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!