Scream: A Memoir of Glamour and Dysfunction
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In this darkly funny, surprising memoir, the original "Lit Girl" and author of the era-defining...
Conversations with Edmund White
Will Brantley and Nancy McGuire Roche
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Conversations with Edmund White brings together twenty-one interviews with an author known for...
Prague Pictures: Portraits of a City
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The fourth book in Bloomsbury's Writer and the City series. Prague is the magic capital of Europe....
Orlando: A Biography
Virginia Woolf, Sandra M. Gilbert and Brenda Lyons
8.0
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Once described as the 'longest and most charming love-letter in literature', the Virginia Woolf's...
Miss Jane
8.0
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Longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction: Astonishing prose brings to life a forgotten...
Biography memoir social issues
Against the Loveless World
9.0
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Nahr has been confined to the Cube: nine square metres of glossy grey cinderblock, devoid of time,...
Historical fiction Literary fiction War Palestinians Palestine
The Island of Missing Trees
10.0
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It is 1974 on the island of Cyprus. Two teenagers, from opposite sides of a divided land, meet at a...
Historical Fiction Magical Realism Literary Fiction Cyprus Turkey London
I also tend to find 'book club picks' to be rather off-putting; generally finding those I have previously read to be rather tedious and just not generally all that interesting (while able to admire the literary sophistication of the works).
This is both a crime fiction novel, and a 'Richard and Judy book club pick', so that would - normally - have been 2 marks against picking it up, in my books.
However, I have read - and generally quite enjoyed - most, if not all, of Simon Scarrow's other works - in particular his Cato and Macro series - so, when I saw this on a Kindle deal for something like 99p, I thought to myself 'why not?'.
And, I have to admit, I did actually quite enjoy this.
Set in 1939 Berlin just at the start of WW2, I found this to be unusual in that it told the story from the Point of View of a German criminal inspector - most WW2 novels (that I am aware of) usually feature either American or Brits as their main protagonists - who is not a member of the Nazi party: a fact that, here, is usually held against him but is also the reason he got handed the assignment as he has no links to any factions within the party.
It's both a very different time and 'headspace' than modern sensibilities; interesting to see how the man-on-the-street could have viewed the headline events of the time. As someone from Northern Ireland, there's also aspects of the novel that hit frighteningly close to home for me ...
Friedrichstrasse 19
8.0
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Sometimes I get fanciful and think the buildings speak. That all their history is locked into the...
Historical fiction Literary fiction Germany Berlin
The language used was really very poetic. If you're attracted to this as a Fantasy reader, the language is weighted more on the 'Literary Fiction' side. I like both, and this didn't even occur to me until I read another review on Goodreads! There are plenty of Fantasy writers out there whose prose can be lyrical!
I also liked how the beginning and the end of the book were connected. Very clever, original writing, this is a short story collection that didn't feel to me as though they were short stories. Well worth a read!
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this gorgeous book!