The structure of this mystery/thriller is very intriguing. Hannah is writing a novel about 4 strangers who meet in a reading room in the Boston Public Library, and then hear a scream from a woman is later found murdered. One of the characters is writing about these events, so this is a book about someone writing a book about the same mystery. Is one of the 4 the murderer? A delicious plot with a slow reveal of information – very impressive.
Category: Location / Setting
Our Missing Hearts – Celeste Ng
Imagine a dystopian America dominated by the Preserving American Culture and Traditions (PACT) act. Particular negative attention is directed at persons of Asian origin so Bird’s Chinese American mother disappears to protect her son. Now 3 years later, he receives a cryptic message and embarks on a quest to find her in a world of surveillance and suspicion. What is remarkable in this topical story is the importance of words and stories, and libraries and librarians. Highly recommended.
Babel – R.F. Kuang
This is an imaginative work of historical and speculative fiction. The context is all important: Oxford in the 1830s where scholars (professors and students) work in the Royal Institute of Translation, in an academic tower known as Babel. Is there power in words, in etymology? Words lost in translation can be added to silver bars to create magic: protective wards and the casting of spells. Academics can also serve colonialism; can change ever occur peaceably, or does profound change encompass the necessity of violence? What is striking in this book is the role of indecision and questionable motives. Highly recommended.
We Measure the Earth With Our Bodies – Tsering Yangzom Lama
This very impressive debut novel is Giller short-listed. Two sisters, Lhamo and Tenkyi, flee the Chinese invasion of Tibet to resurface in Nepal in the 1960s. Fifty years later, Lhamo’s daughter Dolma is living in Toronto with Tenkyi. This is a beautifully written book about female relationships, a truly epic story of displacement and survival, exile and loss.
This Is How We Love – Lisa Moore
Ms. Moore is a very fine writer (February, Caught) but this is her best book to date. A multi-generational story set in St. John’s creates a superb relationship book, of mothers mostly and children who are loved, neglected, lost and re-found. What makes a family? Do we ever really choose who we love? Warning: there is violence, a stabbing. And much of the story takes place in a legendary winter storm, a snow-mageddon! Overall: a rich tapestry of the sacrifice, pain and joy of loving, for tour-de-force storytelling.
The Mermaid Of Black Conch – Monique Roffey
Aycayia was once an indigenous Taino woman in the Caribbean. What curse transformed her into a mermaid? If she is captured, will she re-transform into a woman? What will be her fate? How are the island lives changed by this phenomenon? This is a great story, no surprise since it is a Heather O’Neill recommendation.
The Christmas Bookshop – Jenny Colgan
You may wonder why I liked this book because the story is entirely predictable, and the plot is sweetly sentimental. On the other hand, the word “bookshop” is in the title and the setting is contemporary Edinburgh. What can I say – it is a relationship book that is entirely satisfying.
The Strangers – Katherena Vermette
Like the companion novel The Break, this book begins with a Trigger Warning. The Strangers are a multi-generational Metis family living in Winnipeg: the story focusses on grandmother Margaret, daughter Elsie and children Phoenix and Cedar. Powerful emotions characterize these women: anger, shame in addictions, feeling invisible. Reflecting on sad stories, Margaret concludes (page 316) that “only Indians, Metis … had sorrow built into their bones, who exchanged despair as exclusively as recipes, who had devastation after devastation after dismissal after denial woven into their skin”. Compelling sentiments in the setting of important and necessary stories – a must read for all Canadians.
Fifty-Four Pigs – Philipp Schott
Mystery-crime stories are influenced markedly by context (time and place) and the “amateur sleuth” (think Miss Marple and Jessica Fletcher) is a special genre. This intriguing first novel is about a crime-solving veterinarian in Manitoba who uses logic and his dog Pippin’s remarkable nose to investigate when a swine barn explodes, revealing a murder victim. Totally charming.
What David Read 