Nora is a young woman in 1845, a cholera survivor. As the ward of the talented and eccentric Victorian surgeon Dr. Horace Croft, Nora acquires forbidden medical knowledge. But despite her impressive abilities and skills, she will be both persecuted and prosecuted if she is caught practicing medicine. Much like Fayne, the treatment of women at this time is abysmal. Thanks Elliott, for this recommendation.
Author: AJ
The Librarianist – Patrick De Witt
Although this story unfolds in Portland, there is little sense of place. Instead, this is an account of people and their often-complicated relationships. In 2005, Bob is a 71-year-old retired librarian. A chance encounter with an elderly confused woman leads him to volunteer at a Senior’s Centre, where the residents are “challenged by subdued disappointment”. Bob’s backstory over 60 years is presented with humour and pathos, an ordinary life of an introvert. De Witt’s writing is brilliant – highly recommended.
Snow Road Station – Elizabeth Hay
Predictably, Ms. Hay has written another superb short novel. There are many relationships in a coming-of-middle-age story: intense complicated friendships abound. On page 214: “They were lovers the way some people are Sunday painters – not fulltime, not exclusively, but companionably and gratefully”. And there is an exquisite description of place; Snow Road Station is a barely discernable dot in an Ontario map, but there are wonderful descriptions of the changing seasons, a wedding, and harvesting sap. In short, tour-de-force writing.
Shutter – Ramona Emerson
Rita Todachene is a young Navajo woman working for the Albuquerque Police as a forensic photographer, documenting crime scenes. Her secret: the ability to see the ghosts of crime victims. Rita’s back story also unfolds while present-day ghosts persist in demanding justice. This is very good crime fiction with an eery paranormal component.
Birnam Wood – Eleanor Catton
Another great book by this author, set in New Zealand. The first one-third starts slowly as we meet the players. The middle third shows intricate maneuvering: self-mythologizing rebels in a horticultural collective, political and economic rants, jealousy and envy of a scheming super-rich American, debates over the ethics of wealth distribution. And the final third is a cracking adventure as plans go awry, to become an eco-thriller with an abrupt but fitting ending. Obviously the topic is very contemporary – highly recommended.
She also wrote The Luminaries as previously reviewed by David.
Fayne – Ann-Marie MacDonald
Full disclosure: this sweeping sage is long (722 pages) but Ms. MacDonald’s exquisite writing makes the reading very worthwhile. The setting: Fayne, an estate straddling the border between England and Scotland. The time: late 19th century. The main players: Lord Henry Bell and wife Mae, and children Charles and Charlotte. The story is rife with family secrets, with cruelty and cowardice in male-female and father-child relationships. A shifting timeline accentuates the drama: highly recommended.
PS: A-MM wrote the wonderful Fall On Your Knees a long time ago.
Homecoming – Kate Morton
In 2018, Jess is an almost 40-year-old who returns to Australia because her elderly grandmother Nora has been hospitalized after a serious fall. At Nora’s house, Jess learns about the Turner Family Tragedy of 1959: the death of Nora’s sister-in-law and her three children in South Australia. Is this a murder-suicide by a distraught mother? What are the family lies designed to protect the ones we love? The story becomes an exciting crime drama that is a compelling read.
Lessons In Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus
This is a superb example of a book that is both delightful and meaningful. It is the 1950-60s, so Elizabeth Zott’s career as a graduate student and research chemist is subject to brutal sex discrimination. As a consequence, she eventually becomes the star of a cooking show, Supper At Six. Her motto: cooking is serious science because it is based on chemistry. There are laugh-out-loud sections and shrewd observations about human behaviours: highly recommended.
The Rising Tide – Anne Cleeves
Another story about DCI Vera Stanhope, the 10th book in a popular series of police dramas. The setting is NE England, and there are only three murders: one at the beginning, one in the middle and one at the end of the book. In part, this is a police procedural story involving face-to-face interviews. Who are withholding information, keeping secrets that threaten to resurface? Overall, an enjoyable read.
What David Read 