#35. Title Matches Lyrics From A Song – The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Audible)

I can't even begin to imagine how many books out there have a title which matches the lyrics of a song, however, when you're put on the spot, it's so easy for your mind to go blank. As I looked through all the books in my TBR pile, I noticed The Gambler and immediately thought of both Madonna and Kenny Rogers.  As a child, I listened to them both...one played on my record player...one played on my dad's. I leave you to decide which way round they went!

 

“In this dark and compelling short novel, Dostoevsky tells the story of Alexey Ivanovitch, a young tutor working in the household of an imperious Russian general. Alexey tries to break through the wall of the established order in Russia, but instead becomes mired in the endless downward spiral of betting and loss. His intense and inescapable addiction is accentuated by his affair with the General’s cruel yet seductively adept niece, Polina. In The Gambler, Dostoevsky reaches the heights of drama with this stunning psychological portrait..”

 

I suppose the biggest irony of this novel is that it was only written in order to pay off Dostoevsky's gambling debts. If you've never read anything by him before, this short story (at just over six hours long) is a good introduction to Dostoevsky's work. As a man who was a compulsive gambler, he is able to transport the reader into the world of the addicted; he shows the attraction and addiction of the roulette wheel whilst capturing the feelings of guilt and self-loathing, knowing that what you are doing is wrong, but somehow cannot be stopped. Do not let the fact that this story revolves around the roulette wheel put you off. This is not just the story of a gambler, but the tale of a man who is driven by hope, despite living his days full of fear, dread and constant anxiety.

This is a work both gloomy and humorous as it delves into the sordid world of the desperate gambler, and the gambling of the elite, where money doesn't seem to matter...or does it?! 

‘At that point I ought to have gone away, but a strange sensation rose up in me, a sort of defiance of fate, a desire to challenge it…’

Set in the fictitious German town of Roulettenberg, this is the tale of Alexei Ivanovitch, a tutor to a Russian General's family, who wishes to pursue his affections towards the General's ward Polina Alexandrovna. Unfortunately for Alexei, Polina has set her heart towards a fake French Marquis who is supplying the General with loans at exorbitant rates. In a bid to rise above his station, Alexei's gambling addicted mind thinks some luck at the roulette wheel will give him the money he requires for Polina to switch her affections towards him.

#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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#18. An Apostrophe In The Title – Don’t Close Your Eyes by P A Cunliffe (Kindle)

Every month I receive a list of books from Amazon Prime First Reads UK and I look through to find what I think is the best choice in a list of titles, where the blurb doesn’t interest me and it’s written by someone I’ve never heard of. I tend to download a title because it’s free. It will go onto my Kindle App and often get forgotten about, but at least I know if I get stuck somewhere, there’s a book sitting on my ‘phone that I can read. Sometimes the book is as bad as I feared, other times I find a gem of a book; mostly the book is fine, but I probably wouldn’t buy it. This is one reason why I am enjoying this challenge; I am getting through some titles I doubt I would normally read. A book with an apostrophe should be easy to find, but there are very few on my bookshelf, and those that I have, I’ve already read, so, I’ve scrolled through my Kindle and I’ve found a debut novel from an author whose book I picked out in June 2023!

“One missing person. Ten sleepless nights. Whatever happens, don't close your eyes...

Catherine is frantic. It's her husband Simon's turn to take their son to nursery and he's nowhere to be seen. He promised he'd be here. So, where is he? And why isn't he taking her calls?

Her worst fears are soon realised when the police arrive at her door to tell her that Simon is missing, presumed dead. Refusing to accept that he's gone, Catherine spends her days retracing his last steps, and her nights searching the streets in desperation.

She will not rest, she will not sleep, until she's put her family back together.

The days merge into one, and things quickly unravel. Then comes another knock at the door. This time, a young woman. A stranger. Who tells Catherine she doesn't know her husband at all. That their whole life is a lie.

Catherine needs to know the truth. She needs to find Simon more than ever.

The body can't survive for more than 10 days without sleep. Will Catherine find her husband and uncover the truth, before it's too late?”

 

This is an interesting, albeit predictable book, and you will need to be able to suspend your disbelief to get through it all! It was one of those perfect quick read books you can get through in a wet weekend without too much trouble.

The book is told from various points of view and Easter eggs are drip fed through the story allowing the clues to build up so you can second guess the ending. There are also excerpts of a recording that is “played” in between the main chapters until it suddenly twigs in your head what’s going on and who it is in the recording.

The book starts with a newspaper clipping from September 2018, in which a jogger pushes a woman in front of a double-decker London bus. The woman was specifically targeted but survives; the jogger gets away, but there is a police appeal for anyone who might recognise the man in the CCTV footage.

November 2022, Catherine has been woken up by her son and she is exasperated. She is due to meet her friend for a full day of treats; a lie-in, brunch with her friend, followed by visiting an art exhibition. This is a day she has been looking forward to, but her husband is no-where to be found and it is his turn to take their son to nursery. Catherine can’t understand where he is, she has tried calling his ‘phone but he doesn’t answer. He had left a message on her phone in the early hours, so she assumes he has been out all-night drinking with work colleagues. She hurries to get her son Charlie ready for nursery, but as she opens the door to leave the house she is met by the police who inform her that Simon’s body has been found in a burnt out car.

#4. Lowercase Letters On The Spine – The Quality of Silence by Rosamund Lupton (Paperback)

I remember reading "Sister" by Rosamund Lupton in about 2010/2011 and being haunted by the ending; it was proper hairs on the arm tingling good. So good in fact, I immediately bought the next novel "Afterwards"…and then Lupton didn’t publish anything for a couple of years. Somehow, I missed this book when it was released in 2015 and it was only when I was searching through my bookcase and I spotted her two previous novels that I thought I would do a quick online search. I realised that two further books had been written, this one and one called "Three Hours." I bought them both and decided they would be shoehorned into this challenge because I was so excited to read them!

 

“On 24 November Yasmin and her ten-year-old daughter Ruby set off on a journey across Northern Alaska. They're searching for Ruby's father, missing in the arctic wilderness.

More isolated with each frozen mile they cover, they travel deeper into an endless night. And Ruby, deaf since birth, must brave the darkness where sight cannot guide her.

She won't abandon her father. But winter has tightened its grip, and there is somebody out there who wants to stop them.

Somebody tracking them through the dark.”

 

I genuinely could not put this book down. There really is something engaging about Lupton’s writing that engulfs you with a curiosity to know more from the moment you pick the book up. Just before chapter 1 starts, Ruby introduces herself. "My name is a shape not a sound. I am a thumb and fingers, not a tongue and lips. I am ten fingers raised old - I am a girl made of letters R-u-b-y And this is my voice." Immediately I was compelled to think about how different the world must be to a deaf person. This simple statement transported me into the world of how a deaf 10-year-old girl viewed things and I wanted to know more about her.

Ruby does not want to speak with her voice, however much her mother tries to encourage her. Instead, she prefers to use her voice-generating laptop, or to use her hands to sign her words. She understands others who use sign language, or if they articulate properly, she can read their lips. This means that in the dark, Ruby is effectively deaf and mute. Something to consider as the central characters move further and further north in the constant darkness of an Alaskan winter.

#2. Bibliosmia – A Smelly Book – The Burning Girls by C. J. Tudor (Audible)

 

There’s something about the smell of books that’s really appealing – especially those old fusty leather-bound volumes in second-hand book shops. Whilst I love the smell of old books, and there’s a plethora of them in the bookcase to pick from, I didn’t want to take this challenge too literally. Instead of reading a book that smells, I’ve chosen a book where a certain smell forms part of the story line. 

“500 years ago: eight martyrs burned

30 years ago: two teenagers vanished

Two months ago: a vicar died mysteriously

 

Welcome to Chapel Croft.

 

For Rev Jack Brooks and teenage daughter Flo it's a fresh start. New job, new home. But in a close-knit community old superstitions and a mistrust of outsiders mean treading carefully.

 

Yet right away Jack has more frightening concerns.

 

Why did no one say the last vicar killed himself? Why is Flo plagued by visions of burning girls? And who is sending them threatening messages?

 

Old ghosts with scores to settle can never rest. And Jack is standing in their way . . .”

After a scandal in Nottingham made the Revered Jack Brooks headline news, it was deemed appropriate to move Jack and daughter Flo to a new rural parish in Sussex where they could enjoy the anonymity of life until things quietened down. Flo like any typical fifteen-year-old is not happy at having to move away from the bright lights of the city and all her friends to the rural parish of Chapel Croft, a back water where nothing happens and there is nothing to do.

#1. Locked-Room Mystery – Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney (Audible)

 

I love physical books, so it is disappointing that my first “read” is actually a book I listened to! Over the last couple of years I have become an audio book convert; I still prefer sitting down with a paperback, but Audible makes for a solid walking companion, especially on those dull days when you really need to do your steps for the day!

From Sheridan Le Fanu and Edgar Allen Poe to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, the locked-room mystery, or “impossible crime” mystery has enthralled readers and continues to do so. The reader is confronted with a conundrum and sufficient clues with which to solve a murder. What seems impossible can be answered by a rational explanation, but only if you can keep your wits about you. 

“Isolated on their private island in Cornwall, the Darker family have come together for the first time in over a decade. When the tide comes in, they'll be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours. When the tide goes back out, nothing will ever be the same again. Nothing – because one of the family is a killer . . .

As the leaves of autumn fall, Daisy Darker arrives at her grandmother’s house for eightieth birthday celebrations. Seaglass, the Darker’s ancestral home, is a crumbling Cornish house perched upon its own tiny private island.

Every member of the family has their secrets. Nana, alone for so long. Daisy's absent father, Frank. Her cold-hearted mother, Nancy. Her siblings, Rose and Lily, and her niece, Trixie, full of questions and without a father of her own. Daisy has never had an easy relationship with her family, but some secrets are much darker than others. This will be a gathering that some of them won't remember.”

 

Reading the blurb, I was excited to read this novel. If you’re a fan of Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” this book will resonate with you as there are many similarities that scream “Agatha Christie.” It’s not just the Cornish Island setting and the fact that events take place during a dark, stormy night, but the fact that there is a poem used as an epigraph weaving throughout the course of the novel.

Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years Of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami

Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years Of Pilgrimage is possibly one of Murakami's more believable novels. Murakami writes about nightmarish situations which are relatable but usually too surreal to be taken seriously. In this novel though, whilst there is a small amount of the surreal, the power of dreams is considered by many to be our unconscious state talking to us, and so there is the element of suspended disbelief when reading the book.

Tsukuri’s four best friends at school all have names which mean colours, red, blue, white and black. Tsukuru is the only one whose name is colourless and this upsets him, he thinks he is the boring one of the group, the outsider. The five friends promise to stay together forever, but an opportunity comes for Tsukuru to study away from home in Tokyo. He visits his friends frequently, as promised, but one day he returns and his friends no longer want to see him again. No explanation is given; apparently he should know the reason why he has been ostracised but he doesn’t. He returns dejected to Tokyo, stops eating and looks death in the face; his hurt unbeknown to his friends. He recovers physically, but mentality he faces abandonment issues which plague him for years, leading to an inability to form meaningful relationships. What is the point of giving yourself to someone, giving them your whole being, if one day they turn around and toss you away like a piece of rubbish?

You assume you know someone…but you don’t…not really.

Sixteen years later Tsukuru finally embarks on a journey to find out what happened. He confronts his friends, visiting each one without warning, piecing together a jigsaw about his past. It is a hauntingly beautiful tale which questions how people’s actions can affect someone so much. Tsukuru had low self-esteem and being abandoned by his friends made him feel worse. How strange to find out that his friends thought he was the strong one, the survivor, the one most equipped to deal with the real world.

He thought he was plain, the colourless one whilst his friends thought him the best looking of the group, the achiever. It shows the differences with how we see ourselves, and how others see us. At times the novel is painful, you hurt when Tsukuru hurts, it is a novel where at times you see yourself, and at other times you see people you have known. It is a poignant tale which expands the mind, to make you think about how your words or actions might be misconstrued by people. If someone accuses you of something, can you really be sure that your friends know you well enough to stand up for you? Or will they fade into the background, vehemently agreeing with the perpetrator and leaving you out in the cold?  Once again, Murakami weaves a his magic in an excellent book which is hard to put down.

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