Contemporary Fiction Recent Picks

December 2008

The underlined titles will take you directly to our catalogue.
Some featured items are linked via a book cover to enable you to read more reviews.

The elegance of the hedgehog, Muriel Barbery ; translated from the French by Alison Anderson. (2008)
"Renée is the concierge of a grand Parisian apartment building on the Left Bank. To the residents she is honest, reliable and uncultivated an ideal concierge. But Renée has a secret. Beneath this conventional façade she is passionate about culture and the arts, and more knowledgeable in many ways than her employers. Renée is resigned to living a lie, with only visits from her one friend Manuela to break the monotony. Meanwhile, several floors up, twelve-year-old Paloma Josse is determined to avoid the predictably bourgeois future laid out for her, and plans to commit suicide on her thirteenth birthday. But before this happens, the death of one of their privileged neighbours will dramatically alter the course of both their lives forever." (Amazon)

The idea of love, Louise Dean. (2008)
"When foreign families converge on Provence for a better life, it seems as if sunshine, drinking and partying will create an idyllic little community of like-minded sorts. But compelled to venture far from this Eden to Africa, two of the couples lives are changed irrevocably when each begins to doubt themselves, who they are and why they're there. For Richard, life unravels alarmingly quickly when he loses his marriage, his home, and his job in pharmaceutical sales and finally maybe even his mind; for his wife Valerie and for their friends Jeff and Rachel it's the pursuit of the idea of love that salvages what they hold dear and only love itself that grants any enlightenment." (Amazon)

The Beacon, by Susan Hill. (2008)
"The farmhouse was called The Beacon and they had been born and reared there, May, Colin, Frank and Berenice, but only May had been left for the last 27 years. May had been the clever daughter and she had escaped the shelter of The Beacon, just once, to go to university. But in London she had been pursued by nameless terrors, the victim of fears and anxieties. Now she was the spinster daughter, the one who stayed, who nursed her father after his accident and looked after her mother in her old age. Frank was the one who got away. He married and moved on. But why does no one ever mention Frank's name? ." (Amazon)

The heretic's daughter : a novel, by Kathleen Kent. (2008)
"Martha Carrier was one of the first women to be accused, tried and hanged as a witch in Salem, Massachusetts. Like her mother, young Sarah Carrier is bright and wilful, openly challenging the small, brutal world in which they live. Often at odds with one another, mother and daughter are forced to stand together against the escalating hysteria of the trials and the superstitious tyranny that led to the torture and imprisonment of more than 200 people accused of witchcraft. This is the story of Martha's courageous defiance and ultimate death, as told by the daughter who survived." (Amazon)

Requiem, by Robyn Young. (2008)
"1295 AD. The Christian empire in the Holy Land lies in ruins. Returning to Paris, Templar Knight Will Campbell is at a crossroads. He has sworn to uphold the principles of the Anima Templi, a secret brotherhood within the Order whose aim is peace, but peace seems ever more impossible. The Temple has forged an alliance with Will's enemy, King Edward of England, vowing to help him wage war on Scotland. This pact against his homeland strikes at the core of Will's faith and allegiances, while his growing estrangement from his daughter, Rose, leads her into a dangerous affair. Will now faces a bitter choice: to stay with the Temple and fight another war he doesn't believe in, or to break his vows and forge his own path to peace, even if that too means fighting for the Scots." (Book cover)

The sisterhood, Emily Barr. (2008)
"Elizabeth Greene is devastated when her boyfriend of ten years leaves her for someone else. After a night of drowning her sorrows leads to an unexpected one-night stand, Elizabeth finds herself pregnant, alone and vulnerable. Helen has just discovered she has a sister she didn't know she had. Bored with her privileged life in France and driven by a need to gain her parents' approval, Helen sets out to find her sister and reunite her with her long-lost mother. When her search leads her to Elizabeth the two women become closely linked. But their connection to one another is founded on a dark deception, with the truth having extreme consequences." (Amazon)

Summer school, Domenica de Rosa. (2008)
"Patricia Wilson's carefully composed advertisements for the writers' retreat she runs at her thirteenth-century Italian castle promise so much. But while the splendour of their surroundings and chef Aldo's food never fail to excite the guests, huge maintenance bills and bad news from the bank threaten to close Patricia down. It is now a time of make or break for the Castello." (Amazon)

The palace of illusions: a novel, by Chitra Lekha Banerjee Divakaruni. (2008)
"This is the story of Panchaali, her life, from fiery birth and lonely childhood, where her beloved brother is her only true companion; through her complicated friendship with the enigmatic Krishna; to marriage, motherhood, and Panchaali's secret attraction to the mysterious man who is her husbands' most dangerous enemy. It is the story about a woman born into a man's world: a world of warriors, gods, and the ever-manipulating hands of fate." (Amazon)

Vicky had one eye open, Darryl Samaraweera. (2008)
"Vicky slipped into a coma at 2.30 on Sunday afternoon, after having cooked a beautiful 8lb chicken. Her family sat around her: her eldest son and daughter whispering like teenagers with the wisdom of old women, and her husband on the armchair opposite, her chair, a bargain in the Easter sales, watching his twenty-sixth frame of snooker with glazed and sated eyes." (Book Cover)

Folly, by Allan Titchmarsh. (2008)
"Jamie Ballantyne and Artemis King were never meant to fall in love. The feud between their families has run for three generations. But whatever Jamie’s head might tell him, his heart will always belong to Artemis. After fifty years, perhaps it’s time for the Kings and the Ballantynes to bury the hatchet. Jamie and Artemis start to uncover their shared past, what they find rocks the foundations of both their families, as a web of deceit and intrigue is ruinously expose." (Amazon)

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