Top of the list for this second batch of March goodies is Michèle Forbes’ Edith & Oliver, largely on the strength of her exquisitely written debut, Ghost Moth, published back in 2014. Hopes are high, then, for this new novel which is about a couple who fall in love when she’s a pianist working the music halls and he’s touring the world performing as an illusionist. When music halls fail, thanks to the advent of cinema, these two are left with only each other and their children as glamour seeps away and Oliver’s dangerous flaws become apparent.
Katie Kitamura’s A Separation is also about a marriage – this one, as the title makes clear, so strained it has broken. A young woman leaves her husband, agreeing to keep the rift between themselves, but then finds that he has disappeared somewhere in the Peloponnese. She reluctantly tries to track him down and as she does so, contemplates what has led to the breakdown of their marriage in ’a story of intimacy, infidelity and compassion… … about the gulf that divides us from the lives of others and the narratives we create to mask our true emotions’ according to the publisher. Not very cheerful, I know, but it’s an interesting idea and I’ve enjoyed Kitamura’s previous fiction.
Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West carries on the theme of relationships and love, this time between two refugees fleeing the civil war raging through their country. Nadia and Saeed are ‘two ordinary young people, attempting to do an extraordinary thing – to fall in love – in a world turned upside down. Theirs will be a love story but also a story about how we live now and how we might live tomorrow, of a world in crisis and two human beings travelling through it’ says the publisher. Hamid’s name may be familiar from his previous novel, the Man Booker shortlisted The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which I enjoyed very much.
Which can’t be said for Stephen May’s debut, I’m afraid, although I think I’m in the minority there – Life! Death! Prizes! was one of those books that everyone seem to love but I did not – however I do like the sound of Stronger Than Skin. When Stephen Chadwick sees a police car outside his house he knows why it is there and that the family life he’s carefully built up over twenty years is about to unravel. According to the publishers it’s ‘a story of a toxic love gone wrong, with a setting that moves easily between present day London and 1990s Cambridge… …compulsively readable, combining a gripping narrative with a keen eye for the absurdities of the way we live now’. Quite like the sound of that but we’ll see.
That’s it for March new books. A click on a title will take you to a more detailed synopsis and if you’d like to catch up with the first instalment it’s here. Paperbacks shortly…
All these titles are completely new for me. However I am curious about Edith and Oliver. I hope it is as magnificent as it sounds.
I hope so too. It’s the one that appeals to me most but there’s always that sneaking worry about the second novel when an author’s debut has been so good.
Love the sound of Katie Kitamura’s new one.
I really enjoyed Gone to the Forest so hopes are high for this one too.
The synopsis for Mohsin Hamid’s new book indicates something very different from what he’s written previously. Interesting to see where he goes with it.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist is the only one of his that I’ve read. It certainly sounds like a very topical theme.
I recently read How to be Filthy Rich in Rising Asia – not as enigmatic as the Fundamentalist but inventive in style. https://bookertalk.com/2017/01/13/rising-asia/
I remember that one being talked about a good deal when it was published. I may well seek it out.
I wasn’t hugely keen on the Kitamura (as compared to, say, Fates and Furies), but I think you’ll like her style — especially as you’ve liked her books before.
Ah, that’s interesting. I had mixed feelings about Fates and Furies. I plan to read it this week and post a review the week after that.
This is the first I’ve heard about Edith and Oliver. I’m always interested in new books about marriage! I hope A Separation turns out to be as good as it sounds, as well!
The Ghost Moth was so beautifully written – I’m hoping for more of the same from Edith and Oliver.
An interesting batch of books for March, Susan. The Hamid sounds interesting as does Edith and Oliver and, I have to say, what a gorgeous cover. Anything that has music halls and illusionists has my vote!
It is a gorgeous cover, isn’t it. My guess is you’re a fan of Christopher Nolan’s film The Prestige, then , Belinda.