Far to Go by Alison Pick

Far to Go
by Alison Pick

From the jacket:

Czechoslovakia, 1939

Pavel and Anneliese Bauer, much like any other affluent Czech family, dote on the six-year-old son, Pepik, and enjoy a life of domestic comfort. Their nanny, Marta could not adore Pepik more. But as rumours of the Nazi threat, and then German troops, reach their corner of Sudetenland, this charmed existence is turned on its head: for all that the Bauers barely consider themselves Jewish, their lives are now in danger.

I enjoy stories set during this period, and Far to Go is one of those that stays with you long after you've finished reading it.

It's all the more interesting for being based on Alison's own grandparents, who fled their native Czechoslovakia for Canada during the Second World War.

The story's primarily told through the eyes of Pepik's nanny, Marta, and a present-day Holocaust archivist, and it highlighted a role I knew nothing about before: that of the Kindertransport, and the role it played in taking Jewish children (almost 10,000 of them) away from areas occupied by Nazis to the safety of British households. I read later that most of them survived, and a few were even reunited with their parents.

There's a feeling of sadness throughout the book that makes it hard to read at times - it's a dark time in history and you sense there's not going to be a happy ending - but it's part-thriller too and keeps you turning the pages.

Ultimately Far To Go is a story of love, family and loyalty and the characters, though flawed, are well-drawn and realistic and the writing is beautiful.

Alison is also a successful poet, and it shows!

Plugged by Eoin Colfer

Plugged

by Eoin Colfer

Eoin Colfer is more famously known for his Artemis Fowl books for children, but his first adult novel should win him a new army of grown-up fans. I was hooked from page one.

Dan McEvoy is an Irish ex-army sergeant living quietly in New Jersey, working as a doorman at a casino to supplement his pension, nursing a hair transplant, and harbouring a crush on one of the hostesses, Connie.

But everything changes when Connie is murdered in the parking lot, and his friend and hair surgeon, Zeb, is kidnapped.

Out to avenge Connie’s death, Dan gets pulled into a world of corruption and the bodies soon start piling up. With dodgy cops on the loose, and a ruthless drug-dealer and crooked lawyer after him, Dan employs his soldier-training skills to survive. Oh and his crazy neighbour thinks Dan's her ex-husband.

Soon he’s having flashbacks to his time in the Lebanon, hearing Zeb’s voice in his head and wondering whether to call his therapist, and his only ally is female cop, Ronelle Deacon - but can she be trusted?

Dan is a witty narrator, and there are enough laugh-out-loud moments and pithy one-liners to nicely balance the blood-splattered torture and violence - of which there’s plenty. There’s a real noir feel to the story that I particularly loved, and Dan has enough depth – or ‘issues’ – for the reader to care what happens to him.

Plugged is a brilliantly written and funny - at times dark - but wildly entertaining read.

It’s great escapism, and I’ve got my fingers crossed it’s the first of many outings for Dan McEvoy.

Thanks to Samantha Eades and Headline for the review copy.

Cuckoo

Cuckoo

by
Julia Crouch


Cuckoo was such a page-turner it kept me awake at night longing to find out what was going to happen next.

Having said that, it’s not a typical thriller; more a slow-burn, psychological chiller that leaves you wondering how well you ever really know anyone; even those closest to you.

Rose and her artist husband, Gareth, seem to have the perfect life, living in rural bliss in their newly refurbished home with their lovely daughter, Anna and little baby, Flossie.

Out of the blue, Rose gets a call from her old friend, Polly – a washed-up musician now living in Greece - whose husband has died in an accident.

Despite Gareth’s misgivings, Rose invites Polly and her sons to stay, but it soon becomes clear that Polly is unstable and her boys have been running wild. They’ve barely settled in when Flossie becomes seriously ill, possibly at Polly's hands, and after that Rose and Gareth’s cosy life slowly starts to unravel.

Told from Rose’s point of view it’s difficult initially to understand why she lets Polly have such a strong hold over her, in light of what happens, but as the story moves from Wiltshire to Brighton, revisiting their past, it seems that perhaps Rose isn’t quite who she appears to be either.

Cuckoo is a gripping and, at times, disturbing read full of foreboding and tension, as well as some wonderfully lyrical prose.

It brilliantly explores the nature of friendship and marriage when both are based on shaky foundations, and although the ending wasn’t necessarily one I’d have chosen, it certainly stays with you long after you’ve turned the last page.

I’m already looking forward to Julia's next novel.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

by
John Boyne



This is a ‘cross-over’ book that can (and should in my opinion) be read by both children and adults. I keep shuffling it from one section of the library where I work, to another, to maximise its potential!

Set in Nazi Germany in 1943, the book tells the tale of two nine-year old boys who become the best of friends in the most unlikely circumstances.

Bruno is suddenly uprooted from his happy life in Berlin to “Out-With”, with his father - a highly ranked man in Germany - his mother and his sister. The only other people he sees live on the opposite side of a tall fence and they all wear striped pyjamas.

Bruno spends a lot of time in his room, until curiosity draws him outside towards the fence, where he finally meets Schmuel, a boy his own age, with his own sad story. They never get to play properly but sit on opposite sides of the boundary and talk about their lives. Bruno is eventually told he is to return to Berlin. As a final adventure, he agrees to dress in a set of striped pyjamas and climb under a loose wire in the fence to help Shmuel find his father, who has gone missing in the camp.

What happens there to both boys is truly horrifying, and a reminder of man’s capacity for inhumanity.

The essence of the book is its childish naivety, which gives it immense power. The author's skill is that we are always one step ahead of Bruno, with our own knowledge of the situation he’s writing about.

John Boyne describes the holocaust with unnerving accuracy and, although the book is short, it’s a thought-provoking read and I must confess the ending left me with a massive lump in my throat. Get your hankies ready.

The Missing Person's Guide to Love

The Missing Person's Guide to Love

by
Susanna Jones


As a fan of the author’s previous novels, I was looking forward to her latest offering, which is a chilling tale about the unexplained disappearance of a fifteen-year old girl called Julia.

The event had a devastating impact on her two best friends, Owen and Isabel, and sixteen years later Isabel has returned from her new life in Turkey to the North of England for Owen’s funeral, determined to find out what happened to Julia. Her theory is that she’s dead and that Owen was responsible for her murder, but she has no proof.

Cut off from her husband and child, and longing for the re-appearance of her beloved, bohemian Aunt Maggie - whose thoughts are interwoven throughout the book - Isabel starts digging into the past, and unsettling memories surface. She recalls how, when they were eighteen, she and Owen burnt down a local supermarket – a crime she spent time in a young offender’s institute for.

When a stranger turns up at the funeral, claiming to have known Owen in prison, Isabel finds herself drawn to him and her search for answers intensifies. What role did her Aunt play in Isabel’s move abroad, and who is the mysterious Leila visiting her husband and daughter whenever she phones home?

The Missing Person’s Guide to Love is an engrossing read, disturbing and quite mysterious at times. You’re never sure exactly what’s going on, past or present, and the truth’s not what you’re expecting.

It’s a clever, well-written and atmospheric novel with an unusual plot, and is bound to keep you turning the pages right up until its slightly confusing ending!

Behaviour of Moths

The Behaviour of Moths

by
Poppy Adams


Poppy Adams’ first novel is a dark and unusual tale of two elderly sisters being reunited after nearly fifty years apart.

Reclusive moth expert, Ginny Stone, 70, is waiting for her younger sister, Vivien, to return to Bulburrow Court - the crumbling Dorset mansion that was once their childhood home. Vivien hasn’t been back for forty-seven years, and Ginny rarely ventures outside. She’s sold off the family furniture, closed down most of the rooms and developed a precise routine. Only the attic remains untouched, where several generations of pinned and preserved moths line the walls.

Vivian’s arrival stirs up long-forgotten memories and secrets from the past, which threaten to disrupt Ginny’s carefully ordered life; the sudden death of their mother, their father’s obsessive behaviour and the strange pact she and Vivien made when they were young. Ginny grows suspicious of Vivien’s motives for coming back, and as they circle one another warily, the reader becomes aware that the sisters view their past in very different ways.

Alternating between past and present, The Behaviour of Moths is a story of nature versus nurture, obsession and misplaced perceptions. Scientific arguments are woven throughout the novel, in the examination of Ginny’s career as a lepidopterist, which suggest she is no more capable of avoiding her fate than a moth is of avoiding the flame that burns it.

The novel’s resolution doesn’t give a definitive answer, which won’t be to everyone’s satisfaction, but it’s still a riveting psychological study of families, and the things that they’re capable of doing to each other in the name of love.