First Thoughts
MacLehose Press, €17.65;
ebook, €16.33
Review: Laura Temple
This emotional but intriguing third novel by the Swedish author of Polarsommar (Arctic Summer) follows protagonist Lo as she reflects on a pivotal time growing up in rural Sweden in the 1970s.
When a fire in the fields provides a chance encounter with a mysterious 14-year-old boy called Lukas, Lo forms a life-changing friendship.
An innocent six-year-old living a sheltered life, protected by the cocoon of her large extended family, it is clear from the start that Lo has a very limited experience of the world beyond the boundaries of her village, “where the world began or ended”.
Combined with an inquisitive nature and mature appearance that marks her from her peers, Lo worryingly has no fear or knowledge of danger.
Although an uncomfortable read at times, the compelling and thought-provoking story cleverly weaves together Lo’s parents’ relationship and her own adolescence, exploring the power of her mother’s advice, “beware of love”.
Orlando Figes
Allen Lane, €27.20;
ebook €13.99
Review: Laura Wurzal
In this book, Orlando Figes, professor of history at Birkbeck College, University of London, tells the amazing love story of two Muscovite physics students.
Svetlana and Lev Mischenko were separated for 14 years. First, Lev was a POW during the Second World War, then he was falsely accused of treason and deported to the Arctic Gulag.
In 1946, not knowing if Svetlana was alive, Lev wrote to his aunt and was delighted when he unexpectedly received a letter from Svetlana herself.
For the next eight years, they wrote 1,500 letters to each other, smuggled in and out of camp by friends and sympathisers. In 1954, Lev was released and they married.
As well as being so passionate and beautifully written, the couple’s heart-wrenching letters are the only known uncensored real-time records of life in Stalin’s Gulag.
It’s a compelling story of love, endurance and survival.
Kate Summerscale
Bloomsbury, ÂŁ16.99;
Kindle €4.99
Review: Anne Scott
Kate Summerscale’s follow-up to The Suspicions Of Mr Whicher charts the fate of Isabella Robinson, whose diary was sensationally used as evidence by her husband in a high-profile Victorian divorce case.
Using extracts from the diary, and a wealth of other sources, Summerscale paints a surprisingly modern picture of a sexually frustrated woman trapped in an unhappy marriage, confiding her desires in a diary — the details of which were ultimately splashed all over the press in a sex scandal today’s tabloids would be proud of.
The modern resonance of this true story, combined with its fascinating backdrop of Victorian society, make this a compelling read.
From the start of Isabella’s marriage, to the final outcome of the trial, Summerscale cleverly brings the Victorians to life and gives a vivid snapshot of life as a woman in the 1850s.
Belinda Seaward
John Murray, €25.10;
ebook, €8.49
Review: Abi Jackson
After 10 years as a journalist, Belinda Seaward became a novelist. It was her second piece of work, Hotel Juliet, published in 2008, which really got her noticed. It told the story of a young woman who returned to her roots in Africa, embarking on a physical and emotional journey.
Seaward returns to this formula in The Beautiful Truth, only this time a more grown-up Catherine journeys from Cambridge to Poland, to meet with a film-maker who begins to unravel the mysteries of her estranged father’s past.
She learns about Krystyna, who bravely fought against the Nazi and Soviet occupation of Poland, and whose story unlocks some of the questions Catherine struggled with in England years later — why had her father fled?
Seaward uses stories from the past to drive the narrative in this moving and stunningly insightful book.
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