First thoughts
Marked out by critics as the fiction debut of 2012, this dystopian vision of future Colorado by adventure writer Peter Heller is as heart-warming as it is bleak.
Hig, the central character, lives with his dog by the end of a runway, one of the only survivors of a super-flu that took all his friends and family.
He ekes out his hours and remaining plane fuel on fruitless recces of the surrounding country, until one day a sign of life changes everything.
Heller’s unique voice — with the authority of one who understands the bare plains of America’s wilder west — makes this portrait of loneliness a fitting legacy of dystopian literature.
Hig’s plight is sure to stay with the reader long after the last page has been turned.
After the success of Hothouse Flower, Lucinda Riley returns with a time-split novel, set in England and France in the late 1990s and during the Second World War. In 1998, orphaned Parisienne Emilie de la Martinieres begins sorting out her wealthy family’s estate, which includes a mansion in the south of France. While there, she meets an English guy called Sebastian, who reveals that his grandmother knew her late father Edouard during the Second World War. Enchanted by their connection and indebted to Sebastian for his help, Emilie soon falls for him and they marry on a whim.
Meanwhile, Jacques, the old boy who looks after the family’s vineyard, recounts his memories of Sebastian’s grandmother Constance, who trained as a SOE agent and was posted to Paris in the war.
As Emilie learns more about her father and Constance, she also discovers unsettling truths about her new husband and his wheelchair-bound brother, who live in a crumbling English mansion.
The present-day plot at times seems incredible but the sections set in the 1940s are far more engaging, making the book an easy, enjoyable read.
Right from the opening line of The Thief, award-winning novelist Fuminori Nakamura gives an impression of foreboding.
There is a feeling right through this excellent tale about a pickpocket that every word is unfolding towards a cleverly crafted conclusion.
Nakamura, winner of several of Japan’s top literary awards, draws the tale along to its inevitable conclusion, gripping the interest of the reader with every page. With a detailed knowledge of what it takes to become a successful thief, Nakamura either spent some time researching with real thieves or he must have garnered the information in some other way. Either way, it is very insightful.
First published in Japan in 2009, the only thing wrong with this book is it took three years before someone thankfully translated it into English.
David W Lesch is a professor of Middle East history at Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas. He formed a personal relationship with Bashar al-Assad and regime insiders, and writes his book with insight and emotion.
Lesch clearly has a love and had a hope for the country upon the succession of Bashar from his father as leader of Syria, like millions of others in this troubled Arab land.
This account is written with personal knowledge of the key players and analysis of all the causes and consequences of the anticipated fall of the Assad regime, as the country continues to revolt in a way unimaginable a decade ago.
It offers 241 fantastic pages of analysis and clear explanation of the Syrian reaction to the uprising, as well as that of the international communities, and the effects of a bloated, inefficient and inherently corrupt public system.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
