Fabulous Fiction Firsts #349

Wed, 08/15/2012 - 8:46pm by muffy

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry * is currently enjoying a lot of media interest. Debut novelist Rachel Joyce's is an award-winning playwright for BBC Radio 4 after a long career as an actor for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Pre-publication blurbs by the likes of Helen Simonson ( Major Pettigrew's Last Stand) didn't hurt either.

The pilgrimage is a 627 miles trek over 87 days from a small village in South Hams to Berwick-upon-Tweed. It is "unlikely" because Harold Fry, a solitary and sedentary retired brewery salesman, on his way to the mailbox, decides to walk (in his yachting shoes) to Queenie Hennessy, a colleague he hasn't seen or heard from in 20 years. Queenie is dying and wrote to say goodbye. A chance encounter in a convenience mart convinces Harold that Queenie will live if he delivers his message in person, and perhaps settle their unfinished business.

Solitary walks are perfect for imagining how one might set the world to rights, and Harold does just that, although not always with uplifting results, as he ruminates on missed opportunities and failed relationships. Before you know it, he is on the news and to his chagrin, he has acquired himself followers, whose stories "surprised and moved him, and none have left him untouched". But ultimately, it is the readers who are touched - by this ordinary man on an extraordinary journey of self-discovery.

A contemporary take on The Canterbury Tales, and The Pilgrim's Progress, but also "a novel of deep beauty and wisdom about the human condition".

* = starred review

Fabulous Fiction Firsts #348

Mon, 08/13/2012 - 3:40pm by muffy

If you are a fan of Paul Dorion's Mike Bowditch and Linda Castillo's Kate Burkholder, mystery series set in small towns, then you would find much to like with Julia Keller's debut A Killing in the Hills * * * (and hopefully, the first in a projected series).

Like Mike (game warden, wilderness Maine), and Kate (police chief, Amish Country, Ohio), it is homecoming of sorts for Bell (Belfa) Elkins, the prosecuting attorney for Raythune County, WV. Few know of her past, not even at Acker's Gap, where 29 years ago her 10 year-old world came apart in a brutal murder.

Now 3 elderly men are gunned down, execution-styled at a local diner on a busy Saturday morning. Carla, Bell's rebellious daughter with anger issues, is one of few witnesses who has a good look at the killer but she is not about to tell her mother. As the investigation flounders, more bodies pop up around town, Carla decides to track down the killer as a way to repair the fragile relationship with her mother. In the meantime, Bell is determined to get to the bottom of the case involving the death of a 6 year-old at the hands of his handicapped friend.

Born and raised in West Virginia, Chicago Tribune Pulitzer-winning journalist Keller has fashioned a debut mystery with "an impeccably paced plot, supple prose, and indelibly drawn characters... A page-turner with substance and depth, this is as suspenseful and entertaining as it is accomplished."

* * * = starred reviews

Fabulous Fiction Firsts #347

Wed, 08/08/2012 - 8:36pm by muffy

Janus Rock, named after the two-faced mythological god is a tiny strip of an island 100 miles off the coast of western Australia. For the lighthouse keeper and his family, supplies and contact with the outside world arrive every three months, and shore leaves years apart. For Tom Sherbourne, a WWI war hero who survived unspeakable horrors, The Light Between Oceans * * * means much-longed for solitude and purpose, a steady and predictable daily rhythm, meaningful work, and maybe finally peace.

Then one day, a boat washes up on Janus Rock with a dead man and a baby who is very much alive. For Isabel, his young, high-spirited and loving wife, it is clearly God's gift to them after two miscarriages and a stillbirth. Against Tom's better judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. This decision sets off a chain of events that would devastate not only their little family on Janus Rock, but a whole town.

Debut novelist M. L. Stedman sweeps us into a story about extraordinarily compelling characters caught in the dilemma of doing the right thing versus doing what feels right. We watch in agony as they navigate blind the slim divide between life and death, duty and desire, truth and responsibility, justice and mercy, sacrifice and redemption.

"(E)xquisite and unforgettable, a deeply moving novel."

"A polished, cleverly constructed and very precisely calculated first novel".

Readalike : Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge, The Bird Artist by Howard Norman, and Jeanette Winterson's Lighthousekeeping.

* * * = starred reviews

Fabulous Fiction Firsts #346

Mon, 08/06/2012 - 10:40pm by muffy

No snippets of reviews. No author endorsements. Just me this time, from the heart.

1987. Ronald Reagan, Fortran, Gunne Sax dresses, the AIDS hysteria.

14 yr.-old June Elbus - weird, awkward and a loner, has just lost her uncle Finn, her only friend and the love of her young life. His last gift is a portrait he painted of June and her older sister Greta, with the enigmatic title Tell the Wolves I'm Home * . The title is clear, only to June who is fascinated with the Middle Ages and the woods behind her school, a refuge she shares with a pack of howling wolves.

While the community gossips and judges, June mourns. The rest of her family is just angry - with Finn, a renowned artist, for contracting AIDS, and Toby, a young man with a checkered past, for killing him. A beautiful Russian teapot and a plea beyond the grave bring June and Toby together. Their unlikely friendship is clandestine by necessity, problematic in nature, and misunderstood by all who matter most.

This compelling, coming-of-age debut is a moving story of love, loss, and renewal. It seriously challenges the meaning and our understanding of family and home, and the power of compassion. Memorable, this I guarantee.

Originally from NY (where the novel is set) and now living in the UK, debut novelist Carol Rifka Brunt's work has appeared in several literary journals. In 2006, she was one of three fiction writers who received the New Writing Ventures award. She received an Arts Council (UK) grant to write Tell the Wolves I'm Home.

* = starred review

Fabulous Fiction Firsts #345

Tue, 07/31/2012 - 2:23pm by muffy

Alif the Unseen * * , Alif - the first letter of the Arabic alphabet is the code name for a young Arab-Indian hacker in an unnamed Middle Eastern security state. He makes a good living working behind layers of firewall, shielding himself and his clients from "The Hand" - the all-knowing government electronic security force, run by the man who is now engaged to his beloved.

Driven underground, Alif discovers Alf Yeom (The Thousand and One Days), the secret book of the jinn, which may unleash a new level of information technology and for him, a lifeline.

"With shades of Neal Stephenson, Neil Gaiman, Philip Pullman, ...Alif the Unseen is a tour de force debut, a sophisticated melting pot of ideas, philosophy, religion, technology and spirituality smuggled inside an irresistible page-turner".

" (An) intriguing-sounding blend of cyberfantasy and The Arabian Nights ".

G. Willow Wilson is the author of a graphic novel Cairo (2007) and a memoir The Butterfly Mosque. She divides her time between the US and Egypt and Alif, her first prose novel, was completed during the season of the Arab Spring.

Here is a recent Publishers Weekly interview with the author.

* * = starred reviews

Maeve Binchy, Irish family saga novelist, has died

Tue, 07/31/2012 - 10:55am by sernabad

Maeve Binchy, whose very first novel became a bestseller, died yesterday in Dublin.

Ms. Binch's love of Irish small town living and family sagas, was a teacher and a journalist before her first work of fiction, Light a Penny Candle (1982, on order) was rejected by five publishers before Century (England) and Viking (U.S.) picked it up. It quickly became a bestseller.

She wrote several collections of short stories and 15 more novels, several of which became movies, including Tara Road (1999) which hit the silver screen as a film in 2005 starring Andie MacDowell and Stephen Rea.

Ms Binchy's fascination with human interaction and family relationships which were often fueled by secrets served her well as she penned rich multi-generational tales.

When Ms. Binchy was hospitalized four years ago with a heart ailment, she turned that experience into a novel she called Heart and Soul.

Ms. Binchy's last novel, A Week in Winter will be published posthumously later this year.

Maeve Binchy had turned 72 in May.

Fabulous Fiction Firsts #344 - The Highly Irregular Irregulars

Sun, 07/29/2012 - 9:57pm by muffy

Hey folks, meet Harry and Buck.

Harry Lipkin, Private Eye * (by first-time novelist Barry Fantoni) 87 yr.-old Miami PI takes on cases the police have no interest in, like trying to catch the household help who has been stealing heirlooms and gems from a wealthy widow. With a weakness for blintzes and lemon tea, and can't stay awake on a crucial stake-out, Harry still gets the job done. The final scene when Harry gathers all the suspects in a typical country-house caper fashion is as startling to Harry as it is to the reader. But never mind that! This "slim semicozy" with Harry's splendid first-person observations about south Florida folks is sure to please.

Harry's twin separated at birth (just kidding) is Buck (Baruch) Schatz. In Don't Ever Get Old * * * * by Daniel Friedman, this 87 yr.-old retired Memphis cop when summoned to the death bed of a fellow WWII POW, is shocked and dismayed to find out that a vicious Jew-hating Nazi guard is alive and enjoying a stolen fortune in gold, right here in America.

Chain-smoking, abrasive, and forgetful - with a cop's watchfulness and his .375 Magnum still intact, Buck goes on a quest with his well-meaning chatterbox of a grandson in tow, but not counting on a murderous crew coming out of the woodwork, all with claims on a piece of the fortune. "With all the finesse of a garbage truck at a flower party, Buck is pure pleasure to watch."

"Short chapters, crackling dialog, and memorable characters make this a standout debut."

They might be old but it would be a big mistake to count them out.

* = starred review

* * * * = starred reviews

July's Books to Film

Sat, 07/28/2012 - 5:14pm by muffy

The Amazing Spider-Man ( PG-13) is based on the Spider-Man comics

Peter Parker, an outcast high schooler, abandoned by his parents as a boy, struggles to figure out who he is. When Peter discovers a mysterious briefcase that belonged to his father, he begins a quest to understand his parents’ disappearance --- leading him directly to Oscorp and the lab of Dr. Curt Connors, his father’s former partner. As Spider-Man is set on a collision course with Connors’ alter-ego, The Lizard, Peter will make life-altering choices to use his powers and shape his destiny to become a hero.

Killer Joe (NC-17) is adapted from Tracy Lett's play (1993) about a small-time drug dealer who hires a hit man to murder his mother for her life insurance money. Starring Emile Hirsch, Matthew McConaughey, Gina Gershon and Thomas Haden Church.

Savages (R) is based on the novel by Don Winslow (in audio)

Laguna Beach entrepreneurs Ben and Chon run a lucrative, homegrown industry raising some of the best marijuana ever developed, until the Mexican Baja Cartel decides to move in and demands a partnership.

Based on the Batman comics, The Dark Knight Rises (PG-13) opens eight years after Batman vanished into the night. Turning fugitive and assuming the blame for the death of D.A. Harvey Dent, the Dark Knight sacrificed everything for the greater good.

But everything will change with the arrival of a cunning cat burglar with a mysterious agenda. Far more dangerous, however, is the emergence of Bane, a masked terrorist with ruthless plans for Gotham.

Amazon Bestseller: Reason to Breathe

Sat, 07/28/2012 - 1:28pm by annevm

Currently #7 on the Amazon Best Sellers in Teen Books is Reason to Breathe (The Breathing Series #1), by Rebecca Donovan The Amazon description calls the novel "an electrifying page turner from start to finish, a unique tale of life-changing love, unspeakable cruelty, and one girl’s fragile grasp of hope." The novel incorporates a number of musical references. "I inserted descriptions of music throughout the entire book," the author writes on her webpage. "At times, it was a specific band and/or song, other times it was just a genre." Donovan's "unofficial soundtrack" for Reason to Breathe includes the song Only by the musical group Nine Inch Nails.

Man Booker Prize 2012 fiction longlist announced today

Wed, 07/25/2012 - 11:49am by sernabad

Eleven novels and one collection of short stories are on the Man Booker Prize fiction longlist for 2012. The Booker, the leading literary prize for fiction writers from the UK, the Commonwealth of Nations, and Ireland, comes with a £50,000 purse.

This year's longlist includes the following writers:

Hilary Mantel for Bringing Up the Bodies, which is the sequel to Wolf Hall which won the 1999 Booker. In Bodies, Anne Boleyn is in the fight for her life against Thomas Cromwell.

Michael Frayn is also no stranger to the Booker excitement. His 1999 novel, Headlong was shortlisted. In his newest novel, Skios, science and romantic intrigue play out on a beautiful Greek island.

Malaysian author, Tan Twan Eng, got the nod for The Garden of Evening Mists (on order). In 1951, Malaysian prosecuting attorney, Yun Ling Teoh finds a Japanese garden in Malaysia which provides her with unexpected solace as she tries to heal from her horrific WW II experience in a Japanese prisoner of war camp.

The complete list of the longlisted authors can be found here.

The shortlist will be posted on September 11. The winner will be announced on October 16th.