Anne Hillerman: The Tale Teller, 9780062391964, Harper Collins, paperback

Several years ago, Anne Hillerman, a journalist herself,  stepped into the large footsteps of her famous writer father, Tony Hillerman, bestselling author and inventor of Navajo Tribal police detective Joe Leaphorn . I have read and loved them all; Tony Hillerman was a master story teller with intelligent plots moored in Navajo customs and culture , always an interest of mine.  When Hillerman passed away, Anne admirably picked up the baton from her father concentrating more on Leaphorns sidekicks,  tribal police officers Chee and Bernie Manuelito in her narrations. 

Feeling nostalgic about previous travels to the Southwest and four corner country of the Navajo reservation, I read “The Tale Teller” her latest paperback novel.  Joe Leaphorn takes center stage again working as a consultant to a museum which received an anonymous donation only to find that the most precious historical gift, a Navajo dress worn by Juanita on the Long Walk to a forced encampment in 1863, had disappeared.  A murder and a stolen piece of ancient Navajo jewelry involving officers Chee and Bernie provide two separate strands to the main story   Really enjoyed this entertaining armchair trip to Arizona and New Mexico, Anne Hillerman’s plotting and writing gets closer with every book to the yet unrivaled mastery of her father.

(no German publisher so far of her novels, available in English only. Tony Hillerman is published by Rowohlt repertoire) 

 

Raynor Winn: The Wild Silence, 9780241401460, Michael Joseph/Penguin Random House UK

Raynor Winn’s first book “The Salt Path” was one of these books you stumble across by accident and end up thinking about for a long time. At least that is how it was for me.   I wasn’t surprised the book became a bestseller eventually as it is such a moving read.  When Raynor and her husband Moth lose their house and livelihood, they decide to pack up and walk 630 miles along the English coastline, the South West Coast Path, instead of giving up or ending up in social housing.  Their hike becomes even more incredible after Moth is diagnosed with an incurable neurological disease which makes walking unbearably painful for him at times while living on next to nothing allowing them only to sleep in a tent sometimes their day ration not being more than a chocolate bar and plain noodles. The strength, love and trust  between them despite their hardship makes this such a wonderfully life affirming book.

“The Wild Silence” is the follow up to what happened to their lives after they reach the end of their hike moving into a renovated former church in Cornwall which is offered to them rent free by a generous donor.   Beautiful nature writing, Raynor’s recollection of her troubled childhood only made bearable by finding solace in nature, the story of how they met and fell in love  make up a large part of “The Wild Silence”  but it also deals with Moth’s worsening illness, him struggling not to give in  by studying for a degree and Ray trying to find a way for Moth to not lose that fight which again comes in an unexpected way through a person that has read “The Salt Path”  and enables them to start a new life as farmers on an abandoned farm  being closer to nature and working hard physically.   The last fourth of the book narrates another short hike they undertake, the Laugavegur Trail in Iceland, which sounded pretty crazy and unappealing to me.   I was not as taken by “The Wild Silence” as I was with “The Salt Path” but if you walked and suffered with them in spirit reading the first book, you definitely want to know what direction their life took,  I am glad I know now. 

 

Jane Harper: The Survivors, Little Brown UK, 9781408711989, January 202, hardback

Jane Harper is a brilliant crime writer, a CWA Golden Dagger award winner and I am always excited about anything new she writes. Along with Garry Disher, she superbly portraits what is called the Australian Outback noir. Both authors’ books I devour as I did with Jane Harpers upcoming book “The Survivors”, out in January 2021, which I had the privilege to read as a proof (thank you Little Brown UK!) , set in Tasmania for a change.

Her subtle description of the dark psychological undercurrents running through families and small towns is always intriguing and slowly builds up to an unexpected.

Kieran Elliott has spent most of his adult life feeling guilty about his part in the drowning death of his older brother Finn and his boat partner during a terrible storm after making a thoughtless mistake.  When he and his girlfriend Mia and their baby daughter return from Sydney to visit his parents who still live in the coastal town he once called home, the strong feeling of guilt haunts him even more particularly after the body of a young art student called Bronte who has been working as a waitress for the summer is found murdered by the beach. Bronte’s death stirs up memories of yet another unresolved death of his friend Olivia’s younger sister Gabby, who also disappeared during the great storm but whose body was never found.

I love it how seemingly benign Jane Harper starts her narration and how cleverly she peels away layers of secrets unearthing new truths until the bitter end. Not an outback setting this time but I thought all characters, like those of detectives Sue Pendlebury and Constable Chris Renn or Kieran’s family and friends, where well drawn out leaving various options open until the very end, four stars from me. 

 

William Boyd: Trio, Penguin Viking UK, 9780241295960, C format Export Paperback,

 

William Boyd is one of my favorite English contemporary writers and “Any Human Heart” and “Sweet Caress” are on my shelf of all-time favorite books.  Needless to say, I was really looking forward to reading his latest work “Trio” which is set 1968 Brighton but to my great disappointment I found myself dragging through the read. The  book did not have me fully engaged most of the time; after page 180 my interest picked up somewhat but “Trio” is one of his weaker books in my opinion, I hate to say this of an author I really like.  

Three protagonists are at the center of the novel, they are all connected through a film project that is shot in Brighton during the swinging sixties. My main problem with the novel was that I never really felt connected to any of the main characters, particularly true of the female characters who all come across as weak and with serious mental issues.  Anny Viklund is the star of the film, a beautiful actress with a string of men at her disposal but currently having an affair with Troy, her co-star in the film.  Elfrida Wing, a successful writer with a 10 year writer’s block and a serious alcohol problem is the wife of film director Reggie who is constantly having love interests on the side. Interestingly the best developed and most interesting character I found was the male figure, Talbot, the cunning producer of the film who like Anny and Elfrida, is hiding private secrets and conducting a separate life hidden from everyone else working on the film.  His role in the book was the one that made me want to continue reading when I became disengaged.

For those of you who like me love William Boyd’s work I would say read it and form your own opinion but I hope his next book is one that has my full enthusiasm again. What does have my full approval however is the great cover, love it! 

 

Louise Penny: All the Devils are here, 9780751579277, C format Export Paperback, Sphere

 

Louise Penny’s Armand Gamache crime series, all  set in the village of Three Pines in Canada’s Quebec countryside , was a recommendation of my friend  Neva several years ago and I have never looked back…  I am hooked now and have passed on the Gamache virus to several friends. To quote the Washington Post:  The series is deep and grand and altogether extraordinary”;  this sums it up pretty well. 

It is always difficult to talk about crime fiction without giving away too much of the plot as is the case with  Louise Penny’s latest  “All the devils are here”,  in my view her best to date even if it does not take place in Canada but solely in Paris.  Armand and Reine-Marie Gamache are visiting their children, Annie and Daniel who both have moved to Paris with their families, as Annie is about to give birth to her second child. 

When Stephen Horowitz, a self-made billionaire who is Armand’s godfather and the man who raised him after his parents died tragically, is deliberately attacked and run over by a truck after a family dinner with both of them witnessing the murder attempt , Armand is determined to find out why someone wants Stephen  dead who is barely alive after the attack falling into a coma. Things get even stranger when Armand and Reine-Marie head for Stephen’s apartment and discover the body of a man in the living room.  As Gamache starts to investigate with the French police not being too amused about his involvement,  secrets his godfather  hid from him over the years surface. As Armand starts to question the man Stephen really is, he becomes dangerously entangled in a spider web of lies and deceit endangering both him and his family.  I will not reveal  anything more  … had a great few days curling up in my new armchair and submerging myself in this terrific book.  Thank you Louise Penny, 5 stars from moi!

 

Selina Hastings:  Sybille Bedford – An Appetite for Life, Chatto & Windus, London,  (Penguin Random House Group) , 9781784741136, hardback, pub date: November 2020

I came across Sybille Bedford as an author during my time at Penguin and devoured her autobiographical last book “Quicksands”. What an unusual woman and what an extraordinary life.   Drawn very much to nonfiction and biographies at the moment, I was very happy to see Selina Hasting’s “Sybille Bedford – An Appetite for Life” announced to be published in November and lucky enough to read an early proof. Selina Hastings has written an incredibly thorough and objective account of Sybille Bedford’s fascinating cosmopolitan life.

Born in 1911 in Germany of aristocratic half-Jewish parents  who had a disastrous marriage, she spent her turbulent childhood in Germany but lived the majority of her adult life like a vagabond between France, England, Italy and the WWII years in the USA and some time in Mexico.  Her relationship with her promiscuous mother Lisa was  a very difficult one at best with her half sister Katzi often providing much needed support in her early years. Bedford  always knew she wanted to be a writer soon travelling in prominent intellectual circle although it took years before she took pen to paper.  Being openly Lesbian with some bisexual affairs, she had an incredible sexual appetite up into old age falling in and out of love constantly, often affairs turning into lifelong friendships with former lovers providing financial support when she was hard up. Her most famous entanglement was with Aldous Huxley and his wife Maria who became mentors and lifelong friends arranging a “bugger marriage” to a Mr. Bedford in England enabling her to become a British subject during a time of political upheaval in Europe when her assets were frozen in Germany. 

Bedford’s social and intellectual life was extraordinary and reads like a European who is who of writers and artists. What astonished me the most was how readily everyone put up friends for months, sometimes years in their houses offering financial and emotional support if needed affording Sybille Bedford her restless life style moving from country to country without a home base for many years.  She was a terrific wine and food connoisseur but also a terrible snob looking down on people who did not meet her intellectual expectations or background, selfishly demanding her lovers to support her eccentric lifestyle disregarding their needs.  

 I became very irritated with her behavior several times during the read but this is a fascinating biography of an unusual woman who was not a feminist and lived up to  95 despite the large amounts of food and drink she had consumed in her life.
But it is also a historical document of a century and an incomprehensible life style that has completely disappeared.

Craig Johnson: Next to Last Stand, A Longmire Novel, 9780525522539, hardback, Viking US (Penguin Random House) 

In times when long distance travels hold very little attraction, an armchair trip to Wyoming countryside and Sheriff Walt Longmire’s turf is a welcome distraction  during the last days of summer . I have been a huge fan of Craig Johnson’s Longmire series for some time. 

In his latest novel “Next to Last Stand” the historical battle of Custer’s Last Stand plays a prime role but this time as a motive in a very valuable painting which was destroyed in a fire and was never seen again. When Walt is called to the Veteran’s Home of Soldiers and Sailors to look into Charlie Lee Stillwater’s sudden death of an apparent heart attack, they discover in his room a partial painting and a Florsheim shoe box filled with dollar bills amounting to one million dollars. How on earth did Charlie come into possession of so much money while disabled and living in a retirement home for Vietnam vets?

 

Walt does what he does best: investigating the trail of the money and the history of the mysterious painting taking the reader with him into the workings of the Absaroka Sheriff Department in the beautiful Wyoming countryside. “Next to Last Stand” I found a less fast paced and violent novel compared to other Longmire books but this made it particularly fascinating due to the  unfamiliar subject matter in comparison to Longmire’s usual type of investigations this time unveiling the dealings of the corrupt art world; I had a great time reading “Next to Last Stand”.

Richard Osman: The Thursday Murder Club, 9780241425459, Viking/Penguin Random House UK, paperback 

Richard Osman’s “The Thursday Murder Club” made it straight to the No. 1 position in the UK bestseller charts after publication and just having finished this wonderfully entertaining book, I am  hardly surprised. I had such a great time reading this lighthearted, witty novel, spending totally uplifting hours, a treasure in these troubled times. 

Rarely does one come across a book combining very English humor with a good mystery packed all into one. A few times the comparison to “The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency” by Alexander McCall Smith popped up in my head which might explain the immediate success of the book but I have always hated comparisons as it would not do justice to Richard Osman’s original approach who is a wellknown TV personality in the UK. 

Four eccentric pensioners pushing eighty, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron, all formerly successful professionals who can afford to live in a very nice little retirement village in the countryside, get together on Thursdays to keep their brain cells active and to amuse themselves investigating unsolved murder cases. The Thursday Murder Club as they call themselves is chaired by Elizabeth, whose background is unknown but points to former police or intelligence work who always comes up with these case files and eventually the answer. Suddenly they find themselves  involved in their first live
murder case as the shady developer who owns the retirement village drops dead, poisoned as it turns out. What follows is a fun, clever plot which becomes more complex as you turn the pages but still keeps you smiling. Totally loved “The Thursday murder Club”, thanks for the fun reading hours.

 

Garry Disher: Peace, Serpent’s Tail/Profile Books, 9781788165129, paperback, publication date: October 2020

(Disher is published in Germany by various publishers, "Peace" has not been announced yet) 

 

I was introduced to Garry Disher when reading “Bitter Wash Road” and absolutely agree that he deserves his reputation as one of the great masters of Australian literary crime fiction having just finished his latest book “Peace”, I loved it.  Disher has been awarded the “Deutsche Krimipreis” several times and is also the recipient of the Ned Kelly Lifetime Achievement award.

Hirsch, as Paul Hirschhausen is called, was already the protagonist in “Bitter Wash Road”, a former metropolitan detective and whistle-blower who reported corruption and cover ups amongst his fellow police officers only to find himself degraded to constable and transferred to a posting in the South Australian outback town of Tiverton.  The local police station also serves as his living quarters but most hours his four wheel drive is home when patrolling the vast rural countryside. In “Peace” Hirsch is struggling to resolve several apparently unconnected small town events and crimes in his district during the scorching Australian Christmas season.  But then his is called to a murder scene of a woman and her son to whom he had issued a warning days before and officials from Sydney show up taking over. In his own stubborn way Hirsch continues to investigate following his hunch that the murder victim might have been in a witness protection program. Dishers writing style has been called “rural noir”, a perfect description. Only fellow crime writer Jane Harper, whom I also hold in very high regard, narrates the evil undercurrents of seemingly everyday life in the bush and the darker side of human nature hidden behind a benign appearance so exquisitely.  I will not go into detail about the plot of the novel as it would totally spoil the coming together of the various events in the end but let me assure you, if you are in search of an extraordinary setting, an intriguing plot, a brilliant description of the characters and country life in the Australian bush, this novel is a perfect choice for you.   Disher has written a number of other crime fiction which I will definitely check into now, he definitely has a fan in me. 

 

Tana French: The Searcher, Penguin, 9780241459416, C format Paperback, November 2020

Counting myself one of the lucky early readers of  Tana French’s new standalone crime novel,  “The Searcher”  publishing in November ,  I can attest  that she deserves her reputation as a  masterful  story builder.

 “The Searcher” is set in Ireland's remote countryside where Cal Hooper, a retired Chicago cop, has bought himself a fixer-upper of a crumbling cottage which he is trying to fix up gradually while getting to grips with his divorce.  There is also the question whether his decision to follow his own moral code, filing for early retirement and moving to Ireland leaving family and friends behind was a smart one. 

The first 40% of the book are a slow build up to the eventual crime element in the story: the description of Cal’s new life, the beauty of the Irish countryside, the sudden appearance of a local kid, Trey, who believes Cal might be persuaded to investigate the disappearance of his older brother Brendan and him trying to figure out the dynamics of village life with some truly fascinating local characters, chiefly his neighbor Mart.  I was about to get restless and then wham, French picks up the pace,  the story takes a new spin never letting up until the very end which I thought was an unusual one I liked, a trade mark to the quality of this crime novel . Really enjoyed it.

 

Nguyen Phan Que Mai:  The Mountains Sing, Oneworld Publications, 9781786079503, C format Export paperback

 

Some of the more memorable fiction I have read lately was by two Vietnamese authors: Ocean Vuong’s “On Earth we are briefly gorgeous” and Viet Than Nguyen’s “The Sympathizers”. Nguyen Phan Que Mai’s historical literary novel “The Mountains Sing” is different from these two but fits into this category, an exceptional epic tale told in the Vietnamese storytelling tradition; I loved this book.  

The tumultuous history of Vietnam is narrated by Tran Lieu Lan, the matriarch of the family and chief voice in the novel.  Beginning with Tran’s birth in 1920, a time when Vietnam was still part of French Indochina, she, her family and her granddaughter Huong experience the upheaval millions of Vietnamese went through in a century. Tran Lieu has to flee their prosperous family farm with 6 young children after the communist land reform in the North causing the violent death of her husband.  The disappearance of her eldest child and the lynching of her brother by rebel farmers send her on a desperate march to Hanoi where she hopes to improve her and her family’s fortune.  The repeated unbearable loss, hunger and political turmoil experienced by three generations of the Tran family vividly portraits the suffering of the Vietnamese people during a century. When her children join the North Vietnamese army to fight the US troops, Tran is left to raise her grandchild Huong with whom she forms an unbreakable bond never giving up hope to be reunited with her six children. 

The author does an excellent job through the voices of various characters  showing  the excruciating human cost and sacrifice political decisions and war have for ordinary people.  During a trip to Vietnam a few years ago I was able to experience the beauty of this country and the toughness and resilience of the Vietnamese.  Loved this very captivating read.

 

Taylor Jenkins Reid: Daisy Jones & The Six, 9781984817792, Ballantine, New York, Paperback

(deutsche Ausgabe:  Daisy Jones & The Six, Ullstein, Hardcover

 

Taylor Jenkins Reid „Daisy Jones & the Six“  has been sitting on my book pile for some time, a much reviewed New York Times Bestseller and Reese Witherspon Book club pick last year. Finally read it and have to compliment the author on doing a terrific job imagining the life of a fictive rock and roll band in the Seventies,  with all the drugs and craziness of the music scene of that era. The tumultuous relationships within the band, that of bandleader Billy and lead female singer Daisy Jones in particular, was supposedly inspired by Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac, a band whose music I loved in the seventies and still like. 

 One of the reasons why this novel feels so authentic, colorful and interesting is the style the author has chosen to tell her story. The entire novel is conducted as an interview with the voices of all band members, wives/partners, managers and producers telling  their personal  view and feelings of past events from the band’s start to the final split up. Jenkins Reid even includes the lyrics of the songs at the end of the book.  The part of the novel when the band members talk about their creative process of writing songs felt very interesting and real to me. We all know from the lives of many rock stars that such a fast paced life often causes emotional destruction or even death with the constant temptation and presence of groupies, drugs and alcohol as is the case with the struggling charismatic characters in the novel.   I really got sucked into the story of this fictive band and enjoyed it a lot, a perfect summer read, often felt like a throwback to my Twenties when wild stories of rock bands were the norm.  Following a very emotional ending, the last pages of the novel are dedicated to what happened to all the band members after their break up giving it a somewhat conciliatory ending. 

Bill Buford: Dirt – Adventures in French Cooking, Random House UK, Vintage, Hardback, 9781787333116 (October 2020)

(Deutsche Ausgabe: "Dreck", C. Hanser Verlag, Oktober 2020)

I remember Bill Buford fondly as a colleague at Penguin and publisher of Granta books and magazine way back from the 80ties and 90ties in the UK; his sense of humor and adventurous spirit still resonates. He eventually moved back to the US and became editor for the New Yorker. I was lucky enough to read the Vintage proof of  “Dirt – Adventures in French Cooking” which made me chuckle from the first page. 

Not too many embark on a cooking odyssey in their sixties, trying to learn the secrets of French cooking at the highest level, moving  two small children & a wife to Lyon/ France, apparently the French cooking mecca of the world and not speaking a word of French or lacking an employment to start his undertaking.  The book is an entertaining, hilarious romp about the fulfillment of a man’s dream which leads him to work in a bakery, attending a pig slaughter, finally becoming a student at the L’Institut Bocuse, leading to cooking at La Mere Brazier, a Michelin star restaurant, all with the full support of his fantastic, down to earth wife Jessica. Their family adventure through the French school and social systems are one of the most endearing and funniest episodes in the book.  Boot camp is a kindergarten experience in comparison to the rigors in French kitchens in high class restaurants. Bill survives it all with his legendary sense of humor and not taking everything to heart making friends for life along the way. In case you are wonder why a cooking book is called “Dirt” which I did, spoiler alarm: it has something to do with the consistence of the soil on which wheat is grown for the famous baguette. If you are a foody or in the mood for a terrific, funny cooking memoir of the special kind, this is your book, I had a great time with it.  

Daniel Silva: The Order, Harper Collins, 9780008280833, C format paperback, available,

Summertime, thriller time and Daniel Silva is one of my favorite thriller writers. Luckily he has produced a new one for the summer, “The Order”, which is set in the Vatican and of course has Gabriel Allon as his chief protagonist. Apart from being the head spymaster at the Israeli intelligence, he is also a master art restorer. He had befriended liberal Pope Paul VII when he saved his life during an assault; his sudden death raises a lot of suspicion whether it was indeed a natural one.  Since an ultra-conservative, influential order seems to have connections into the highest offices of the Holy Church planning to gain the upper hand and the late Pope’s personal Swiss Guard has also disappeared,  Luigi Donati, the pope’ personal secretary and also a friend of Allon summons Gabriel to Rome to investigate.   They soon discover that a secret book of an apocryphal gospel which was hidden in the secret Vatican archives until it founds its way into the dead pope’s hand, has disappeared as well.  

Having studied a few semesters of comparative religious sciences myself,  I was fascinated and familiar with the academic doubts raised about the accuracy of the gospels still taught  by the Catholic Church and of the existence of apocryphal ones who are disregarded and would cast a somewhat different light on many teachings of the church. 

 Silva cleverly spins a complicated plot combining several  murders,  the secret dealings of the Vatican including the election process for a new pope  and the accuracy of the gospels still taught by the Catholic church. Silva’s author notes are particularly interesting and illuminating; had a fun time reading “The Order”.   

Curtis Sittenfeld: Rodham, 9780593230527, Penguin Random House USA, large format paperback, International edition

Hats off to Curtis Sittenfeld for writing such a fascinating tale of  what-could-have-been had Hilary Clinton not married charismatic Bill Clinton.  Feeling somewhat ambivalent about this book to begin with, I ended up feeling very enthusiastic about this clever novel.  It could have easily turned into a disaster by a less skillful author particularly since everyone knows the real life story of the actual Hilary Clinton and how her political career has turned out.  But Curtis Sittenfeld does a masterful job in imagining a life where Hilary walks out on Bill Clinton after dumping a promising professional start for him ending up living with Bill in Arkansas until  finding proof of his repeated infidelities before their  scheduled marriage. 

Taking some historical facts into account, Sittenfeld composes a fascinating fictional tale of the next forty years in Hilary Clinton’s political and private life which made me laugh out loud a few times and kept me hooked and surprised to the very end.  She explores the loneliness and steely determination needed by a woman when throwing her hat into the ring for high powered positions or how to this day women are judged so much more harshly than man when entering politics. 

Great narration and plot, loved the fictional development she invents for such prominent characters as Bill Clinton or Donald Trump. I will not reveal more since it would thoroughly spoil the fun reading this fictional narration of a sometimes very different Hilary Clinton but then again characteristic of the real life Hilary appear.

Andrew Wilson:  Death in a Desert Land, Simon & Schuster, 9781471173509, paperback

How I found out about this book I cannot exactly remember but it has provided delightful reading pleasures during the last week and is a perfect escapist summer read.  If you love Agatha Christie novels, particularly Poirot, this is your book.  

Agatha Christie is the star detective herself in this cleverly plotted novel set in Baghdad and Ur in 1928, loosely based around actual people and facts in Agatha Christie’s life.  Agatha is sent out to Iraq by British Intelligence officials to investigate the death of Gertrude Bell, the great traveller and linguist who had supposedly died of a drug overdose in Baghdad.  During her investigation she finds a letter Gertrude wrote but never mailed that she was afraid someone was out to kill her mentioning  that her murderer could probably be found at an archeological excavation site in Ur. Agatha packs her bags and heads for Ur where Leonard Woolley heads a promising archeological dig for the British Museum and is greeted by some very eccentric British and American visitors and helpers at the camp. When a murder takes place and Katherine, Woolley’s difficult wife, is accused of having killed Sarah Archer, the daughter of a wealthy American couple whom she greatly disliked and considered a rival, Agatha finds herself entangled in an explosive, dangerous situation forcing her to start her own investigation.  The plot is cleverly spun and in true Agatha Christie fashion naturally untangled at the end. Loved it!  

Andre Leon Talley: The Chiffon Trenches, 9780008342357, 4th Estate, UK, hardback

“The Chiffon Trenches” is a great title, it holds promise of serious fashion gossip about such heavyweights as Anna Wintour, Yves St. Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld and it does not disappoint!  The title certainly seduced me to read this memoir by  Andre Leon Talley who is now in his seventies,  one of the first colored style icons who made it into the high echelons of fashion, first working for the famous Diana Vreeland,  becoming part of Andy Warhol’s inner circle, landing the job of Paris bureau chief of Women’s Wear Daily with the notoriously difficult John Fairchild as his boss and finally reaching the absolute heights as creative director of Vogue with  Anna Wintour at the helm who everyone now knows as  the A class bitch  in  the movie “The Devil wears Prada” . . Talley had majored in French at university and was always drawn to fashion like a magnet.  At Vogue he became one of the most influential  men  leading an extraordinary high powered life, famous for his unusual dress style and a close friend of Karl Lagerfeld before he fell from grace.

I just could not get over the fact how the world of these incredibly rich people seems to revolve around nothing but fashion or creating an impression, what designer or what clothes to wear or which parties to attend all documented painstakingly by Andre in his candid memoir.  It is past and beyond me how much money is spent on couture clothes,( no matter how much creativity might have flown into their making) luxury hotels, holidays or other luxury items and how very little else seems to matter.  Some of his recollections literally made me shake my head at such decadence. The court of Louis XVI came to mind.  

Andre Leon Talley was raised in the South by his religious grandmother after his mother showed little interest in him; religion continued to feed his soul throughout his adult life particularly in his later years when things did not go so smoothly anymore and him being overweight became a serious issue in this superficial world.

“The Chiffon Trenches” provides a rare glimpse and a behind the scene account of what it was like to be associated with such fashion czars as Yves St. Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld, Oscar de la Renta, Halston, Gianni Versace etc.  Andre Leon Talley had his own demons to deal with and is very open about his struggles, the hurt and bruises he received in dealing with such highly egocentric people.  The world of fashion as it turns out is a pretty brutal and ruthless one, it was very entertaining to take a look at this snake pit.

Natalie Goldberg: The Great Spring,  Shambala, Boulder/USA, 9781611803167, hardback

Natalie Goldberg was recommended to me by a dear friend from my publishing days; I had never heard of her before or read anything by her.    “Writing down the bones” is her bestselling book on writing and creativity.  Natalie herself has been writing, painting, practicing Zen and teaching for many years living in Northern New Mexico but travelling the world as a student and teacher. 

“The Great Spring” is a brilliant collection of her essays about Writing, Zen and Zigzagging around the world and through life.  I was fascinated by her great spirit, wisdom, sense of humor and honesty when reading these essays over a period of three weeks, finding some of her experiences utterly thought provoking and others not speaking to me at all.  I admire people who ground their lives in daily Zen practice but it would not be my path. The book is divided into 5 sections: Searching, Wandering, Zigzagging, Losing and Leaping.   All essays are superbly written as one might expect of such a fine writing teacher:  whether it is her visiting Larry McMurty’s Texan rare books town (spoiler alarm: weird place!), her narration of loving memories of her Zen teacher who had passed away, her Zen practices, travelling in Japan, visiting Bob Dylan’s birthplace, losing a dear friend or trying to connect to a life in Palo Alto and the Dot.com crowd where her partner had launched a startup. 

What resonated with me the deepest was her discovery over the years that no matter how hard or hopeless your current situation, a great spring will follow after the cold of winter.  Something to behold  in these testing times or when going through a rough patch in one’s own life.

Scott Turow: The Last Trial, 9781529039085, Mantle/Pan Macmillian, Hardback, EBook available

I have considered Scott Turow to be one of the finest legal thriller writers ever since reading his masterpiece “Presumed Innocent” which stared Sandy Stern for the first time and left me completely hooked.  I feel the same way about  his latest novel, “The Last Trial”,  where Sandy Stern, now at age 85, argues his final case together with his daughter Marta, his partner now for many years in the legal firm Stern & Stern. 

The defendant is his lifelong friend Dr. Kiril Pafko, a Nobel Prize winner of Medicine, researcher and inventor of a ground breaking cancer drug.  He has been charged and accused of several crimes: altering medical data to get the FDA’s approval for the cancer medication, insider trading after selling stocks having received a warning of a negative Wall Street Journal investigation and murder as some patients who were part of his cancer drug study died suddenly of possible allergic reactions as a consequence of a cover up.  Reluctantly and feeling  in frail health himself after having survived several forms of cancer he agrees to defend his old friend promising Marta this will be his last case.

What follows is a tour de force in search of the truth through every step of the trial which is so brilliantly argued and composed you feel like you are a real life spectator in the court room unsure which trap door or argument will open next. It is not only one of the best legal thrillers I have ever read but the strength of this novel lies in its detailed portrayal of all the characters emotions and motives providing deep and philosophical insights into the dark and fragile side of human nature, the might friendships and family hold over all of our lives. I have no idea how brilliantly Scott Turow's legal mind must be working to arrive at such a complex storyline. 

This masterful book held my absolute attention for all its 465 pages; and I do love the last sentence, 5 stars from me!  

Imogen Kealey: Liberation, Sphere / Little Brown UK, 9780751576023, C format paperback, available

German Edition: Die Spionin, Rütten & Loening, großformatiges Paperback

Imogen Robertson is a writer of historical fiction and Darby Kealey a writer and producer based in Hollywood; together they form the writing duo Imogen Kealey.

“Liberation” is a true page-turner of a novel very closely based on the real life of one of the most fearless female resistance fighters, Nancy Wake, to be turned into a movie by Anne Hathaway.  Nancy Wake went by many codenames; one “Helene” or “Madame Andree” but the Nazis occupying France hunted her by the name „The White Mouse” with a five million Franc bounty on her head.  Nancy was originally Australian when working as a journalist in Paris in 1936 until she met the love of her life, her husband Henri Fiocca who had  a sizeable fortune living in Marseille.  Soon Nancy joins the résistance using the cover of a wealthy wife of one of Marseilles prominent citizens  becoming one of their most fearless fighters after the Gestapo incarcerate her seemingly untouchable husband. 

It would be cruel of me to unveil more of Nancy’s breathtaking, extraordinary life and fighting from 1936 until the end of the war captured in this fast paced novel. Several books have been written about the legend Nancy Wake, all approaching her life story from a different angle but the Hollywood handwriting with all its drama building lies at the core of this thriller which makes for perfect summer reading set against a very dark historical background.  It certainly kept me breathless, shocked and in disbelief several times.

Paolo Cognetti:  Without ever reaching the summit: A Himalayan Journey, 9781787302273, small hardback, Pub date: July 2020, Harvill/Secker -  Vintage UK

German Edition: Gehen, ohne je den Gipfel zu besteigen, Penguin Verlag, Paperback , lieferbar

In this challenging time my reading taste drifts very much towards travel narrations, one of the reasons I found myself attracted to Paolo Cognetti’s “Without ever reaching the summit – A Himalayan Journey”.  

He and two of his closest friends set off when Cognetti turned forty travelling to the remote Himalayan region of Dolpo to walk in Peter Matthiessen’s footsteps.

Dolpo is the closest one can come to the ancient Tibetan culture and life before the Chinese annexation of Tibet, sitting between Tibet and Nepal. Peter Matthiessen travelled to Dolpo in the 1970ties in search of the legendary snow leopard resulting in his famous cult classic “The Snow Leopard”, a book I read with fascination when it came out in 1978. Paolo Cognetti carries it with him like a bible referring to it over and over during their adventure.  His excellent 160 page long account of their trek of mules, native guides and friends hiking in unhospitable cold and high altitude of over 5500 meters is a fascinating mixture between literary travel journal, observations of their encounters with people who call Dulpo their home, their ancient religion and harsh yet seemingly happy life, while overcoming his own physical limitations hiking at such high altitude trying to process all the impressions and thoughts surfacing.  

His sensitive descriptions of nature in this unusual part of the Himalaya, their attachment to the dog that befriends and travels with them as well as other wildlife encounters had a great calming effect on me while reading.  A very special little book.

Paolo Cognetti has a few other bestselling books out in German, fiction and non-fiction.  

Donna Leon: Trace Elements, 9781785152443, Heinemann (Penguin Random House UK), C Format Paperback

It is always wonderful to escape to Donna Leon’s Venice without actually leaving the house which felt especially precious right now since we do not know when we can actually physically enjoy our next trip to Italy or Venice again. Unusual times, sigh….

“Trace Elements” starts with Commissario Guido Brunetti and his colleague Claudia Griffoni being called to a hospice as a dying woman wants to tell them about some bad money her deceased husband was involved in. Additionally Vice Questore Patta becomes obsessed with Roma pickpockets in Venice and the damage this might cause to the city’s reputation. These are in general the two plots running through the novel which is definitely more on the quiet, philosophical and reflective side.  It takes a long time and many pages before gears are set in motion by Commissario Brunetti to unravel the crime behind the dying woman’s last words. Justice can be a two sided sword as Brunetti becomes painfully aware  as can be guilt and responsibility in this complicated case.

I was not overly thrilled with this plot unlike her last novel,  “Unto us a son is given”, which I could not put down.  But as usual Donna Leon’s storytelling skills of Venetian and Italian life are impeccable and always a joy to read.

Nicholas Shakespeare: The Sandpit, Vintage (Penguin Random House UK) 9781787301771, C Format Paperback, May 2020
German Edition: “Boomerang”, Hoffmann & Campe, Hardback, Mai 2020

Vintage who publish Nicholas Shakespeare’s “The Sandpit” compare his novel with those of Graham Greene and John Le Carre, there is definitely a likeness. 

In my view  the element of a thriller was not the dominating red string running through the book; it is the captivating narration told in the present of a journalist, John Dyer, who has recently returned from Rio de Janeiro to Oxford where he is leading a quiet life, writing a book about a Brazilian tribe, and getting himself involuntarily mixed up in the disappearance of an Iranian nuclear physicist, Rustum Marvar, the father of one of his son Leonardo’s friends  who is attending his old posh prep school. Dyer seems to be the last person who saw him before he disappeared without a trace.  Suddenly some people, parents he knows from watching his son’s weekly football games, start inviting and questioning him about his friendship with Marvar displaying great interest in his knowledge of what appears to be a groundbreaking breakthrough Rustum is rumored to have made at his lab. Soon Dyer finds himself in a dangerous situation facing an impossible dilemma: how to guard his and his son’s life and how not to betray the trust Marvar had placed in him.

“The Sandpit” is a very clever story without using heart-throbbing thriller effects but keeping you hooked just the same. I particularly liked how neatly Nicholas Shakespeare tied it all up in the end.

Meike Winnemuth: Das große Los -  Wie ich bei Günther Jauch eine halbe Million gewann und einfach los fuhr, Penguin Verlag,  Deutschland, Taschenbuch, 9783328102667,

Ich kann mich noch genau daran erinnern, als die Journalistin Meike Winnemuth ihre 500.000 Euro in  Günther Jauchs Quizsendung gewann und gefragt,  was sie damit mache wolle,  sagte: „ Ein Jahr lang jeweils einen Monat in einer Stadt meiner Wahl leben.“  Ich dachte noch, Wow, was für eine coole Idee und traute es dieser Frau sofort zu. Sie hat es getan.

 Jetzt ist ihr Buch da, in dem sie klug, witzig und sehr kurzweilig über  ihre Zeit in diesen Städten resümiert.  Es sind Sydney, Buenos Aires, Mumbai,  Shanghai, Honolulu, San Francisco, London, Kopenhagen, Barcelona, Tel Aviv, Addis Abeba und Havanna geworden.  Nicht alles läuft glatt, der Tsunami, der die nukleare Katastrophe in Fukushima auslöst, zwingt sie Tokio auszulassen und ihre Route zu ändern.  Mumbai entpuppt sich für sie als eine mittlere Katastophe, in der sie so gar nicht ankommt. In dem sie die Form des Briefeschreibens an eine ihre nahestehende Person für jede Stadt wählt, bekommt die Reisebeschreibung eine sehr persönliche Note. Gut hat mir auch gefallen, dass sie am Ende eines jeden Städtemonats  „10 Dinge, die ich in …..gelernt habe“  anfügt. Ein paar Ideen habe ich von ihr abgekupfert.  Das Buch hört nicht mit dem Ende ihrer Reise auf, sondern sie nimmt uns mit per Frachter zurück nach Hamburg und vor allem in die Zeit danach, wie es ihr mit dem Ankommen in ihrem alten/neuen Leben ergeht . 

Meike Winnemuths Beschreibung eines ungewöhnlichen Reisejahres passte perfekt als Tröster für meine eigenen ausgefallenen Reisen in diese durch Corona geprägte reise freie Zeit.  Ein schönes, inspirierendes Buch, das immer noch nachschwingt.

For English speaking readers a short synopsis:

Meike Winnemuth is a journalist who won 500.000 Euro several years ago in a popular German Quiz show. Asked what she wanted to do with the money she answered: Live in 12 cities for one month each over a year. … which is what she did and captured here time in Sydney, Buenos Aires, Mumbai, Shanghai, Honolulu, San Francisco, London, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Tel Aviv, Addis Abeba and Havana. Her book and account of this unusual travel year and the time thereafter makes for very inspirational, entertaining reading, perfect for an armchair trip in this enforced travel free Corona time. 

The book is available in German only, details see above.

Jedidiah Jenkins: To shake the sleeping self, 9781524761400, Penguin Random House USA, paperback 17, - $

In a time when Corona has turned travelling into a distant dream, I could not have discovered a better memoir than Jedidiah Jenkins “To shake the sleeping self” which I absolutely loved.  Damn, it is finished now and I cannot escape from the current troubling reality to a daily  bike adventure  cycling with him in spirit from Portland, Oregon down to Patagonia and the most southern point of South America, which is exactly what Jedidiah Jenkins embarked on at age 30. Self- declared physically unfit and not a cyclist at all, he had decided at 27 once turning 30 he would leave his settled life behind and head for Patagonia “to shake the self”. 

Being a veteran of numerous but definitely luxurious  biking holidays myself, I had to chuckle several times as he describes how he sets off to buy his bike and graciously allowing an almost stranger, Weston, who is his exact opposite, to become his cycling companion on this monumental  adventure. What follows is not only a narration of a  journey through countries varying greatly in wealth, character, weather conditions, climate and terrain meeting all types of travelers and people but also a brutally honest journal of his inner struggles. Having been raised by a very conservative Christian mother after his famous parents eventually divorced, (they walked across the US for 5 years in the 1970ties covered by National Geographic), Jed discovered early on that his sexual preference was towards the same sex creating tormenting conflicts and even religious retreats to change his sinful feelings. Hoping not only to find beauty on his ride but answers  to reconcile his sexual orientation with his religious believes, he shares very intimate and philosophical thoughts with his reader. 

 “To shake the sleeping self” is terrific: funny, tender, honest and candid with unforgettable descriptions of encounters, landscapes and people he meets. Jed has a big heart and I felt he had become a friend by the end of this book , have now hooked up with his Instagram postings. 5 star recommendation from me.