#50. A Musical Instrument On The Cover – The Instrumentalist by Harriet Constable (Audible)

I was really struggling to find a book with a musical instrument on the front cover. There was nothing on my bookshelf, in my Audible library, or on my Kindle app. If I went anywhere that books were sold (supermarket, airport etc) I’d have a quick glance on the shelves…nothing. I mean it shouldn’t be so hard, should it? Then this book popped up on a Facebook page. It was set in Venice, a favourite haunt of mine, and based on real people and a famous Venetian orphanage; I thought it sounded like the perfect book and so I bought it with a remaining credit I had for Audible. 

“Anna Maria may have no name, no fortune, no family. But she has her ambition, and her talent.

Her best hope lies in her teacher, Antonio Vivaldi. Soon she is his star pupil.

But as Anna Maria's star rises, not everyone is happy. Because Anna Maria's shining light is threatening to eclipse that of her mentor.

She will leave her mark, whatever it takes. And her story will be heard.”

The challenge with writing a fictitious story based on historical figures, is to balance what we know, with some added excitement that makes us want to read the story. If one of the historical figures is not well known, the writer may feel they can put whatever spin they want on the story and no-one will know how true, or not, the tale is. As the writer, you can be tempted to take the story to whatever place you like. When you partner an unknown character, Anna Maria della Pietà, with a well-known figure such as Antonio Vivaldi (everyone will have heard his Four Seasons at some point in their life) you need to be very careful as to how much you want to interfere with history. Too much interference, and suddenly the interest in your unknown character wanes. Sadly, no-one seems to have given the author of The Instrumentalist this piece of salient advice.  

Harriet Constable’s The Instrumentalist is inspired by the real-life Anna Maria della Pietà, who was a Venetian orphan and prodigious violinist. She studied under the tutelage of Antonio Vivaldi but very little is known about her life, so whilst the setting of this story might be historically accurate, the majority of the book is pure fiction. Constable herself acknowledges that she has moved some historical events around for dramatic effect, but has that decision diminished what she was trying to achieve with this book? 

The question I asked myself after reading this novel is, what was she trying to achieve?

#40. Set During A Holiday You Don’t Celebrate – The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (Paperback)

I really enjoyed David Mitchell’s first novel, Ghostwritten. I was confused by his third novel, Cloud Atlas (although after reading the book and then watching the film, everything suddenly slipped into place in my addled brain.) 

When reading Slade House, I realised this was a writer who has the ability to write about anything; it was probably one of the most frightening/disturbing novels I’d read.

So when I came across The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet in a charity shop for 50p, it was a bargain I couldn’t resist; however it never quite reached the top of my TBR pile. Thanks to this challenge, it's finally found a reason to become a priority read. 

“In your hands is a place like no other: a tiny, man-made island in the bay of Nagasaki, for two hundred years the sole gateway between Japan and the west. Here, in the dying days of the 18^th century, a young Dutch clerk arrives to make his fortune. Instead he loses his heart.

 

Step onto the streets of Dejima and mingle with schemeing traders, spies, interpreters, servants and concubines as two cultures converge. In a tale of integrity and corruption, passion and power, the key is control – of riches and minds, and over death itself.”

Mainly set in 1799 & 1800, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is a character-driven, historical tale, that unfolds on the isolated Dutch trading post of Dejima in Japan. This small, man-made island in Nagasaki Bay, served as a window between the East and West amidst Japan’s strict isolation policy whereby Japan only traded with the Dutch. The Japanese were forbidden to mix with the Dutch and any attempts to break the rules resulted in dire consequences.

In this fictious tale, David Mitchell explores culture clashes, love, morality and ambition through the eyes of Jacob de Zoet, a young Dutch clerk who has been sent to Dejima to uncover corruption in the trading logs of the East India Company.
Jacob’s life takes an unexpected turn when he meets Orito Aibagawa and becomes infatuated with her. As Jacob struggles to come to terms with the complex nature of Japanese society, the novel reveals far bigger tensions between Eastern and Western values.

The book is beautifully poetic, however, I did find it a taxing read. There was an eloquence in the writing, and the descriptive nature of the book created vivid images of a time and place in history, but it made trying to keep up with conversations extraordinarily difficult. This book is filled with numerous characters. All have a role to play, but there are too many of them. Fortunately there is a list of characters to be found at the end of the book, so you can remind yourself of the connections as you read.

#37. Palindrome On The Cover – Madam by Phoebe Wynne (Kindle)

I originally read this book as a temporary e-book from Hatchette Publisher’s now defunct Secret Reader program. I found the premise of the book captivating, but it failed to live up to my expectations. I found reading the book a chore, but I couldn’t be sure whether this was because the app for the Secret Reader wasn’t fit for purpose, or whether it was that I could just not engage with the characters or the book. 

Many of the plaudits for this book suggest it is “reminiscent of Du Maurier” and therefore, since I have finally read Du Maurier’s work, I thought it only fair to give this book another chance. 

 

“For 150 years, high above rocky Scottish cliffs, Caldonbrae Hall has sat untouched, a beacon of excellence in an old ancestral castle. A boarding school for girls, it promises that the young women lucky enough to be admitted will emerge “resilient and ready to serve society.”

Into its illustrious midst steps Rose Christie: a 26-year-old Classics teacher, Caldonbrae’s new head of the department, and the first hire for the school in over a decade. At first, Rose is overwhelmed to be invited into this institution, whose prestige is unrivaled. But she quickly discovers that behind the school’s elitist veneer lies an impenetrable, starkly traditional culture that she struggles to reconcile with her modernist beliefs—not to mention her commitment to educating “girls for the future.”

It also doesn’t take long for Rose to suspect that there’s more to the secret circumstances surrounding the abrupt departure of her predecessor—a woman whose ghost lingers everywhere—than anyone is willing to let on. In her search for this mysterious former teacher, Rose instead uncovers the darkness that beats at the heart of Caldonbrae, forcing her to confront the true extent of the school’s nefarious purpose, and her own role in perpetuating it.

A darkly feminist tale pitched against a haunting backdrop, and populated by an electrifying cast of heroines, Madam will keep readers engrossed until the breathtaking conclusion.”

 

Madam is set at Caldonbrae Hall, a boarding school for girls in the Scottish Highlands. The school has hired a new teacher, Rose, to teach the Classics and as she is the first teacher to be hired in a decade, Rose feels honoured and a little humbled that she has been given this rare opportunity. Upon entering the school, Rose realises that she has arrived at somewhere rather peculiar, and perhaps her teaching skills are not the most important thing on the curriculum. There is the feeling that something rather sinister and untoward might be going on.

This sets the tone for what could be an intriguing and mesmerising book; you wonder what is going on within those gloomy walls…what secrets are they harbouring? Early into the story you can guess what is going on, and as assumptions start to be validated, you expect a wicked twist at the end of the story. There must be some sort of pay off for reading some unpleasant chapters that are not strictly necessary for this type of novel.

#34. Set In A Landlocked Country – Gerta by Kateřina Tučková (Kindle)

Obviously the first thing I did for this reading prompt was Google ‘landlocked countries’ thinking that would help narrow things down, only to find there are 44 landlocked countries to choose from! I got as far as C and saw Czech Republic and stopped. I’ve visited Prague numerous times, and read various books set in Prague. I wondered if I should continue scanning the list of countries just for something a bit different, and then I remembered an Amazon Prime First Reads from January 2021 I hadn’t read. It was set during WWII in Brno but I kept putting off reading it because I thought it might be too depressing. It was a wretched story, but one that needed to be read. One that told of a piece of Czech history I knew nothing about. 

 

“1945. Allied forces liberate Nazi-occupied Brno, Moravia. For Gerta Schnirch, daughter of a Czech mother and a German father aligned with Hitler, it’s not deliverance; it’s a sentence. She has been branded an enemy of the state. Caught in the changing tides of a war that shattered her family—and her innocence—Gerta must obey the official she, along with all ethnic Germans, is to be expelled from Czechoslovakia. With nothing but the clothes on her back and an infant daughter, she’s herded among thousands, driven from the only home she’s ever known. But the injustice only makes Gerta stronger, more empowered, and more resolved to seek justice. Her journey is a relentless quest for a seemingly impossible forgiveness. And one day, she will return.

Spanning decades and generations, Kateřina Tučková’s breathtaking novel illuminates a long-neglected episode in Czech history. One of exclusion and prejudice, of collective shame versus personal guilt, all through the eyes of a charismatic woman whose courage will affect all the lives she’s touched. Especially that of the daughter she loved, fought for, shielded, and would come to inspire.”

I think when we visit museums or read history books about WWII, we think we know the whole story. When I saw the premise of Gerta I was instantly intrigued, hence why I had opted for the book from the ‘first reads’ selection. I am disappointed that it has taken until now to read the book, as it took me on a journey to a part of history I knew nothing about, and it made me look at WWII through different eyes.

War is often about hatred, and it doesn’t matter about who is right, or who is wrong; both the innocent and the guilty end up being lumped together and suffering at the hands of others. 

Gerta Schnirch, born to a Czech mother and a German father, soon realises that hatred and violence will form her life in this war-torn world, where her nationality will come into question, and her friends will disappear overnight. This is a child who cannot win. Set in Brno, Czechoslovakia during Hitler’s rise to power, her father treats Gerta with disdain for being too Czech, and for identifying with her mother’s Czech values. She would often argue with her father and brother over their Nazi ideology, and she witnessed how the war broke down the relationship of her parents.

#33. An Abrupt Ending – There There by Tommy Orange (Audible)

I was starting to get worried that I would never find a novel with an abrupt ending. How do you go about choosing a book with an abrupt ending, without having to read a book in the first place to find out if it has one or not?! Some of the books I’ve read in this challenge did have an abrupt ending, but I wanted them for other categories, in fact this book was supposed to be for #46 Featuring Indigenous Culture, but, when this book reached its ending, I was shocked. The book just stopped. Dead. 

I had to dig out my phone and check it was the end of the book. What happened to these characters I had started to learn about? I don’t know…it was a real cliff hanger, but then I guess, so is life…you meet people, you start to find out about them, and then they just disappear from your life.

 

“Jacquie Red Feather and her sister Opal grew up together, relying on each other during their unsettled childhood. As adults they were driven apart, but Jacquie is newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind. That’s why she is there.

Dene is there because he has been collecting stories to honour his uncle's death. Edwin is looking for his true father. Opal came to watch her boy Orvil dance. All of them are connected by bonds they may not yet understand.

All of them are there for the cultural celebration that is the Big Oakland Powwow.

But Tony Loneman is also there. And Tony has come to the Powwow with darker intentions.”

 

This book starts out referencing urban Indians, explaining to the reader about the loss of homelands and past genocides which has trickled through their descendants so that their culture has, in many instances, become lost. The people, just another part of history.  

Following his uncle’s death, Dene Oxedene has decided to get his life back together. He is going to collect stories about urban Indians, stories that tell of the modern-day issues Native Americans face, and how they still feel that they don’t belong in “our” society. Perhaps if their voices are heard, they may begin to heal. He isn’t interested too much in the old ways of reservation life, he wants to understand how, or indeed if, the modern Indians identify with their heritage. 

Dene’s uncle always spoke fondly about making a film one day, however, he never did, and so Dene decides he will apply for a grant to make a film, in which he sets up a camera and gets people to speak about their lives and to share their stories. From these stories, he hopes a film will take shape, showing how the displacement of the Indians, as Tommy Orange refers to them, has affected an entire community, in favour of the white man who threw them from their lands. 

An opportunity arises at the Oakland Powwow for him to video the stories of twelve different people, each will receive some money for sharing their story. This book tells, in alternating voices, the stories of these twelve characters. Each one has a different tale to tell, but all the people have struggled in one way or another. Some have struggled with drug addiction, some with poverty, others with loss of family or the sense of community. Some would argue that these are just the struggles of modern society, but what if you have that added layer of constantly feeling like you don’t belong? You don’t know why, or what can be done to help you feel as though you should be where you are, you just know that you don’t belong.

Whilst all of the characters are from Indian heritage, some have been raised to embrace their heritage, whilst others have been told to disregard it…it’s not deemed important in the modern world. Others are brought up in white households and have no idea about the ways of the past. It is these struggles with identity and how they have lost their culture that connect these disparate people; most have been born into a modern life, they have never lived on a reservation, but the blood bond is deep, and they all feel a sense that something is missing from their lives. It is the loss of their culture that makes them feel as if they don’t belong anywhere, and the Powwow is something to look forward to, to give them the opportunity to try and heal their fractured souls.

Just as all the characters have their own reasons for feeling as though they are outsiders, each of the characters have their own reasons for wanting to attend the Powwow. A boy wishes to perform his native dance despite having little knowledge about his culture; he believes that if he performs the dance with heart and soul, he will begin to understand who he is and achieve a sense of belonging. It is this pure naivety that makes you want to embrace him and let him know that things will turn out well for him.

As each person shares their story, we find some stories interlock with others. As readers we begin to understand the hurt and anger these people feel and how others view wanting to retain a part of your heritage as a waste of time.

As the day of the Powwow draws nearer and nearer, there is this impending sense of doom. Whilst most people have the best of intentions for heading to the Powwow, not all people are pure souls, and their darkness begins to overshadow the tale. As a reader, or listener, you can tell something major is going to happen, because the tempo of the book changes via shorter chapters. We leap from one character to another and back again in quick succession. Yet as the tension ramps into a crescendo, the book ends.

It actually makes sense to end the book where Orange has, the event has happened, we thought we knew what was going to happen and it has, so there is nothing more to share. But on the other hand, you feel a little short-changed, we have built a relationship with these people, we want to know what happens to them next, and so you’re questioning…well what happened to x and what happened to y? But the fact that you are questioning shows what an impact these people’s stories have had on you. You invested your time and understanding in these fictitious people, but deep down you know these stories probably ring true with so many people who are displaced from their homes and forced to survive in places that feel alien to them.

Tommy Orange has written a powerful debut novel, which highlights the impact that destroying a community can have many generations down the line. It is a tale told which shows no hope or humanity, it is very bleak, but perhaps that’s the point and why he ended it as he did.

Regarding the Audible version of the book especially, the stories, and the Powwow, were dramatically enhanced using music and drums, which gave a sense of being there in the middle of a turbulent situation.  You could feel the emotions as events unfurled. It was almost like hearing something in slow motion, you knew what would inevitably happen, but you couldn’t do anything about it.

 

Genre: Historical Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Indigenous,

Release Date: 5^th July 2018

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Listening Time: 8h

 

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#26. Hybrid Genre – The Village Healer’s Book of Cures by Jennifer Sherman Roberts (Kindle)

This book was another Amazon Prime First read.  

Chosen in October 2023, the blurb sounded of a similar vein to a book I’d enjoyed called The Witchfinder’s Sister by Beth Underdown. Both books feature a character called Matthew Hopkins, who in real life was a ruthless English witch-hunter and self-styled Witchfinder General. His career flourished during the English Civil War 1642-1651 and he was prevalent in the East Anglian area of England. His job as a witch-finder lasted from 1644-1647, but during those three years, he and his colleague sent more people to be hanged for witchcraft than all previous witch-finders in the preceding 160 years.  

“In seventeenth-century England, a female healer enflames the fury of a witchfinder in this propulsive novel about murder, revenge, and the dangerous power of knowledge.

Mary Fawcett refines the healing recipes she’s inherited from generations of women before her—an uncanny and moral calling to empathize with the sick. When witchfinder Matthew Hopkins arrives in her small village, stoking the fires of hate, he sees not healing but the devil at work. Mary’s benevolent skills have now cast her and her young brother under suspicion of witchery.

Soon, the husband of one of Mary’s patients is found murdered, his body carved with strange symbols. For Hopkins, it’s further evidence of dark arts. When the whispering village turns against her, Mary dares to trust a stranger: an enigmatic alchemist, scarred body and soul, who knows the dead man’s secrets.

As Hopkins’s fervor escalates, Mary must outsmart the devil himself to save her life and the lives of those she loves. Unfolding the true potential of her gifts could make Mary a more empowered adversary than a witchfinder ever feared.”

At under 300 pages this was a quick read. I found the start of the book interesting, but as the story progressed the plot started to veer off tangent and I wasn’t sure what I was reading, a murder mystery, a story about how women were mistreated in the 17th Century, or a book about the supernatural. I know the novel is a mixed genre, but I didn’t feel the author knew where the storyline was heading, so it just became a confusing mash-up of a tale.

Mary Fawcett is a young woman who is a talented healer. She has studied the recipes of her ancestors and refined them so that she can help the weak and sick in her village. Her parents are dead and so she is looking after her young brother Tom who was born with a club foot. The other children avoid him, so his best friend is a crow he named Greedyguts. 

#25. An Author “Everyone” Has Read Except You – The Scapegoat (Audible)

I’ve watched the TV and film versions of both The Scapegoat and Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier but realised during this challenge that I’ve read neither of them. Many people can quote the opening lines of Rebecca… “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again” and so it seemed that a novel by the author Daphne du Maurier would be perfect for this part of the challenge. I was initially going to read Rebecca, but then I remembered the film showed a wedding scene, and so I switched to The Scapegoat instead, and decided Rebecca could become my #44 read later in the challenge. So, the question now remained…was the book anything like the film version I enjoyed watched starring Matthew Rhys and Andrew Scott?

“By chance, John and Jean--one English, the other French--meet in a provincial railway station. Their resemblance to each other is uncanny, and they spend the next few hours talking and drinking - until at last John falls into a drunken stupor. It's to be his last carefree moment, for when he wakes, Jean has stolen his identity and disappeared. So the Englishman steps into the Frenchman's shoes, and faces a variety of perplexing roles - as owner of a chateau, director of a failing business, head of a fractious family, and master of nothing.”

Have you ever been mistaken for someone else? Has someone ever said to you “Oh I saw you in town the other week, but you were too far away for me to shout hello,” and you reply that wasn’t you, you’ve not gone into town for weeks. Do you ever look in the mirror, exasperated by your dull, meaningless life, and think that it should be more exciting? Do you crave something other than your lacklustre life? Why couldn’t you have been born into nobility, or be part of a dynasty of achievers? Do you ever wonder how different your life could be if you had done things differently? Would the life of the doppelgänger that people have mistaken you for be better than your own?

For John, his life is going to change immeasurably, not because he really wishes to have someone else’s life, but because someone is about to impose their life upon him. 

Written in 1957, Daphne du Maurier's atmospheric novel ‘The Scapegoat’ is an unsettling tale set in France. Du Maurier chose this location whilst she was researching her family history for another one of her novels, The Glassblowers. The glass-blowing foundry of her ancestors was to become the failing business of the de Gué family, which is central to the narrative of the book.

“He turned and stared at me and I at him, and I realised, with a strange sense of shock and fear and nausea all combined, that his face and voice were known to me too well. I was looking at myself.”

The story is told by an Englishman, John, an English lecturer in French history. He sets off on his travels through France and whilst reflecting on his lonely, unfulfilling life, he is startled to find his doppelgänger staring at him at a train station in Le Mans. The man, Jean de Gué, is a French nobleman, and John confides to him that he is depressed with what life has to offer him. Swept up by Jean’s confident manner, John finds himself playing along with Jean’s games, overindulging in wine and spending the night in a disreputable hotel, rather than continuing his travels to a nearby monastery as he had intended.

When he wakes from his drunken slumber, John realises that Jean has disappeared, taking all of John’s belongings with him. Instead, he is left with Jean’s clothing and gifts for his family. Jean’s chauffer arrives at the hotel to take him home; unaware that John is not his master, and with John realising the police would think he was a madman if he told his story to them, he allows the chauffer to take him to a tired looking chateau in the country, and so the story begins, with John taking on the persona of the "Comte Jean de Gué".

At first John is angry and confused at the predicament he finds himself in, however, he suddenly realises he is free of the shackles that confined him as John. He isn’t plain old John anymore, as far as anyone else is concerned, he is Comte Jean de Gué, a role he could surely play, at least until Jean returned, and they could trade their lives back again. 

"possessed by a reckless feeling I had never known before, the sensation that I myself did not matter anymore... no one could call me to account for any action. For the first time I was free."

As John enters the ancestral home, and quickly learns the effects Jean’s influence has on his family, it soon becomes apparent that John has become Jean’s scapegoat. The family business is in a mess, and Jean, out of his depth, needs someone else to take care of matters.

Not only has Jean meddled in John’s life, but he has also twisted the lives of his mother, siblings and in-laws to suit his own purposes. John’s anger about the situation begins to dissipate as he uncovers family secrets, and he begins to feel sympathy towards these people who accept that he is Jean de Gué. They treat him with either love or hate, but they don’t treat him with the indifference he suffered at college. 

The longer John spends with the family, the more he begins to be committed to them, and righting the wrongs that Jean has subjected them to. Within a week, John has used his influence to try to ensure the workers at the foundry still have jobs, and that the family members are given roles in the family business that they should have been allowed to pursue when Jean was in charge.

Whilst reading the book, I did have to suspend my belief that two biologically different men could look and behave so like one another that their own wife, daughter and mother could not tell them apart. In fact, the only inhabitant of the chateau that suspected something was amiss was the dog, César. So, am I supposed to take this book literally, or figuratively? I don’t think it really matters; the book is written so beautifully that you don’t really care about how implausible it all is, you just get swept up by the story.

As the book continues, the two characters of John and Jean seem to merge into one another: 

"I knew that everything I had said or done had implicated me further, driven me deeper, bound me more closely still to that man whose body was not my body, whose mind was not my mind, whose thoughts and actions were a world apart, and yet whose inner substance was part of my nature, part of my secret self." 

John begins to realise that he houses a darker self, one well fitted to lying and deceit. The longer he hides his true self, the more confident he becomes, the persona of Jean starting to shadow his original self. Yet throughout, he still maintains his belief in trying to do good, to right the wrongs of Jean, a character that is not concerned with the feelings of others.

It could be argued that John was not the only titular scapegoat, indeed both Françoise, the Comte's neglected, pregnant wife, and Marie-Noel, the Comte’s daughter, are both willing to sacrifice themselves for the benefit of Jean. The young girl’s religious dedication adds to the already heightened sense of drama and suspense, but with it brings the sense of the macabre of an almost gothic tale.

There is an awareness of dark secrets, some evil doings that have taken place in the past, as du Maurier hints and steers the reader through the roles and relationships of the family, allowing them a sense of foreboding as John slowly catches up with the reader into an understanding of who Béla is, Renée's sensitive reaction to ‘his’ gift, the hostility of the elder sister and the resentful nature of the younger brother.

This is both a fascinating yet disturbing tale of the complexities of the human character. The conclusion of the book for some may seem weak, or even disappointing, but it does give rise for the reader to consider their own personality hidden within themselves. Whether we will admit it to ourselves, or indeed others, we all lead a double life to some extent. There is both good and evil in all of us. Which of our attributes will rise to the surface? The book fails to answer this question, instead it suggests that one man will go back to reality, albeit changed to a degree, and for the other a time of reflection and learning is required from the ‘opportunity’ granted to him. Whichever way you look at it, from time to time we can all feel as though we have been made a scapegoat by others, and that the best thing to do is reflect how and why these things happen and try not to harbour too many grudges.

(After reading this novel, it turns out that the 2012 film I enjoyed, starring Matthew Rhys and Andrew Scott, isn’t a true reflection of the book. For a start it’s not set in France. Set in England circa 1952, teacher John Standing has lost his job and decides to go travelling. He meets his doppelgänger Johnny Spence in a London pub and takes on the life of the failed businessman. Whilst the family interactions are initially similar to those in the book, there are a number of changes that make the story, and therefore the lessons learnt, quite different from that of the book, including the romanticised ending.)  

Genre: Fiction, Classics, Mystery, Gothic, Psychological, Historical Fiction 

Release Date: 5th November 2011

Publisher: Audible Studios

Listening Time: 13h 4m

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#16. An Omniscient Narrator – Arthur & George by Julian Barnes (Audible)

As a child, I used to watch the ITV series “Sherlock Holmes” starring Jeremy Brett and David Burke on the family black and white TV. According to my mother, Brett was the perfect Holmes, and as I grew older and watched other people try to inhabit the character, I had to agree. Brett and Burke were the perfect double act as Holmes and Watson, but what of their creator? I knew very little about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Despite owning a beautiful clothbound version of the complete works of Sherlock Holmes (and a copy on Audible to listen to on the way to work) I’ve never thought about the man behind the pen. I stumbled across this title on Audible, I think it was in one of their 2-4-1 sales; I'd read some other works of Julian Barnes and knew he was a good writer, so I was interested to hear what he had to say about the real lives of George Edalji and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

 

“As boys, George, the son of a Midlands vicar, and Arthur, living in shabby genteel Edinburgh, find themselves in a vast and complex world at the heart of the British Empire. Years later—one struggling with his identity in a world hostile to his ancestry, the other creating the world’s most famous detective while in love with a woman who is not his wife—their fates become inextricably connected.”

 

I think the story of George Edalji and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is a fascinating one, and it is obvious that Julian Barnes has done an enormous amount of research into the lives of both men, but I think I made a huge mistake in getting this book on Audible. It is hard to write an unbiased review of a book when you're trying to work out if the book is badly written, or if it's due to the poor narrator. In this instance, I think it is safe to say that my main criticism of the book is not Barnes' beautiful prose, but the narration on Audible. My concentration was removed from the story and transferred instead to the poor accents, mispronunciations and general telling of the story, which is a great travesty to Barnes. 

George Edalji was a myopic solicitor, the son of a country vicar, and part Asian. His path only crossed with that of the creator of Sherlock Holmes for several months, but there meeting was most fortunate, as Doyle was instrumental in correcting a serious miscarriage of justice.

#11. Title Starting With the Letter ‘K’ – The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley (Audible)

This is the fourth book by Natasha Pulley that I have listened to, and then decided that it would have been better to have read a physical copy of the book. At some point, I may treat myself to the books, because I’m sure there are details that I’ve missed whilst walking and getting distracted by something I’ve seen. That is a shame really, because her books are full of such exquisite details, they deserve more attention than what I’ve given them.

 

“Joe Tournier has a bad case of amnesia. His first memory is of stepping off a train in the nineteenth-century French colony of England. The only clue Joe has about his identity is a century-old postcard of a Scottish lighthouse that arrives in London the same month he does. Written in illegal English—instead of French—the postcard is signed only with the letter “M,” but Joe is certain whoever wrote it knows him far better than he currently knows himself, and he's determined to find the writer. The search for M, though, will drive Joe from French-ruled London to rebel-owned Scotland and finally onto the battle ships of a lost empire's Royal Navy. In the process, Joe will remake history, and himself.”

 

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if the history you thought you knew was wrong? What if you were given the chance to go back in time and change events that have already happened? If you did change things, then the future as you know it wouldn’t be able to exist…you might not be able to exist; those you love now might not exist because of the changes you’ve made. It’s quite the deep soul-searching question, and one that comes to play out in this novel.

The first thing that I have to say about this book is that it is a slow burn, in fact all the novels I’ve read by Natasha Pulley are slow burns, which is why I think I would do better reading her books than trying to listen to them. That said, I don’t mean to suggest that the books are boring, rambling on about nothing, I mean that the story slowly unfurls. Pulley is a storyteller, she weaves a magical tale around “nothingness,” it is as though you can read several pages and still feel left in the dark, but you continue to read because you know, you know, that something interesting is being kept from you, it’s just ever so slightly out of reach, but with a bit of patience, the answer will come in its own time. At some point, everything you have been told will suddenly start to make sense.

The year is 1898 when Joe Tournier disembarks from a train in London into a world which is unfamiliar to both him and us the reader; only this isn’t London, it’s Londres. The UK is under French rule and slavery still seems to exist, somehow, the French won the Battle of Trafalgar, and the English are now slaves.

#8. Feature’s The Ocean – Mr Peacock’s Possessions by Lydia Syson (Paperback)

I was in a second-hand bookshop last year, and my friend picked up this book and asked if I'd read it. I hadn't, she recommended it wholeheartedly. I sometimes find historical fiction a bit dull to read, however, the cover captured my attention, my friend recommended it and the blurb on the back cover sounded interesting enough; for £1.00 I wasn’t going to argue!

 

“Oceania, 1879.

 

For two years the Peacocks, a determined family of settlers, have struggled to make a remote volcanic island their home. At last, a ship appears. The six Pacific Islanders on board have travelled over eight hundred miles in search of new horizons.
Hopes are high, until a vulnerable boy vanishes.

In their search for the lost child, settlers and newcomers together uncover far more than they were looking for. The island's secrets force young Lizzie Peacock to question her deepest convictions, and slowly this tiny, fragile community begins to fracture ...”

 

Lydia Syson is known for her young adult fiction which explore less familiar historical events such as the 1871 Paris Commune in “Liberty’s Fire” and Battle of Britain Polish pilots in “That Burning Summer.”  It is said that you should write about what you know, and for her debut adult novel, she has explored the history of her husband’s family, for a remarkable tale built on a solid foundation of facts and real events, showing the lengths a family will go to for survival.

Mr Joseph Peacock has decided to move his family from New Zealand to a remote uninhabited Pacific Island, hundreds of miles away from any other human civilisation. At the start of the novel there are six children, Ada, Albert, Billy, Queenie, Gussy and a baby, Joseph, who is born on the island. Albert is expected to be a big, strong man who can help his father, but instead he is a vulnerable child who fears his father and his temper. Fifteen year-old Lizzie can fulfil many of the demands that Albert can not face, and she appears to do no wrong in her father’s eyes.

“This island will change everything for the family. ... Land. That’s the important things. That’s what a man needs to survive. To take his place in history. To keep his name. The land will be our future. Your future.”

Since moving to the island, exhaustion and hunger has set in. The captain who brought them here has sailed away, promising that he will return in three months. After he leaves, they realise that all the provisions he left them with were rotten and it dawns on them they will never see him again. They will have to rely on foraging and tending the land to grow food, otherwise they will starve to death. This is not the romantic Utopia that Joseph Peacock had dreamt of as he led his family to this small volcanic island. Their adventure is turning into a nightmare as each day passes and the island’s dark secrets are slowly emerging.

As the family’s hope of ever seeing other human life wanes, some Polynesian Islanders arrive to assist with clearing the land and planting food, a commodity now in scarce supply. They have been travelling for over eight hundred miles in search of work and new opportunities and they relish the challenges ahead. Perhaps these outsiders will be the answer to the Peacock’s prayers to finally turn the island into a paradise the family can enjoy.

Lizzie thinks the arrival of the kanakas (native workers) will be an opportunity to start all over again, and their hard work does begin to tame the harsh landscape into something more manageable. Of the new arrivals, Solomona is a teacher and pastor, whilst his brother Kalala dreams that they will one day return home and their family will be proud of their achievements. Kalala, is unsettled by Joseph’s quick temper, and when Albert disappears, a spectacular turn of events takes place to fracture this fragile community, as feelings of mistrust are centred on the newcomers. 

“Lizzie stops trusting herself. She begins to doubt the island. Its noises have not changed but now she is alone in the forest Lizzie hears them freshly. Birds whose unremarkable cries have kept her company on hunting expeditions for nearly two years squawk like frightened children among the fleshy leaves of mouse-hole trees, whose branches meet high above her head. She catches something of Albert’s voice; misrecognition pierces her just below the ribs. The air itself feels violent, as though the island is gathering itself for something. She imagines it breathing, heaving, maybe shifting.”

Lizzie is remarkable character who shares the narrative with Kalala in a portrait of family life, cast adrift to survive this unforgiving landscape. The duel perspective is also combined with a “before and now” narrative, so we embark with the family on their journey to the island and realise that they endured a great deal before even setting foot on the island.

#6. Women in STEM – Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Hardback)

I read this book in 2022 not long after its release. I heard countless reviewers extoling its virtues and so, unusually, I bought the hardback. It had been classed as original, fresh and captivating. By the end of the first page, I already loved Elizabeth Zott and wanted to read her story.

For this challenge I didn’t plan on re-reading the book. I was looking for another book relating to women in STEM, however, as the challenge progressed and I still hadn’t found something I wanted to read, the local book group announced their next book was going to be…"Lessons in Chemistry." It seems fate decided I would read the book again!

 

“Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.

But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (“combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride”) proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo.”

 

Sometimes debut novels come with a pomp and ceremony that isn’t deserved, the “must read” becomes a disappointing trudge through endless pages of nonsense until you finally reach the end with a sigh, wondering why you’d missed what the fuss was all about. Thankfully, this is not one of those books. This is a thought-provoking story, tackling hard hitting issues of abuse, loss, misogyny, self-worth and change, seen through the eyes of a very remarkable woman and her dog.

1950s/60s trailblazing women are nothing new, in “The Queen’s Gambit” by Walter Tevis, Beth Harmon is a chess prodigy who against all odds becomes America’s number 1 chess player. Julia Child was an American chef, author and TV personality, recognised for bring French cuisine to an American audience. Elizabeth Zott, the fictional heroine of “Lessons in Chemistry” becomes a success in the male dominated area of chemistry (albeit not in the way she would have liked or imagined.)

This is obviously a well-researched novel, but it is written with a dry wit that keeps the novel bright and entertaining rather than a mundane trudge through the history books. This light-hearted novel is centred around a unique character who has experienced some dreadful things in life, but she does not let them define who she is. She refuses to be anything but herself, despite the best endeavours of those around her telling her what she can and can’t do.

#5. Magical Realism – The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia (Kindle)

I was a bit stumped by the term “magical realism,” do I own any books under that category?  As I scrolled through the ideas listed on the challenge web page, I noticed, and remembered, I had a copy of one of the novels suggested on my Kindle App. I bought “The Murmur of Bees” in August 2021 but never got around to reading it; there was always something better to read, or at least that’s what I thought. What a beautiful story, and what a shame I left it so long before reading it.

 

“From the day that old Nana Reja found a baby abandoned under a bridge, the life of a small Mexican town forever changed. Disfigured and covered in a blanket of bees, little Simonopio is for some locals the stuff of superstition, a child kissed by the devil. But he is welcomed by landowners Francisco and Beatriz Morales, who adopt him and care for him as if he were their own. As he grows up, Simonopio becomes a cause for wonder to the Morales family, because when the uncannily gifted child closes his eyes, he can see what no one else can―visions of all that’s yet to come, both beautiful and dangerous. Followed by his protective swarm of bees and living to deliver his adoptive family from threats―both human and those of nature―Simonopio’s purpose in Linares will, in time, be divined.

 

Set against the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution and the devastating influenza of 1918, The Murmur of Bees captures both the fate of a country in flux and the destiny of one family that has put their love, faith, and future in the unbelievable.”

Often, when a tale is translated from the language it was written it, it can lose its meaning, however, Simon Bruni has worked his magic in translating this book from Spanish into English. It retains a beautiful poetical quality, and it gives the impression the family could be recounting their life story around the dinner table. Told largely in chronological order, the narrative does tease the reader as to what the future holds, much like Simonopio’s visions, before returning the reader back to events both in the past and present, allowing the reader access to precious details required to understand the various characters.

The tale begins in Mexico in the early 1900’s when Nana Reja finds a baby abandoned under a bridge, its body covered in a blanket of living bees. Miraculously it hasn’t been stung, instead it seems to have formed a connection to the bees. No-one suspects who the baby belongs to, but to have been born with such a deformity, and with superstitions rife in the village, the only plausible answer is that it must have been born to one of the witches of La Petaca.

#3. More Than 40 Chapters – Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (Audible)

 

This book was announced as a recommended read as part of the ‘Eurovision-themed book club’ on BBC2 Between the Covers (UK TV program.) It piqued my interest when I realised that, though a work of fiction, the book is based on a real incident in Iceland in 1828, where three people were tried and convicted of a double murder. Kent learnt about Agnes Magnúsdóttir whilst she was an exchange student in Iceland, and this inspired her to write a story of the months leading up to Agnes’ execution. 

“Iceland, 1829 – Agnes Magnúsdóttir is condemned to death for her part in the murder of her lover.

 

Agnes is sent to wait out her final months on the farm of district officer Jón Jónsson, his wife and their two daughters. Horrified to have a convicted murderer in their midst, the family avoid contact with Agnes. Only Tóti, the young assistant priest appointed Agnes’s spiritual guardian, is compelled to try to understand her. As the year progresses and the hardships of rural life force the household to work side by side, Agnes’s story begins to emerge and with it the family’s terrible realization that all is not as they had assumed.

 

Based on actual events, Burial Rites is an astonishing and moving novel about the truths we claim to know and the ways in which we interpret what we’re told. In beautiful, cut-glass prose, Hannah Kent portrays Iceland’s formidable landscape, in which every day is a battle for survival, and asks, how can one woman hope to endure when her life depends upon the stories told by others?”

 

1829, Agnes Magnúsdóttir, a 34-year-old servant, became the last woman in Iceland to be beheaded for the murder of two men, one of whom was her employer. Set against the harsh winter landscape of Iceland, this book tells of her final months before her execution. As there were no prisons in Iceland, she was sent to live with the family of an Icelandic district officer, on a farm she had formerly lived on as a girl. 

Despite the subject matter, this is a beautifully crafted book, which has obviously been thoroughly researched. It is a tough read, both emotionally and historically. We become so inhabited by Agnes’s tale, that you can’t help but feel an emotional attachment to a woman who was described as "an inhumane witch, stirring up murder." Kent tries to make this Agnes’s story, but all that research means she is also compelled to use the archival material that has been collected, and so there are chunks of a narrative that cut through Agnes’s voice and confuse the reader as to whether they should be rooting for Agnes or not. 

Super Naturally Good Tales!

Winter is the perfect opportunity for catching up on your reading list, especially Christmas when it is dark outside, and inside Christmas lights and flickering candles create the perfect ambience for a ghostly tale. Whilst M R James and Sheridan Le Fanu are my usual Christmas go-to authors, it’s nice when unexpected delights fall into the Christmas reading pile. Here are four thumping good reads to pass the dreary nights of winter with.

Now fans of Tom Burke will know that the author Arthur Calder-Marshall is Tom’s maternal grandfather, I’ve been interested to read some of his work for a while, so I was delighted when I came across a couple of second-hand books written by him.

If you love a good haunted house tale, then this first story is certainly a book for you, it is suitably eerie and will give you the required goose bumps when reading!

The Scarlet Boy – Arthur Calder-Marshall

The tale is narrated by George Grantley. He receives a letter from his friend Sir Christopher “Kit” Everness in 1959, proclaiming it was time for the Everness family to settle down, and would George assist them in finding their dream home. The family specify that the house has to be in Wilchester, close to a day school as their daughter, Rosa, hates the boarding school she goes to, and be a large, run down property with a garden that they can make their own.

George agrees to the task and learns that Anglesey House is up for sale and he thinks it would be perfect. George remembers the property from when he was a child, playing with his friend Charles Scarlet. Although they were friends, George remembered that Charles was a wilful and vicious child, wanting to play games involving torture. It was as though Charles was possessed by the spirit of someone else. He had a tree house in the garden and whilst still a child he fell and broke his neck. George had always been fond of Charles’s mother as she was “beautiful and gracious” unlike his own mother, so he continued to visit the house even after Charles’s suicide.

“A disturbing adult novel of an innocents encounter with unearthly evil...”

George tells Kit that he has found a house for the family, but rumours abound that the place is haunted. Kit takes no heed of George’s warning and so the family moves in…

The Fatal Tree - Jake Arnott (Hardback)

It’s not often I’ll pre-order a book, even more rarely that I’ll devote the weekend to reading it, but having read The House of Rumour a couple of years ago, I was really looking forward to Arnott’s latest offering.

The House of Rumour introduced the reader to some infamous faces of the twentieth century such as the occultist Aleister Crowley, Naval Intelligence Officer and James Bond novelist Ian Fleming and Nazi politician Rudolf Hess. Arnott cleverly weaves a tale of fiction around real life events and people, and whilst the book wasn’t perfect, and possibly a little contrived in places, I really became absorbed sifting through the fact and fiction!

History may have forgotten them, but at the time, they were the celebrities of the day.

When I realised that Arnott’s latest book was going to take me back in time to the 18^th century and the thieves and whores of London I was more than a little intrigued. Whilst the book is a work of fiction, the central characters of Elizabeth Lyon, Jack Sheppard, Joseph ‘Blueskin’ Blake and Jonathan Wild are real. Whilst the exploits of legends like Dick Turpin remain in modern society, Jack Sheppard and friends have fallen by the wayside.

“Some blame the serpents, some Eve for the fall, but who planted the evil sapling that grew with the heavy fruit of its branches hanging so low and so tempting? The same cruel God who decreed His one and only Son should be strung upon a wooden gibbet.  It was He who cursed us with conscious thought.”     The Fatal Tree – Jake Arnott

An anonymous writer is compiling the story of Elizabeth Lyon from Newgate Gaol in 1726. She tells him the story of her adventures, from simple servant girl, to her arrival in London and the misfortunes that beset her for her to become the notorious thief and whore Edgworth Bess. She made the fatal error of falling in love with the first man who showed her attention, a mistake she wouldn’t make again, or so she thought.

Told in her own words, and using the street slang of the day, Bess tells the tale of how she was cast from the apparent safety of her home in the country, to falling onto the mean streets of London where she met Mother Needham. Before she could fall under the ruin of Mother Needham, she is rescued by Punk Alice and meets Jonathan Wild, the thief-taker, for the first time. Has Bess been saved, or has she just gone from the frying pan into the fire? This is not the tale of how someone escapes the ruin of the city, but how to survive through it.

“In a bad world there is little point in being good”

Most of Elizabeth’s notoriety has lasted due her involvement with the gaol breaker Jack Sheppard. His life has been written about numerous times, and in these books Bess does not come out of the tale as a likeable person. She is deemed responsible for Jack’s downward spiral into a life of crime. It was Bess who convinced him they should live together as man and wife. She convinced him to steal for her, and once he was introduced to Joseph ‘Blueskin’ Blake, the crimes became greater and more frequent leading to Jack’s arrests.

In The Fatal Tree, Bess is shown with more soul than her previous incarnations, but she is still a whore and a thief; she has not been idolised. In a world of love and betrayal, Arnott has thrown fuel onto the fire as to how an ordinary girl could fall onto hard times and end up in a life selling herself on the streets. Very little is really known about Elizabeth Lyons, most of her life is known solely through her involvement with Jack Sheppard and the scholarly texts of his life, but, for what is known of generic sex workers of the period, the tale of Bess is a well-constructed and believable one.

Oranges and Lemons say the bells of St. Clements…

As a child I never paid much attention to the lyrics. There have been many variations of the song/nursery rhyme, different churches mentioned, some added, some removed, and so it is difficult to say with certainty what the meaning of the song is. One thing is for certain, the song in all of its variations embodies a long forgotten past.  Looking into the history of the churches unlocks that past, and so does Arnott’s book in a skilfully weaved text of fact and fiction.

I recently visited a pub called The Flying Horse during one of my recent trips to London. My first encounter of the pub was through Robert Galbraith’s novel The Cuckoo’s Calling.  Her protagonist, Cormoran Strike, drinks at The Tottenham Pub (which is what The Flying Horse was known as for a period of time.) I thought it would be an interesting place to visit, and whilst I enjoyed it for its good selection of beer and gin, I was also mesmerised by its historic interior.

Behind the wooden bar is a simple notice, advising patrons of the sites past:

“The Flying Horse sits on the site of the St Giles Circus Crossroads which until the 15^th Century was the location of the gallows where prisoners were kept in a large metal cage.”

It was hard to visualise this modern day busy crossroads, where people stream out of Tottenham Court Road tube station and head to the songs and starlight playing at the Dominium Theatre, as an area where public hangings took place; but that was the entertainment of the day back then. It was harder still to think that the gallows were moved and The Fatal Tree, the Tyburn gallows, was situated where Marble Arch now stands. I’ve wandered around Drury Lane and Covent Garden and now realise the secrets those streets could tell; I wonder how many shoppers on Oxford Street can say the same.

The Fatal Tree might be a work of fiction, but it allows the reader to enter a time gone by, to use imagination with a liberal sprinkling of fact. Whilst I read the book, as various characters and locations appeared, I looked them up on the internet. The past is quite fascinating. And as Jake Arnott say’s at the end of his book, if anyone else has knowledge of Elizabeth Lyon, it would be nice to know!

Genre: Historical Fiction, Urban Fiction, Crime

Release Date: 23^rd February 2017 – Hardback

Publisher: Sceptre

Pages: 352

 

 

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