideration. Would Robert have done it if their roles were reversed? Would medical staff/social services etc even have expected it if their roles were reversed?) These thoughts are really by-the-by though. I'm not always a fan of McGregor's work but this is an intimate and moving account of  a man reduced to an almost child-like dependence and inability to express himself, and his slow recovery from that state. One of his best.

 

Still Life by Sarah Winman

In 1944 as the Allies advance north through Italy, a young British soldier Ulysses Temper meets Evelyn Skinner, a 60-something art historian helping to identify and salvage paintings hidden from, or damaged by, the war. Whether it's down to fate or the magic of Italy who can say, but the two form an immediate connection, and a night talking with Evelyn about art, Florence, and love, shapes Ulysses' life.

Returning to London after the war, Ulysses finds it grim, drab, and lacking, though he's not sure how or why. Fate, or Italy, steps in again, and changes the lives of Ulysses and his friends in ways they couldn't have imagined.

Still Life is one of those rare books that are an absolute joy to read. The story moves from war-torn Italy, through the next three decades as Ulysses and his 'family' create a new life in Italy, which is almost washed away by the temperamental force of the river Arno, and then loops back to Evelyn's time in Italy as a young woman when she met EM Forster, and a cast of immediately recognisable characters, in a pensione run by a Cockney landlady. Through it all runs the belief than here in Florence it's possible to live life as it should be lived, filled with passion and love. Here, against a backdrop of art and Medieval streets, food and wine, which nourish body and soul, there's a feeling of standing on the threshold of something momentous. 

I just loved everything about this. It left me with a warm fuzzy feeling, like being wrapped in a warm blanket, or bathing in a big 'tub of love', which is Elizabeth von Arnim's description of Italy rather than Forster's, but which seems totally appropriate. 

Superior by Angela Saini

"Where did the idea of race come from, and what does it mean? In an age of identity politics, DNA ancestry testing and the rise of the far-right, a belief in biological differences between populations is experiencing a resurgence. The truth is: race is a social construct. Our problem is we find this hard to believe.

In Superior, award-winning author Angela Saini investigates the concept of race, from its origins to the present day. Engaging with geneticists, anthropologists, historians and social scientists from across the globe, Superior is a rigorous, much needed examination of the insidious and destructive nature of the belief that race is real, and that some groups of people are superior to others."

Non-fiction books on politics and social issues don't usually form part of my reading, but I'd been watching David Olusoga on TV where he mentioned race science as part of the justification of slavery, then caught Angela Saini at the online version of  Edinburgh Book Festival talking in greater depth about the subject, and wanted to know more about how pseudo-scientific ideas take root and influence public opinion.  

In a vague way I knew before of the theory that people can be divided into different races, and that some are not as intelligent (or even as 'human') as others. It was used to give 'justification' for the slave trade, for robbing indigenous peoples of land and wealth, and returned in a different form in Nazi Germany. It's a ludicrous idea, and one that I believed was totally discredited today, not one still lurking around. Superior has definitely proved to be an eye-opening read.

Saini takes the reader through the development of race theory, how it affected Europeans interaction with indigenous population of  Africa, Australia and America, and how it continues today in the social and economic effects it has on black people. What surprised me most was its proliferation today. Modern genetic studies have surely proved once and for all that 'race' is a social or cultural concept, but people still want to believe they are in some way 'better' than others - than their neighbours, the folks in the next town, neighbouring country - and unfortunately there'll be someone on the internet or in specialist, right wing journals, ready to support their claims with alleged scientific evidence. 

Superior is definitely a book that deserves the adjective 'thought provoking'. I understand now where the prejudices of my parents' generation came from, and was left feeling that it's so very easy to feed those prejudices with dodgy scientific 'facts'.

Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor

review by Maryom


Rebecca Shaw, on a New Year holiday with her parents, goes out walking on the moors one day, and disappears. The locals gather to help the police search the area, and at first the talk is of a twisted ankle, or the girl deliberately staying out, trying to frighten her parents, and expectations are high that she'll soon be found. But there are so many things that could have happened - she could have fallen into a quarry, be trapped down an abandoned mine, sucked into one of the bogs on the moor, or even hitched a lift to the nearest city, - and as the days, weeks, months pass, finding her seems unlikely. Despite their initial shock and concern, the villagers soon find that life continues, at first slowly but speeding up with the passing of the years - Spring comes with lambs and fox cubs, wild flowers blossom in the hedgerows, vegetables sprout up at the allotments; babies are born, children grow, relationships develop or falter, the elderly die, newcomers arrive, and ultimately people begin to forget about a missing girl.

I usually try to avoid spoilers when  writing reviews but I don't think that's possible here because a lot of my thoughts revolve around what the book IS, and what it ISN'T.

Although the book opens with Rebecca's disappearance, it ISN'T a crime thriller, with clues to unearth, false leads to pursue, but ultimately leading to a resolution. Over the years, various times of Rebecca's clothing are found but no real evidence of what happened or clue to her whereabouts discovered. Instead the focus is on the impact to the people living in this quiet out-of-the-way village - something devastating has happened on their doorstep, but to an outsider that most of them had never met. Naturally they're shocked, but for how long can they be expected to grieve and put their lives on hold?

Personally I found a lot of similarities with McGregor's first novel, If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things. In much the same way, it encourages the reader to see and remark upon the small happenings that occur from day to day around us but which are so often missed in the rush of life; to stop for a while and watch a butterfly, listen to birdsong, or notice our children growing from infants to teenagers. It's a mesmerising, beautifully written book charting the emotional and physical changes within a small tightly-knit community over thirteen years, but this time I was left wanting something more. As the years pass, snippets of information come to light about Rebecca's disappearance, various items of her clothing are found on the moors, but no explanation of her disappearance is forthcoming. This may, in all honesty, be truer to life than a crime novel which neatly closes all leads off by the final page, and reaches some nature of resolution, even if not a happy one, but, even so, I was left unsatisfied. Somewhere I read that the mark of a literary novel is that it ends without resolution - this is certainly literary, not crime, fiction.


Maryom's review - 4 stars 
Publisher - Fourth Estate
Genre - adult literary fiction, 

Foxlowe by Eleanor Wasserberg

review by Maryom

Foxlowe is large country house, home to an unusual 'family' - a self-sufficient commune, where everything is shared equally, children are raised by the whole group, with no formal education, and it's rare for anyone to venture beyond the security and isolation of the extensive grounds. Income comes from selling their art and pottery, veg comes from the garden, milk from their goats. The 'Founders' - Richard, Libby and Freya - hoped for a place of peace and enlightenment, in harmony with the natural world and ancient ways represented by the standing stones on the surrounding moors, but instead an atmosphere of tension, rivalry and cruelty hangs over Foxlowe.



The story is told through the eyes of one of the children - a young girl named Green. She's the only one actually born at Foxlowe and has no outside experience to judge it by, so for her, this is the way things should be. She firmly believes in Freya's warnings about the 'Bad' which lurks outside their isolated world, and sees nothing suspicious about the paranoia about 'outsiders', or the forms of punishment inflicted on the children for bad behaviour. It's this punishment that lets the reader first know that Foxlowe isn't such a nice, happy place after all, and as Green's tale unfolds you soon realise that the community there came to an end with some form of calamity or disaster, though whether brought on by the inhabitants or outsiders isn't made clear till the end.

I always find something fascinating  about stories of closed-off communities - from shipwreck survivors to this kind of wannabe-utopia - maybe because close-knit, restricted groups seem bound sooner or later to implode (in fiction at least), so there's a thriller-style element to novels about them. Foxlowe certainly gripped me in that way, as I waited to discover what had happened, why, and what the fallout was.

I hope this isn't a plot spoiler, but it's maybe it's not a read for the squeamish, as some of the treatment of the children is hard to take, and could easily be distressing.

Maryom's review - 4 stars 
Publisher - Fourth Estate
Genre - adult fiction, 

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

review by Maryom

In St Malo, in August 1944, people wait for the Allied bombardment to begin. Townsfolk are warned to leave, but not everybody can, and there's certainly no escape for the German troops stationed there.
 Blind since the age of six, Marie-Laure and her father moved from their Paris home to her great-uncle's home in St Malo as the German advance rolled across France. Alone now in the house, she can't read the leaflets that warn of the impending bombing but the sound of approaching aircraft is unmistakable, so she seeks shelters in the cellar under her great-uncle's house and waits for the bombing to end. In her hand she  clutches a tiny model of the house, and hidden within it a tear-drop shaped stone, the size of a pigeon egg.
In a different part of town, eighteen year old German radio-operator Werner is also hiding in a cellar - underneath the Hotel of Bees, which has been his 'home' for the past few weeks as he helps track down a Resistance group sending messages to the Allies. Raised in a mining town orphanage, while still a schoolboy, Werner discovered his special 'knack' for radios. Enthralled by the things they enabled him to hear, and fascinated by how they work, Werner finds his knowledge and intuitive understanding opening up opportunities for him as part of Germany's war effort - opportunities which have eventually led him to St Malo and a basement bomb shelter.
While the bombers fly overhead, the story moves back in time to their childhoods, discovers a connection that neither of them is aware of, and a treasure that, while it protects the life of its owner, carries a curse.


A story about a boy, a girl, and a precious jewel sounds a bit like a fairy tale - and, despite its setting in Second World War Europe, in many ways it is. This wonderful, lyrical story works well at several levels; a story of two young people making a connection despite the barriers of nationality and war; an exploration of the ways in which we experience our world - not always merely through sight but using the other senses as well; and as a fable about a fabulous jewel and the search for the one person strong enough to resist it. Add in a father's love for his child, Werner's struggle to do what he feels is right when everyone and everything is pushing him in a different direction, Marie-Laure's desire to overcome her handicap and share fully in the world, someone determined to find the jewel and use it for their own benefit and the little old ladies of St Malo who decide that even they can help to defeat the Germans, and it all makes for a very special book. The various threads weave in and around each other, seemingly easily, though I imagine it didn't feel like that for the author at the planning and plotting stage!

I loved it, every bit of it; the way the story evolved, the style of the story telling, the human-interest angle, the facts about shells, snails and wireless, the mix of real factual world and ever-so-slightly fantastical.

I've tagged it as adult/ literary/ historical but don't feel constrained by these labels - it could as easily appeal to an inquisitive teenager or someone who'd normally avoid war stories, and different readers will find different things to love in it.


Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Fourth Estate
Genre - adult literary historical fiction, WW2,

Other reviews; For Winter Nights

Mainlander by Will Smith

 review by Maryom

 Jersey isn't a very large island, it's the sort of place where everyone knows everyone else and everything they're up to, where locals are apt to close ranks and incomers will always feel left out. Certainly schoolteacher Colin Bygate feels this way - and every time he gives his name, people know him for the Mainlander he is, and he feels it just a little bit more.
 When he first married a local girl, he fell in love with the place but now it's beginning to feel claustrophobic. Brooding over an argument with his wife, he interrupts a possible suicide attempt by one of his pupils, and although he drives the boy home, he then goes missing. Colin feels the matter should be investigated but neither the school nor the boy's parents seem bothered. Their unconcerned attitude strikes Colin as bizarre and, despite the risk to his career and marriage, he persists in trying to track down the boy.
 But Mainlander isn't just Colin's story. There's his dissatisfied wife Emma, flash hotelier Rob de la Haye, with whom she once had an affair, and Louise, who had a one-night stand with Rob, has now been dismissed from the hotel and is looking to add a little blackmail to her pay-off. Add to them a couple of petty crooks looking to make a quick buck on a cosy, crime-free island and you've got half a dozen plot lines crossing each other, coming together, moving apart, joining up again; sometimes quite comical, sometimes nail-bitingly tense.

The book's blurb concentrates on Colin so when the story started spinning in different directions, I was at first a bit wrong-footed and left wondering where the story had leapt to, but ploughing on I began to get a feel for it; it's almost like having several inter-related short stories unfolding at the same time - a bit like Love, Actually or Robert Altman's Short Cuts. This all of course makes it difficult to pin down what style of book this is or what it's about - comedy? thriller? incisive look at a troubled marriage? A bit of all, at one point or another.


There's always the risk as well with a multitude of storylines and characters that the reader might find some more interesting than others - I know I did. Both Colin's and Louise's stories held me more than the others, both ending in tense, dramatic circumstances. Rob, on the other hand, provided light relief, though with his obnoxious attitudes and total lack of  redeeming features, and I was just waiting for him to get his comeuppance.


You might be aware of Will Smith (the British version, not US) as actor and writer from The Thick of It, and this is his first novel, set far away from Malcolm Tucker and Whitehall politics. It's good, mainly well-written, though the dialogue is often better than the narrative and the action better than more introspective passages, and I'm intrigued to see what he will come up with next. I've hesitated and quibbled over the star-rating but gone for a slightly generous 4, as I feel it's a re-readable book.



Maryom's review - 4 stars
Publisher - Fourth Estate
Genre - adult fiction,

An Experiment in Love by Hilary Mantel

review by Maryom

It's 1970 and Carmel McBain is off to start a new life for herself, leaving behind her northern mill-town home and heading for London and university. Free from the constraints of the family home and filled with a wonderful sense of opportunity, Carmel embraces her new life with enthusiasm but her childhood isn't that easily abandoned as two of her school friends end up in the same hall-of-residence; Julianne with her string of boyfriends and Karina with her down to earth practicality and enormous appetite. They and the other students at Tonbridge Hall soon find that life isn't as easy as they'd expected and as with so many coming of age stories, there's heartache, disappointment and a brush with tragedy to be encountered along the way.

Mention Hilary Mantel and most people will immediately think of her long historical novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies ,so it might come as a surprise to know she's also written shorter, more contemporary novels. I first discovered them a couple of years ago with Fludd and An Experiment In Love has been sitting waiting on my TBR pile for frankly too long. What all these books share is the slipping inside another mind-set, the sharing of another person's outlook on life, whether that be an important historical figure like Thomas Cromwell or a fictitious 18 year old such as Carmel.

Instead of the intrigues of the Tudor court, here the reader is introduced to the behind the scenes secrets of a university hall of residence; with just as many hidden agendas and deceptions - from stretching the meagre grant and all-night studying, to boyfriends, unwanted pregnancies, eating disorders and quick-burn resentments.

In style and length it's reminiscent of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar and Françoise Sagan's Bonjour Tristesse; a bitter-sweet, first person narrative of the lives of young women on the cusp between child and adult, at a time of life so full of possibilities, but which could easily tip into tragedy.

If you've loved Wolf Hall, or been daunted by its sheer scale, don't miss this. At a personal level I found this to be an unexpected trip down memory lane; although I'm several years younger than the character of Carmel, her childhood echoed mine and brought back things I'd long forgotten from the strange headgear of boys in the early '60s to comics with stories that gripped me.

Is it an adult novel or young adult? Well, in the time it's set, back before YA existed, I'd have read it as a teenager - and Carmel probably would have done too! One for all ages over 16.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Fourth Estate
Genre - YA/adult fiction

The Girl Who Saved The King Of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson

review by Maryom

Nombeko Mayeki was born in a shack in Soweto, South Africa, and expected nothing remarkable to happen in her life  - so how did she end up in Sweden, on the run from the Israeli secret service, with twins who share the same identity, an extremely angry young woman and an elderly potato-farming Countess. And how did the fate of the world - and the King of Sweden - come to rest in her hands?

I'm struggling slightly to describe this book without just going ahead and retelling it - is it a comedy, a thriller or a bit of everything; in part, the title's a bit of a spoiler as it's a long way through the book before the King of Sweden appears. What it most definitely is is a delightful, quirky tale full of serendipitous happenings and accidental meetings that takes Nombeko and the reader from 1960s South Africa to Sweden today via a look at apartheid, the arms race, Swedish monarchy and seemingly a million and one other side topics.

Nombeko is an amazing character; one I quickly warmed to. Her life has been full of troubles -  starting work at the age of 5 as a latrine emptier, getting run over by a drunk driver and then being made to take the blame for it, finding a way to escape to Sweden to a life free from oppression and then finding herself responsible for an unwanted nuclear bomb (as you do!)  -  through it all she remains remarkably upbeat, hoping things will take a turn for the better but not feeling down and beaten if they don't. A genius at maths, engineering and languages, Nombeko is a puzzle to her South African white 'superiors' - a black cleaning woman who's cleverer than they are? Impossible! Fortunately not all the world shares their point of view.

From farce to narrowly-averted tragedy, it's a highly entertaining read full of strange events and even stranger characters.

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars
Publisher - Fourth Estate
Genre - adult fiction, humour

Translator - Rachel Willson-Broyles

Buy The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden from Amazon

Winter by Christopher Nicholson

review by Maryom

Set in the 1920s, when Thomas Hardy was in his eighties, this novel explores the triangular relationship between him, his much younger second wife Florence and local amateur actress Gertrude Bugler.
Gertrude, the star of the first theatrical production, at Dorchester Corn Exchange of Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, dreams of performing the role in London and becoming a professional actress. To her, Hardy is just a friendly elderly gentleman; to Hardy, she's the personification of his feminine ideal. While Hardy hides away in his study and writes love poems to Gertrude, Florence feels lonely and neglected, and is tormented by fears of where his feelings may lead him. It's a story that could almost have been written by Thomas Hardy himself.

Well, for a person who normally claims to not like them, I seem to be reading a lot of fictionalised biographies recently - and loving them!
Despite having read most of Hardy's novels, I've never concerned myself much with his personal life so this was all new to me and a fascinating glimpse into both his private and creative life. I associate him with vaguely mid-Victorian pastoral idylls, which were probably disappearing quickly even as he wrote, so it was very strange to picture Hardy in a comparatively modern setting surrounded by telephones and cars.
This story is told from three angles - both women's told in the first person, Hardy's in the third but in his style of writing as if he had become a character in one of his own tales.
Hardy comes across as someone probably rather hard to live with - he disappears into his study, writing and losing himself in memories, leaving Florence to occupy herself as best she can. Being married to a famous author hasn't turned out as she imagined it would. Lonely and childless, living in a house that seems imprinted with the memory of Hardy's first wife Emma, it's hard not to feel sorry for Florence despite the way she frets over her ailments and stokes up her jealousy.
An intimate portrait of a marriage slowly crumbling that will appeal to more than just die-hard Hardy fans.

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars
Publisher - Fourth Estate
Genre - adult fiction, fictionalised biography

The Drowning of Arthur Braxton by Caroline Smailes

review by Maryom

Strange things are happening in the old public baths now renamed The Oracle. Tapping into the power from a sacred spring beneath the pools three water-healers have been curing people of physical and emotional ills but when 14 yr old Laurel goes to work there part-time, she finds one of the healers taking a much more personal interest in her.
Arthur Braxton has been set up by the most attractive girl at school and finds himself being made a laughing stock all over Facebook. Trying to run away from his life, he finds himself attracted to the dilapidated Baths by the strange singing coming from inside. Venturing past the rubble and builders' skips he finds another world - at the heart of the splendid old building lies a pool and in it is a naked girl swimming and twirling as if the water is her natural element. In this dream-like place Arthur finds peace and quiet away from his unravelling life - and, as in all fairy tales, a maiden to love.This idyll is threatened though - by the bullies who make Arthur's days a misery and by the money-crunching suits who want to demolish the old building and replace it by a modern spa.

The Drowning of Arthur Braxton is a difficult story to pin down and label. Caroline Smailes takes the figures of Greek myths, mixes them a little with The Water Babies and transposes them into a derelict swimming pool - is it fantasy or a modern fairy tale? maybe an urban legend? However you label it, it's an intriguing, enjoyable read.

The Oracle is a haven in the midst of crowded run-down streets. The Pool itself, despite the changing cubicles and other everyday swimming pool paraphernalia,  is a magical, enchanted place, a water portal from one world to another. Outside the rain falls in torrents; inside is calm. Stepping through its doors, people can be transformed - the awkward, crude, victimised Arthur changes under the influence of the Oracle into a more caring, sympathetic, responsible person. When the two worlds clash though, there's bound to be trouble.

The telling of the story jumps from one viewpoint to another, from first person narrative to play-script, but the strands all weave together to make one wonderful whole.

I've intended reading Caroline Smailes' earlier novels for some time - I have one in hard copy and another downloaded to Kindle waiting for me - this has given me that extra push to actually get round to it!
A must read for anyone who loves the quirky and unusual - and one to read a second or third time as I suspect more nuances will emerge.

Maryom's review -  5 stars
Publisher - originally published by The Friday Project but now re-launched by  Fourth Estate
Genre - Adult fiction, fantasy, myths

Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel

review by Maryom

Following on from Wolf Hall, Bring Up The Bodies follows the continuing fortunes of Thomas Cromwell from September 1535 to summer 1536 - as Henry VIII falls in love with Jane Seymour and tries to rid himself of his current encumbrance of wives. Cromwell, of course, is on hand to help and advise - believing the world to be a safer place for everyone, but particularly himself, if Anne Boleyn and her supporters are removed from the scene.

It's not the story that matters here - after all, if you didn't know already, a brief glance at a history book will tell you how it all ends. Mantel's skill is in bringing the movers and shakers of the Tudor Court to life on the page and in our minds. The reader feels themselves to be there, in that time and place, overhearing court gossip or Cromwell's family get-togethers.

I discovered after reading Wolf Hall that the world - or at least that part of it interested in books - was divided into two distinct groups; those who felt it captured the period, the workings of Henry's court in general and of Cromwell's mind in particular, so very well, who loved it and wanted more, more, more;  and those for whom it all fell flat. No prizes for guessing I'm in the first group! I could sing Hilary Mantel's praises for pages and pages but basically if you adored Wolf Hall, you'll adore Bring Up The Bodies - and if you found Wolf Hall wasn't for you, then this won't be either.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Fourth Estate
Genre - adult fiction, historical

Buy Bring up the Bodies from Amazon

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel * * * * *

Henry VIII, with his determination to annul his first marriage and marry Anne Boleyn, has been the hero/villain of many historical novels ( and I've read quite a few of them). Hilary Mantel presents these events to us through the eyes of his adviser Thomas Cromwell, a man that historian David Starkey describes as "Alastair Campbell with an axe".

It reconstructs the rise of Thomas Cromwell from his humble beginnings as blacksmiths son, assistant to cardinal Wolsey to become a trusted adviser to Henry VIII ending as the balance of power starts to shift towards the Seymour family.

Any historical novel is up against the problem of the reader knowing what is going to happen, but there is much more than plot to this book. Mantel brings Tudor England to life - from courtiers to kitchen boys, ladies in waiting to the women gossiping at the market - and creates living breathing people of historical characters as diverse as Cromwell, HenryVIII, Thomas Moore, Anne Boleyn and shy, mouse-like Jane Seymour.

It's not necessarily a book that will grab you on page one. It takes time to get inside a person's head, to recreate an almost tangible world and that is what Hilary Mantel achieves.

Read it slowly, savour it, lap up the atmosphere and you'll find yourself getting inside Thomas Cromwell's head.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Fourth Estate
Genre - adult fiction, historical