For those of you fed up with picking over the bones of 2016, I’m delighted to say that 2017 is starting with a literary bang. So many enticing books out in January that this will be a two-post preview, something not warranted for several months. My first choice – the subject of a good deal of pre-publication brouhaha for months – wanders about the globe but, according to the publishers, tells ‘the very story of America’. Like Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, one of 2016’s much-praised titles, the theme of Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing is slavery. In what sounds like a very ambitious debut, Gyasi’s novel follows the fortunes of two sisters – one sold into slavery, the other a slave-trader’s wife – taking her readers across three continents and seven generations. Weary comments about hype aside, this does sound well worth a read.
Nadeem Aslam can always be relied upon to deliver a novel to get your teeth into and The Golden Legend sounds like no exception. When Nargis loses her husband – caught in cross-fire and shot by an American – she comes under increasing pressure from the military to pardon his killer. In a city riven with fear at the broadcasting of intimate secrets from its mosques, Nargis is already terrified that her own past will be revealed. In ‘his characteristically luminous prose, Nadeem Aslam reflects Pakistan’s past and present in a single mirror – a story of corruption, resilience, and the hope that only love and the human spirit can offer’ say the publishers. Like Kamila Shamsie, Aslam has a knack for the kind of vivid storytelling that helps enlighten Westerners like me about this part of the world.
This one’s here partly because I can’t resist novels set in places I’ve visited on holiday. Set in the seventeenth century with the Western world on the brink of the Enlightenment, Meelis Friedenthal’s The Willow King follows a Dutch melancholic student who arrives in the famous Estonian university town of Tartu with a parrot in tow. Laurentius has been drawn to Tartu in the hope of a scientific explanation for his unhappiness but finds himself attracted back into the world of superstition and magic familiar from his childhood. Holiday nostalgia aside, it sounds intriguing and it’s published by Pushkin Press who seem to have a particularly sharp editorial eye.
Laurentius’ childhood home doesn’t sound a million miles away – literally and metaphorically – from Wiola’s in Wioletta Greg’s debut Swallowing Mercury. Wiola lives in a small village with her taxidermist father, seamstress mother and a black cat. Without having read it, I suspect the publisher’s slightly opaque blurb will be more useful than any summary I can come up with: ‘Wiola lives in a Poland that is both very recent and lost in time. Swallowing Mercury is about the ordinary passing of years filled with extraordinary days. In vivid prose filled with texture, colour and sound, it describes the adult world encroaching on the child’s. From childhood to adolescence, Wiola dances to the strange music of her own imagination.’ Sounds a little fey, I know, but engaging enough to warrant further investigation for me, and Greg’s a poet which augurs well for her writing.
No doubts about my last choice. Claire Fuller’s prize-winning debut Our Endless Numbered Days was a joy so hopes for Swimming Lessons are understandably high. Gil Coleman’s wife has been missing for twelve years when he thinks he sees her standing on a pavement. Summoned home, his two children set about trying to solve the mystery of her disappearance and whether their father has been entirely truthful with them. Fingers crossed for more absorbing story-telling from Ms Fuller. Beautiful jacket, too.
That’s it for the first January post. A click on a title will take you to a fuller synopsis should you want to know more. Part two, which will not set foot outside the USA, to follow very shortly…
“Homegoing” does indeed sound well worth a read. And I love the cover, so pretty!
It does make you want to pick it up, doesn’t it. Naomi’s comment suggests that it’s well worth doing that, too.
Great preview, as always, Susan. I’ve read one on your list already as I’m reading for my 2017 preview post at the moment. In the case of Homegoing, the hype is entirely justified. It is ambitious and she pulls it off superbly.
Thanks, Naomi, and glad to hear that. I think I spotted you praising it on Twitter the other day.
Love the cover of Homecoming and have high hopes it lives up to the hype.
I hope so, too, Helen. Naomi seems to think it does.
The Nadeem Aslam book is already on my wishlist as I have loved his other books. His stories can be brutal but they are beautifully written.
His writing’s very striking isn’t it. I think his books are often quite brave, too, particularly Maps for Lost Lovers.
I’m with Ali on Nadeem Aslam as I’ve also enjoyed a couple of his previous books – Maps for Lost Lovers and The Blind Man’s Garden. Good to hear there’s a new one on the way.
He manages to combine beautiful, compassionate writing with hard-hitting fiction, doesn’t he. One of those authors I think we should see on the award lists.
Wow, the cover of Swimming Lessons is gorgeous! These books like interesting. I’m glad to know there’s SOMETHING to look forward to in January.
And there’s more to come! It’s a beautiful cover isn’t it. It makes all the difference to a book when the publishers get that right.
Looking forward to swimming lessons and would like to read Homecoming too. I’m looking forward to some quality reading time over the festive season!
I’ve read and very much enjoyed Swimming Lessons since writing this post, Claire. I can heartily recommend it.
I mean HomeGoing!
I recently received an ARC of Swimming Lessons and truly CAN’T WAIT to get started on it.
I’ve since read it and it’s excellent, Kate. Even better than Our Endless Numbered Days for me.
Yay!
I am looking forward to Homegoing and Swimming Lessons as well. Homegoing is already released in my part of the world. But I have not read it yet
I’ve noticed Homegoing on lots of North American books of the year lists which makes me hopeful. Is that where you are?
No Susan, I stay in India. 🙂
We’re obviously a bit late to the Homegoing party here in the UK, then!
The Fuller sounds fantastic. I had never heard of her until I read this post, although the name rings a bell! Can’t wait for your review.
It’s great, Elena. I’ve since read it and it’s even better than her first novel Our Endless Numbered Days – quite a trick to pull off!
Have preordered Homegoing after a sneek preview on ebook and Yes! Absolutely agree Claire’s Swimming Lessons is a compelling read and she touches on some often body-swerved aspects with superb insight and sensitivity.
Swimming Lessons is superb isn’t it, and Naomi over at The Writes of Women is a big fan of Homegoing which augurs well.
Love Swimming Lessons and actually looking forward to reread which is rare for me so soon; reviewing and must remember that as just got sucked in on first read.
Homegoing was one of my favorite books in 2016 – so good! And I’ve also just read Swimming Lessons. I think I agree with you that it’s even better than her first.
My appetite is well and truly whetted for Homegoing.
I wonder how often one’s reading appetite is piqued with a description which includes the phrase “taxidermist father/mother”. I can think of a couple of winners actually! Hope you find some new favourites here.
Thank you. You might be surprised to hear that I’ve since read an entirely different book which featured a taxidermist – Laura Kaye’s English Animals (review coming up next week). Perhaps this is a new trend in fiction!