Thomas Mann was a favourite author of my great German Canadian friend Thea, so I decided to read this biographical portrait of the Nobel Prize-winning author by Toibin, the magnificent Irish writer. Mann’s life, separate from his writing, is fascinating, evolving from a German nationalist in WWI to become an internationalist and anti-Nazi figure. Conflicted relationships abound within his troubled family and within his homeland. Overall, an epic story of a complex man.
Category: Location / Setting
The Orphan Girl – Kurt Palka
Sometimes a sentimental historical novel fits the bill perfectly. The time period is 1944-46. Kate survives a London bomb but then circumstances force her to live with a doctor friend, Claire. Complex issues complicate their lives: a murdered father and the return of Claire’s troubled husband from the war. This story is about friendship, promises, courage and independence. Key details are left unexplained, to make for a very satisfying plot.
The It Girl – Ruth Ware
A mystery-thriller set in an Oxford college (yay!) Ten years after the murder of her roommate, Hannah begins to suspect that the person convicted of the crime may have been innocent. Was the actual killer one of her Oxford friends? Typical of the amateur sleuth genre, there is rampant suspicion and multiple red herrings. And I can confidently predict that no one will be able to predict the big reveal at the end.
Hotline – Dimitri Nasrallah
A Giller long-listed book and a recent Canada Reads contender: Muna is a widowed single mother who escapes to Montreal in 1986 from Beirut. What follows is a one-year struggle to find work as an immigrant, to help her son Omar adjust to a radically new environment, to survive her first winter, and to overcome marginalization and prejudice. A compelling story.
Permanent Astonishment – Tomson Highway
Highway is a fine novelist (Kiss of the Fur Queen) but this is a memoir, subtitled “Growing up Cree in the land of snow and sky”. Born in 1951, he grows up in remote Indigenous communities in NW Manitoba. The Indian Act declared that status Indian children MUST be sent to residential schools, so at age 6, he is flown to Guy Hill Indian Residential School in The Pas. Over the next 9 years, he describes academic challenges to learn English, but he does NOT experience institutional cultural genocide and has only a brief experience with sexual abuse at age 11. Overall, his residential school experience is positive even for a two-spirit individual, so an important perspective.
A Heart Full Of Headstones – Ian Rankin
The Rebus stories just get better and better. Now long retired and suffering with COPD, Rebus is assisting/hindering the police investigation of a bent cop. The story over only 8 days is rife with corruption and hidden motives. Rebus has a life-long legacy of breaking rules and crossing lines, so this book begins and ends with his trial for a specific misdeed. Highly recommended.
The Night Travelers – Armando Lucas Correa
An angst-filled story of 4 generations of women: sometimes daughters have to be sent away to save them. What are the motivations of the mothers? Lilith, an 8-year-old mixed-race child (mischling), is sent from Germany to Cuba in 1939. Her daughter, Nadine, is born in 1959 in the midst of the Cuban Revolution and must be sent to the USA at age 3. Nadine and her daughter Luna complete the research of family endurance and sacrifice.
The Dickens Boy – Thomas Keneally
The acclaimed author of Schindler’s List and The Daughters of Mars (just 2 of his 33 books) has turned his attention to his Australian homeland. Edward Dickens, the 10th and youngest child of his father Charles Dickens, travels to Australia in 1868 at age 16 to make something of himself in the outback. What follows is written with impeccable detail of the following two years: sheep shearing and cricket, encounters with Aboriginals (darks), colonialists and criminals. Very entertaining.
The Lincoln Highway – Amor Towles
Simply put, this is a great book. Set in 1954 in Nebraska, the story covers only 10 days. The main characters are all kids: three are 18, one is 8 years old but surprisingly is the most clever and mature individual. A trip on the Lincoln Highway to New York is not straight forward, involving both a car and freight trains. Importantly, there are unexpected plot twists, all described with impeccable detail. The characters and themes are richly imagined – this is a must-read book.
What David Read 