Leonardo Padura:  Adios Hemingway
English Edition: 9781741955414, Canongate, paperback,

German edition: Unionsverlag, 9783293206144, paperback

Leonardo Padura is a Cuban author living in Havana whose Mario Conde crime novels reveal much about present day life in Cuba.  In other words, perfect holiday reading.  “Adios Hemingway” was written in 2006 but I only bought it recently and thought I share my view of this light hearted, clever novel.  I saw his latest book “Heretics” in Waterstones in the UK, another excellent pick for holiday reading.

Forty years after Hemingway’s death, a corpse is discovered on the grounds of Finca Vigia where Hemingway spent many years of his life.  In all likelihood the person found was murdered as two bullets from Hemingway’s famous weapon collection are the cause of death.  Could it be that Hemingway was a murderer?  No one is interested in soiling Papa Hemingway’s image and additionally this old cold case is too delicate a subject for Havana’s police to deal with, particularly in view of manpower shortages.  Teniente Manolo entrusts his old colleague, former policeman and now author Mario Conde with this delicate investigation.  In synchronization with Mario Condos findings, the book has another layer and tells of Hemingway’s last days on the Finca in 1958, ultimately leading to Hemingway’s departure and the event and puzzle Conde needs to solve.

This is very cleverly plotted. Obviously not all facts about Hemingway’s last days are true but close enough,  one wonders if this could not have been another last unpleasant adventure in Hemingway’s  troubled depressed last years. 

Edithsbookpicks: German Edition : Robert Seethaler: Der Trafikant,...

Edithsbookpicks: German Edition : Robert  Seethaler: Der Trafikant,...: German Edition : Robert  Seethaler: Der Trafikant, Kein & Aber Pocket, 9783036959092, 11,- €    English Edition: Robert  Seethaler: The...

German Edition : Robert  Seethaler: Der Trafikant, Kein & Aber Pocket, 9783036959092, 11,- €   English Edition: Robert  Seethaler: The Tobacconist, Pan Macmillan UK, 9781509806591, paperback

“Der Trafikant” (or “The Tobacconist” in the English edition) is one of the best books I have read in German in a long time, it really captured my heart.  When I was in the UK a few weeks ago, I was really happy to find this wonderful novel translated and displayed prominently in all London bookshops.   Seethaler’s way of storytelling flows with such lightheartedness that the seriousness of the story sometimes backdrops.   Seethaler has been compared to another classic Austrian writer, Joseph Roth; his style of writing indeed reminding me of turn of the century literature. 

Austria 1937. 17 year old Franz Huchel is forced to leave his childhood home near idyllic Attersee for Vienna to start an apprenticeship as a tobacconist with an old friend of his mother. Otto Trsnjek is a one legged monosyllabical  WW I war veteran who introduces the innocent young Franz to all the fine details a tobacconist needs to master to serve his neighborhood customers correctly.  

The first wave of Nazi politics overshadows their otherwise simple life and soon Franz becomes friends with their most prominent regular customer, Sigmund Freund. When Franz falls head over heels in love with Anezka, he confesses his confusion about matters of the heart to the professor hoping his only friend might be able to cure his lovesickness.  Anezka’s disappearance, his search for her and Otto’s outspokenness against Nazis soon change Franz’s life dramatically. Franz’s innocence is sometimes heartbreaking, yet his naivety lends him the courage most people would never master. 

This is as much a story about losing your innocence as it is a reminder how very quickly one’s life can be changed fundamentally by political developments.  Something we would do well to remember when casting our votes at the voting offices these days with democracy being threatened in many countries, countless refugees streaming into Europe being a testament.  Go buy this gem of a novel and enjoy ! 

Benjamin Black (John Banville): Prague Nights, Viking (Penguin Random House UK) pub. Date: June1st, 2017, C format paperback,  

(US edition has a different title:  “Wolf on a string”, Henry Holt, hardback)

In 2005 John Banville won the Man Booker prize for his novel “The Sea, the sea”, he received numerous other prestigious awards for his body of work but few probably know he also writes crime novels and historical fiction under the pseudonym Benjamin Black.  His upcoming new novel “Prague Nights” (UK title by Viking) or “Wolf on a string” (US edition) under his pen name Benjamin Black is set in Prague around 1599 /1600.

Christian Stern is a young doctor of science when he reaches Prague from his home town Regensburg; he hopes to further his studies at the famous court of Rudolf, the mad emperor.   But after a drunken night at an inn and a sobering walk, he stumbles across the dead body of a brutally murdered young woman, none other than the emperor’s mistress as it turns out, Magdalena, daughter of another famous member of the court, Dr. Kroll.

Soon he finds himself incarcerated and charged with having murdered the victim by Felix Wenzel, High Steward of the Emperor.  But luck is on his side, in a court rife with intrigues and full of superstitions, none other than Rudolf himself sends out his court chamberlain Philip Lang to free him. Rudolf had a dream and believes Christian Stern is the star Christ himself sent out as a good omen for his throne, Stern meaning star.  Christian is set up in a household of his own in Golden Lane, his fortunes changing by 360 degrees overnight.  But this does not come without a prize; he is given the task by the emperor to investigate who murdered Magdalena Kroll, an investigation  that could possibly cost him his head.   

The novel is less a “whodunit” but more a very colorful, atmospheric portrait of Prague and court life fraught with spies and intrigues during these dark years. John Banville’s story telling is exquisite as one would imagine, giving life to many interesting characters. Some are drawn from real life like Caterina Sardo, the emperor’s and Stern’s mistress in the novel, based on Katherina Strada, Rudolf’s lifelong mistress and mother of six children in reality. Banville’s descriptions are so vivid and real; I could virtually smell the filth and dirt and always had a film in my head while reading this captivating novel.  If you like historical fiction and crime novels, “Prague Nights” will not disappoint you. 

Alexandra Fuller: Quiet until the Thaw, 9780735223349, published June 27, 2017, hardback, Penguin Press, Penguin Random House US

Alexandra Fuller’s previous, mostly autobiographical work about her childhood and life in Africa and her new life in Wyoming   (Don’t lets go to the dogs tonight,  Leaving before the rain comes, Cocktail Hour under the Tree of Forgetfulness ) sit on my shelf of all time favorite books.  They are brilliant studies of her family, Africa and her new life in the US, colorful, honest and written with raw Emotion. Her style of writing always paints a clear picture, I always had visual images in my head when reading her books.

When I received the proof of her upcoming book “Quiet until the Thaw”, I was warned that this is an altogether different book. Having read various Native American authors, literature I have been drawn to for years, I was immediately curious about this new chapter of her writing.  Alexandra Fuller participated in a ride on horseback from Fort Robinson, Nebraska to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, a couple of hundred miles across country.  She ended up staying for months feeling at home for the first time since leaving Africa. 

“Quiet until the Thaw” is set in Lakota Oglala Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and tells the story of two cousins, You Choose Watson and Rick Overlooking Horse who were brought up  together but could not be more different in character. The one has chosen the traditional Native American path, the other has gone off the rails ending up in prison.  The book is set in three parts, describing Rick’s and You Choose Watson upbringing and the effect their life development has on many people in the reservation. When Rick is eventually given two orphan boys to bring up, Le-a Brings a Plenty, a colorful female character in the book, helps him without hesitation to raise the children her womb was never able to produce. You Choose Watson's return from prison and his actions change and disrupt their lives forever.

What makes this book fascinating is how it is set: very short chapters, 3 pages mostly, told exquisitely in story snapshots, thoughts, Indian mythology,  ll blended together. Fuller’s storytelling is heavily inspired by the Native American tradition of telling stories.   I loved this little gem of a book, was drawn to it immediately. She is such a fine writer, it deserves to be compared with other masterful writers like Louise Erdrich. It is certainly helpful if the reader is interested in Native American literature but it is not a requirement.   

Anton Disclafani: The After Party , 9780399573187, paperback May 2017, available in hardback 9781594633164, Riverhead Books /Penguin Random House US, (Nach der Party, C. Bertelsmann, April 2017, 19,99)

Anton Disclafani is a female author, in case you are wondering. Her first book “The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls”, a book I greatly enjoyed, established her as a keen observer and storyteller of what happens to women who fall outside the moral codex set by rich families in the US in the Thirties.

Her latest book “After the Party” is set in the roaring Fifties in Houston/ Texas where drinks and money flow as freely as the oil wells producing these riches. Disclafani does a great job in vividly portraying Houston’s social life and party scene of the very rich.

Joan Fortier is one of the golden girls born into an extremely rich, first class Texan family. Glamorous, blond and beautiful she is the center of the Houston party scene with her childhood friend Cece Buchanan always at her side. Whereas Cece graves stability, a happy marriage and family life, Joan is more reckless and has a much wilder appetite not always in synch with the rigid rules of a Houston society scene with its debutant balls and parties. When Joan goes suddenly missing for a year and eventually returns much changed, Cece desperately tries to find out what happened to the one person she has felt closest to. The story unfolding over 368 pages of love, betrayal, scandal and friendship captivated and entertained me until the very end. Atmospheric, cleverly plotted women’s fiction of high quality.  

Viet Thanh Nguyen: The Refugees, 9780802126399, hardback, Grove Press, no German edition yet

With his novel “The Sympathizers” Viet Thanh Nguyen won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

I have always been interested in Vietnam, one of the most beautiful countries I ever had the pleasure visiting.  My generation still recalls the Vietnam War vividly, the boat people and the wave of Vietnamese refugees coming to the US and Western countries.  “The Sympathizers” is still sitting on my reading list but I just downloaded and read his recently released collection of literary short stories, “The Refugees”.

These short stories written over a longer time period of time give an excellent portrait of Vietnamese refugee life in the US. But they apply to feelings all refugees share, especially those born in their parents adopted country struggling with the scars immigration left on their family history.  

These are multi-facetted stories about everyday life such as that of the refugee who is given a new home in the apartment of a gay couple in San Francisco of the Seventies and the culture shock he suffers.  A Vietnamese women, whose husband is suffering from dementia, is extremely irritated when he starts calling her by another woman’s name, more tenderly than ever, clearly the lover he left behind.  Disturbing to me was the story of a man who has returned to former Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City, where he has given the children of his new family with his former mistress and now second wife exactly the same names as the family he left behind in the US. And the bully of an ex-military man who is visiting his bi-racial daughter who is now living in Vietnam working for a charity organization, where they run into the same conflicts dividing them already in the US.  The sense of struggle of having two identities runs like a thread through all these keenly observed, beautifully crafted stories.