Jean Kwok: Searching for Sylvie Lee, William Morrow, 9780062834300, hardback (available as E-book), pub date: June 4th, 2019

(No German edition announced yet)

 Jean Kwok’s “Girl in Translation” was one of these words by mouth bestsellers hitting the New York Times bestseller list when it was published by Penguin US several years ago. It narrates the fate of a very gifted Hong Kong immigrant student and her family slaving away in the sweat shops of the New York textile industry. I loved it; the book has since been adopted into many school reading programs.
 

In Jean’s latest work “Searching for Sylvie Lee” her same unique voice stands out describing the struggles of a Chinese Hong Kong family in the US but this time with a mystery at the heart of the story, set in the Netherlands and New York, giving it an international background and special twist. Jean’s own personal history makes these two books so very authentic; they are a joy to read. I really got sucked into “Searching for Sylvie Lee”; it is a perfect page turner and summer read, an emotional story with a serious subject, family secrets and a captivating mystery with a fascinating ending. It is hardly surprising it has been nominated by many magazines as one of the most anticipated books of 2019.  

The drama of their lives unfolds gradually as we listen to the three voices of the Lee women in “Searching for Sylvie Lee”:  Sylvie Lee, the successful, ambitious, responsible oldest daughter of the Lee family, her younger, more easygoing beautiful sister Amy and their mother, “Ma”, a woman very much brought up and caught in the old Chinese tradition.  Sylvie had to spent part of her childhood with her remote family and grandmother in the Netherlands as her parents had to work long hours in their newly adopted country. When she gets a call and learns that her beloved grandmother is dying, she flies to the Netherlands, her true emotional home but after initial daily contact with her family in the US, she suddenly vanishes.  Amy knows her responsible sister would never disappear without telling them and fears something tragic happened to her sister. She takes the next flight to Amsterdam. Having always been the shy one, she finds a new determination in trying to recover the steps of her sister’s life and the people she met when she arrived in the Netherlands.   Amy soon discovers that her sister’s life was less perfect than she led her family to believe  with some of her relatives in the Netherlands behaving strangely.

I will not be a spoil sport and tell you more, you will just have to go out and buy the book! Enjoy!

 

Edithsbookpicks: C.J. Box:Wolf Pack, Putnam, 9780525538196, hardbac...

Edithsbookpicks: C.J. Box:Wolf Pack, Putnam, 9780525538196, hardbac...: C.J. Box: Wolf Pack, Putnam, 9780525538196, hardback (paperback later in the year, available as E-book)   (No German translation ye...

C.J. Box: Wolf Pack, Putnam, 9780525538196, hardback (paperback later in the year, available as E-book) 

(No German translation yet, previous novels are published by Heyne Verlag in paperback)

 
Joe Pickett is the Wyoming game warden and chief protagonist in C.J. Box’s New York Times bestsellers, by now one of my favorite escapist series which never disappoints. The novels are tightly crafted thrillers and the latest one “Wolf Pack” has a particularly captivating plot.  CJ Box’s nature descriptions and environmental characterizations are ace; they transport me regularly into breathtaking Wyoming country side which I had the pleasure to cycle through a few years ago. The novels have a tight plot with an eclectic assortment of tough and tender characters around Joe Pickett’s circle of colleagues, family, and friends, most set in the Saddlestring district which Joe patrols. Throw in some bad ass characters and the result will keep you clued to your armchair longer than intended, at least this happens to me as was the case with “Wolf Pack” which kept me turning the pages very briskly towards the end.

Joe is called in by fellow game warden Katelyn Hamm after she discovers that someone is using drones illegally to kill wildlife. When Joe and his falconer friend Nate take down a drone with Nate’s falcons and Joe confronts the unpleasant, arrogant owner of the drones, Bill Hill, who seems to not exist at all as he has absolutely no past records anywhere, he and Katelyn are told by the FBI to tune down their charges and to drop the case. This really spurs Joe on and the situation becomes stranger still when seemingly random murders shake their small town, all taking place after four conspicuous strangers, 3 men and one stunning looking woman, are spotted in town.  Joe has heard of the Wolf Pack, killers sent out by the Sinaloa drug cartel that seem to fit the description.  Within 24 hours Joe finds himself in one of the most dangerous situations he has ever had to deal with in his professional life.

CJ Box is an excellent writer on top of driving a fast paced plot; he is definitely one of my favorite thriller writers currently.

 

Donna Leon: Unto us a son is given , W. Heinemann (Penguin Random House UK) hardback, 9781785152177(No German edition available yet)

Reading one of Donna Leon’s Commissario Guido Brunetti novels is to me like taking a trip to Venice.  I am a great fan of her novels and as is often the case in a series, there are better and weaker books. “Unto us a son is given” is definitely one of the better ones, greatly enjoyed this latest work of the wonderful Donna Leon. 

Brunetti’s ability to detect even the slightest shift in body language or facial expression or  a seemingly unimportant word in a sentence have often been the decisive factor in solving a seemingly hopeless case bringing the perpetrator to justice.  His philosophical contemplations and observations of Venetian behavior amongst the more or less noble men and women make these books such an entertaining read.  I never fail to be amazed at the amount of mouthwatering delicious food and wine consumed in these novels.

As to the plot of “Unto us a son is given”:   Brunetti’s father- in- law, Count Orazio Falier, asks him to intervene in a foolish plan of his best friend , Gonzalo Rodríguez de Tejada, who is openly gay and planning to adopt his much younger lover as his son. Having accumulated a sizable fortune over the years through farms in Chile and later art galleries in Europe, this would make the young man his sole heir under Italian law. Brunetti reluctantly accepts his father in laws request and has a conversation with Gonzalo who is also family to him and his wife Paola. Gonzalo remains unapologetically firm in his plan to adopt his lover.  The novel takes an unexpected twist when Gonzalo suffers an aneurysm dropping dead during a walk and gets Brunetti seriously involved in a murder investigation when a second, this time violent death occurs of one of Gonzalo’s closest friends hours after she arrives to arrange a memorial service and dinner for him.

I would be a spoil sport if I revealed more but you are guaranteed a great escapist read.

Edithsbookpicks: SigridNunez: The Friend, Riverhead Books (Penguin ...

Edithsbookpicks: SigridNunez: The Friend, Riverhead Books (Penguin ...: Sigrid Nunez: The Friend, Riverhead Books (Penguin Random House US) paperback, 9780735219458, (No German edition announced yet) J...

Sigrid Nunez: The Friend, Riverhead Books (Penguin Random House US) paperback, 9780735219458,

(No German edition announced yet)

Just finished reading Sigrid Nunez: The Friend, the National Book Award Winner 2018, and what a very unusual book it is.  Her prose is exquisite, a very clear and direct style that really appealed to me.   One of the peculiarities of the narration is that some characters remain unnamed, like wife No. 1, wife No. 3, the friend who is most sympathetic about the situation etc.  This gives the novel an almost analytical, observing touch.

The narration is about an unnamed woman losing her best male friend and mentor to suicide. Finding herself absolutely grief stricken and taking in his unwanted sad dog, a Great Dane no less, she is not sure about her motive for this act particularly since her New York flat is tiny and her apartment house does not allow pets. What follows feels less like a story but more like stringing pearl after pearl into a necklace: a sequence of thoughts,  contemplations, memories, insights, meditations about life, on loss, friendship, love, loneliness,  death, grief, solitude, literature, art, writing, teaching, solitude, serendipity and the unexpected happiness of  sharing life with a dog.

The parts of the novel dealing with the dog are the most touching and intimate; I thought these the best.  Another masterful, playful section in the novel is when she switches directions for a while towards the end.  

Highly recommend this 200 page long very worthwhile, uplifting literary read.