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i-Boating: Nautical / Marine Charts & Fishing Maps

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This App offers access to Marine Charts for USA,Canada,UK/Ireland,Germany,Netherlands/Holland &...

Adam Colclough (3 KP) rated Harry's Game in Books

Mar 6, 2018

Harry's Game

Gerald Seymour | 2015 | Thriller

9.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

A chillingly believable thriller about the 'troubles'. (0 more)

Dangerous Games

London at the height of the IRA’s campaign on the British mainland and a government minister is assassinated, orders are send down from the highest level that retaliatory action must be taken. Gerald Seymour’s ground breaking 1975 novel tells the story of the resulting operation, in which a British agent is sent undercover in Republican Belfast.

For the most part thrillers are the literary equivalent of Danish pastry, enjoyable but not made to last. A few, and ‘Harry’s Game’ is one, are more substantial fare, food for the mind that may give you indigestion.

On one level it is a book in the tradition established by Frederick Forsythe, fiction played out as fact allowing the author to draw on his journalistic background. Seymour goes beyond this by creating characters who aren’t simply stock heroes and villains. Instead they are human beings engaged in a struggle that is squalid and futile rather than heroic and purposeful.

This combines to give a grimly believable picture of daily life in Northern Ireland at a time when a single word or action out of place could have deadly consequences. He also writes well about the machinations behind the scenes on both sides, with the British political and military establishment struggling to fight an undeclared war they don’t understand; and the IRA high command masking the brutality of their actions behind misty eyed romanticism.

Brutal, believable and still relevant more than forty years after it was first published this is a novel that is very much worth reading, even if doing so can be unsettling.

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Zuky the BookBum (15 KP) rated The Wonder in Books

Mar 15, 2018

The Wonder

Emma Donoghue | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry

8.3

(6 Ratings)

Book Rating

Also read my review here: http://bookbum.weebly.com/book-reviews/the-wonder-by-emma-donoghue

It came to Lib then that the question to ask was not how a child might commit such a fraud, but why?

The Wonder is an absolutely beautiful and thought-provoking novel and by far one of the best books I’ve read this year.

Set in towards the end of the 19th century, we meet one of Ms Nightingale’s own nurses, shipped out to Ireland to investigate a so-called miracle. Young Anna O’Donnell hasn’t eaten since her 11th birthday, which passed four months ago. Lib begins a frustrating journey into learning whether Anna is truly a modern day Saint.
She is determined to prove the miracle a hoax, but being faced with old Irish superstitions she doesn’t understand, sexism and strong Catholic faith, she has a hard time getting to the truth.

It’s a bit of a slow ride, but it’s interesting enough to keep you wanting to know more. Donoghue creates a beautifully vivid story for you to really lose yourself in, you’ll find yourself reading this book within a couple of days (or hours, depending on when you’re reading it). Not what I’d classify at a mystery novel - the story is so much more than just working out the story behind Anna’s apparent loss of appetite. It’s a story of faith, believing in yourself and following your heart.

A really enjoyable book, with a wide array of likable and dislikable characters, beautiful scenery and heart warming lessons to take away, this is a must read for any historical fiction lover.