Ann Patchett: Commonwealth, Harper Perennial US, 9780062491831, paperback (beautiful rough cut edition, perhaps not everyone’s taste but definitely mine) German Edition: Die Taufe, Berlin Verlag, hardback

I had never read anything by Ann Patchett’s but I had followed news about her involvement with independent bookselling and her own bookshops Parnassus Books in Nashville when I was still in publishing. And what a fine writer she is, I totally fell in love with “Commonwealth” which won the 2016 Best Book Award by the New York Times, Washington Post. San Francisco Cronicle, Time etc. “Commonwealth” is one of these books you long to return to, it goes on my shelf of all-time favorite books.

When Bert Cousins shows up uninvited at Franny Keating’s christening party and kisses her mother, the beautiful and irresistible Beverly Keating, he sets in motion life changing events affecting four adults and six children. Without giving too much away, Bert and Beverly fall in love with each other, leave their spouses Fix Keating and Teresa Cousins , starting their married life with six children to raise:  Caroline and Franny Keating,  Beverly’s daughters ,  and Bert’s tribe,  Holly,  Cal, Albie and Jennifer.  The kids become a fiercely loyal little tribe, something they hold onto their entire lives. This could have all turned out a terribly kitschy story but Ann Patchett’s creates a jewel of a novel, a masterpiece.  Each chapter sheds light on past and present happenings by ten individuals and follows them for many years of their lives.  It is as much a story of what could have happened if the fork in the road would have been taken differently and how every action we take has consequences for others, the famous ripple in the pond.  322 pages of sheer reading joy, often funny, sometimes deeply touching and sad, but mostly an uplifting book, all told in her lean, beautiful language.  I had a great time reading “Commonwealth”, definitely checking out more of her work. I love the cover of the US edition, a beautiful bibliophile edition with a rough cut and superior paper. 

Jennifer Mc Veigh: Leopard by the door, 9780241247617 , Penguin Books UK, paperback

 Jennifer Mc Veigh’s novel „Leopard by the door" is set in Kenya in the 1950ties, the time of the bloody Mau Mau rebellion. The book draws on facts of the Mau Mau uprisings which the author adds in an informative afterword.  This is a really good holiday read for those looking for an East Africa story line, its comes laced with betrayal, an inter- racial love story and historical background about the Mau Mau movement which ended British colonial ruler ship leading to the birth of independent Kenia. 

Rachel Fullsmith returns to her beloved Kenya and her parents farm Kisima after having been sent to England for schooling,  with her grandparents as guardians when her beloved mother dies suddenly. When she finally returns to Kenya, she finds the world has changed even in this remote corner of the world she calls home. Her father has found a new partner, Sara, who has brought a teenage son with her, Harold, a sensitive boy interested in photography and a love for animals. They strike up an immediate comradery.  Sara is the exact opposite of her mother and the two women have a strained relationship from the very beginning, Sara has no taste for life in the bush, a place Rachel dreamed about during her emotionally and atmospherically cold years in England. Having grown up among the Kikuyu tribe living on their land, people she calls family, she has little tolerance for the new racist talks and beliefs of her soon to be step mother who seems to have influenced her father and changed his formerly liberal views. Harold and Rachel share a love for Africa, but things start to come to a head when Mau Mau killing sprees move in closer to the neighboring farms.  After her return, Rachael fell in love with Michael, her former teacher, a Kikuyu who seems to be linked to Mau Mau and the Labor movements. As colonial Africa is beginning to fall apart, the political developments have dire consequences for Rachel, her family, Harold and the Kikuyu. 

MC Veigh writes fluidly and keeps you on edge, particularly towards the end. I really enjoyed the novel but some of the storyline is rather predictable. The cover is simply dreadful in my view,  far too schmaltzy and kitschy which belittles McVeigh’s work. 

Paula Hawkins: Into the water, Doubleday, large format paperback 978085752440,

(German edition: Into the water. Traue keinem. Auch nicht dir selbst., Blanvalet Verlag, broschiert, 9783764505233, € 14,99 )

Paula Hawkins success with “Girl on the train” has catapulted her to the front of bestseller lists in many countries, recently also released as a film.  “Into the water” is her much awaited second novel, a psychological thriller.

I really had my problems getting into this book, I did not like most of the characters and still don't but the book gathered speedy as far as the plot is concerned towards the middle of the book and the ending does have an unexpected twist.  But all in all, many developments where far too predictable for my taste. 

The novel is set in the small village of Beckford were several “troublesome” women have found their death by either committing suicide or being drowned in the “Drowning pool” going back to the days of witch hunts. The story is told from the view point of several characters in the novel. Nel Abbot, a photographer who decides to document the story of these women, is found drowned in this very river. Before her death she has tried in vain to get in touch with her estranged sister Julia called Jules whom she claims to have saved from drowning. Jules has her own troubled history with the town of Beckford and her sister Nel in particular. But when she meets her sisters Nel’s teenage daughter Lena for the first time, Jules finds they both are not convinced that this was a suicide as the  police have determined. Sean Townsend and Erin are the leading investigators into Nel’s death who soon discover that Nel’s death might be connected to past victims such as Lauren, the mother of  Sean Townsend.

Although Paula Hawkins knows how to spin a yarn, the novel never really captured me and has left me unimpressed.

Stewart O’Nan: City of Secrets, Penguin USA, 9780143108948, 

available in paperback

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"City of Secrets” Stewart O’ Nan takes us back to the early days of a yet nonexistent Israel, 1945 to be precise, when it was still part of the British Mandate.  The 194 pages of this highly atmospheric novel are a masterfully constructed mixture of noir espionage thriller, a love story and a historical recounting of the Jewish underground resistance in Palestine.  A gem of a book, I loved it from start to finish.

Brand is a survivor of the Holocaust, his wife Katya and the rest of his family has perished. For him there is no reason to return to Latvia, with a false identity as Jossi he sets off for Palestine to join the underground movement.  As a car mechanic, he was useful to the Nazis guaranteeing his survival and this profession makes him equally useful to the Haganah cells he joins.  As a taxi driver he encounters Eva, called the widow , a former actress now working as a prostitute gathering useful information for his cell.  He falls in love with her as they start spending more time with each other. Brand is used more frequently as a driver in dangerous missions by their cell leader Ashton and he begins to suspect that Ashton might be setting him up for something even bigger. 

I will not reveal more of this wonderful book. I have become a big fan of O’Nan’s measured prose and his sparse, moody storytelling.