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. 

Ray Celestin: The Mobster’s Lament, Pan Macmillian, 9781509838967, paperback

Ray Celestin’s third book in the City Blues Quartet series has been my savior during the start of the Corona crisis. “The Mobster’s Lament” took my mind far away when real world Corona events became so surreal and crazy,  I could not have imagined them in my night mares.  

This perfect escape came in the form of an electrifying historical crime novel set in the mobster world of 1947 New York, starring Ida Young, private investigator from New Orleans via Chicago,  now widowed, coming to the aid of retired investigator Michael Talbot whose son Tom finds himself imprisoned in Rikers Island accused of having brutally murdered 4 people in a Harlem hotel.  As soon as Ida starts looking into the police records and the actual murder site there is no doubt that Tom was set up and sacrificed for death row with the real killer still at large.  Enter the Mobster world of the Luciano Family with Frank Castello as acting boss and Gabriel Leveson, Castello’s fixer who runs the famous Copa club who has his own reasons to leave the city.  When Castello gives him the job of finding 2 million dollars who have disappeared, Gabriel‘s plan to flee New York in 10 days is in serious jeopardy.  Louis Armstrong, as a friend of Ida’s from her New Orleans days, has a minor role in this third sequel.  Celestin is a master at stringing along multiple intricate plots with fabulously  well drawn out characters. He never fails to amaze me how tidily he brings the strings all together in the end. I have never been able to figure out how it could all possibly connect in the end, chapeau! 

If you want 550 pages of brilliant historical crime fiction at its highest level, this is your book. Not surprised it has been listed for several awards already, I am just sad I am finished now and have to wait a while for book number four which will be set in Los Angeles.

Lennie Goodings:  A Bite of the Apple - A Life with Books, Writers and Virago, 

9780198828754, Oxford University Press, hardback, also available as E-Book

Lennie Goodings is one of the pioneers in feminist publishing, arriving first as publicists and later becoming publisher/editor at Virago Press whose fate she helped shape to this day.  

Coming  originally from Canada and joining then tiny Virago Press in 1978 with their larger than life publisher Carmen Cahill,  Lennie started her career at one of most important feminist publishing houses dedicated to publishing  female authors and topics solely,  a revolutionary concept then. 

“A Bite of the Apple” is a fascinating recollection, of great interest to anyone interested in UK publishing, feminism and literature.  Part memoir, part history of Virago with all its politics, successes and economic struggles, I was particularly captured by Lennie’s own thoughts about editing and her stories and commitment to her authors.  I know Lennie from my days at Penguin and had the great pleasure to help sell Virago books into Germany when Virago was sold to Little Brown, now Hachette.  Consequently reading her book felt like a déjà vu to me, I savored her spilling the beans about office and publishing politics, so many names and people were familiar. I vividly remember her enthusiastic presentations of her books at sales conferences followed by wild dancing and partying in the evening!  “A Bite of the Apple” is a  frank, intimate and passionate memoir, exquisitely written as one might expect of someone like Lennie who introduced such great authors as Margaret Atwood, Marilynne Robinson, Sarah Waters, Linda Grant, Natasha Walter, Naomi Wolf and Maya Angelou among many others into UK and European market. 

Deepa Anappara: Djinn Patrol on the purple line,

Chatto & Windus, UK, 9781784743093, C format paperback

 

The quirky title of “Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line” led me to pick up this unusual debut novel by former journalist Deepa Anappara.  She has worked as a reporter in India before moving to England and in that capacity was confronted by facts of hundreds of children disappearing every day without any investigation by the Indian police every being launched.  Wondering what might have become of these children who mostly came from very poor backgrounds, she decided to write a novel telling their story through the eyes of endearing nine year old Jai whose voice gives this novel a special feeling.  

Her narration made me feel like reading a YA novel at 

times, particularly during the first few chapters but this feeling disappeared towards the middle of the book when the novel becomes more serious and darker. Jai and his friends Pari, a very smart girl, and Faiz, a Muslim boy live with their families in dirt poor circumstance in an Indian slum/basti. When two of their school friends disappear and not one missing report filed by their parents leads to a search by the police,  Jai, whose life dream is to become a detective, convinces his friends to start their own investigation. Very soon they find themselves in dangerous, dark circumstances before Jai's life in particular is affected dramatically. 

Deepa Anappara’s  decision of choosing a format by letting a nine year old boy narrate the story, her vivid description of the harsh life in an Indian slum and blending in the voices of those who are about to go missing,  makes this such a stand out, captivating debut novel. The last third of the book in particularly had me glued to my chair. Spoiler alarm: there is no Bollywood happy ending.

Liz Moore: Long Bright River, 9781786331632, trade paperback, Hutchinson UK/Penguin Random House, available now,

German edition: Long Bright River, CH Beck, hardback,

 

Liz Moore’s “Long Bright River” is set in Kensington, a part of Philadelphia heavily populated by addicts in search of heroin or other substances, once a respectable neighborhood. The author has done neighborhood work there and her familiarity with the people living in this part of town makes this novel and the characters in it so very authentic.

“Long Bright River" is at times dark and heart wrenching, part crime fiction but mostly a story of two siblings, Kacey and Mickey Fitzpatrick, who grew up in rough circumstance with little love apart from the intimacy and bond they had between each other.  To toughen them up for the unfairness of life was the prime goal of their grandmother Gee, leaving little room for affection in her household where they grew up after their mother died, their father disappeared and where money was always tight.  The two sisters could not be more different in character: Mickey, shy, introverted, very smart , responsible, always protecting Kacey, eventually choosing a career as a police officer and raising a child as a single mother; Kacey a dare devil, outspoken, with a track record of bad man ending up on skid row as a heroin addict and prostitute.  The sisters haven’t spoken to each other for years but Mickey keeps track of her whereabouts on her patrol. When Kacey disappears after the murder of a heroin addicted young prostitute and someone Mickey knows from their childhood is also found murdered, she goes in frantic search of her sister as the killer clearly has it in for addicted prostitutes.  I will not be a spoil sport, but the solving of the murder actually plays a minor part in the novel, the history of the Fitzpatrick family and the unravelling of family secrets makes this such an intense and often almost painful, realistic read.  I like Liz Moore’s clean, clear cut prose which fits with the plot.