With spring on the horizon here in the UK, perhaps more in hope than in reality after last week’s storms, I’m starting March’s paperback preview with two books that should raise a smile.
Set in a small American town, Katherine Heiny’s Early Morning Riser follows Jane who meets the handsome Duncan when she locks herself out of her new home dressed in her pyjamas. They quickly become a couple but there’s a fly in the ointment: Duncan seems to have slept with every woman in Boyne City and beyond. Jane finds herself constantly faced with one of his exs. Over the 17 years Heiny’s novel spans, Jane continues to yearn for romantic love – although not always for herself – picks up a burden of guilt that leads to more happiness than she’d hoped for and, ultimately, experiences a quietly joyous epiphany. I loved this novel and the ending is a delight.
Marriage of a very different kind features in The Inverts, Crystal Jeans’ first novel for a large publisher having had two published by Welsh indie Honno Press. In the early 1920s childhood friends Bettina and Bartholomew decide to marry, giving themselves themselves a veneer of respectability beneath which they can let their true desires rip. Theirs is a marriage as stormy as it is unconventional, ruptured by a particularly vituperative row until an awful mishap leads to a reconciliation. If you’re after a bit of a romp with an unusual premise and don’t mind a bit of filth with your humour, I’d recommend this one.
I’ve yet to read Mary Lawson’s 1970s-set A Town Called Solace which explores the disappearance of a little girl through three people: her eight-year-old sister, the family’s new neighbour who comes under suspicion and a dying woman who needs to make amends for a long ago crime. ‘By turns gripping and darkly funny, it uncovers the layers of grief and remorse and love that connect us,but shows that sometimes a new life is possible’ promises the blurb. I’ve read and enjoyed several of Lawson’s novels which makes me hopeful for this one.
Jhumpa Lahiri’s elegantly slim novella, Whereabouts, was written by her in Italian which she then 
translated into English. It records a year or so in the life of a middle-aged woman who lives on the fringes of other people’s worlds. Her friends envy her quiet, self-contained life, their own filled with the bustle and mess of family. As she walks the streets she’s known all her life, she speculates about the people she sees, embroidering lives for them while they treat her with courtesy but little else. Lahiri slips small details into poetic, impressionistic vignettes so that we come to understand why her character’s life is so circumscribed. In its precise, understated beauty Whereabouts reminded me of Mary Costello’s Academy Street: high praise indeed from me.
Not only was Nathan Harris’ The Sweetness of Water longlisted for last year’s Booker but President Obama cited it as one of his summer book recommendations, quite something for a debutante novelist. It follows two brothers, newly freed slaves in the last days of the American Civil War, who find an unlikely saviour in a plantation owner still grieving his soldier son’s death until the local townspeople get wind of what’s happening. ‘Conjuring a world fraught by tragedy and violence yet threaded through with hope, The Sweetness of Water is a debut novel unique in its power to move and enthrall’, say the publishers promisingly.
There was a great deal of brouhaha around the hardback publication Yaa Gyasi’s second novel, Transcendent Kingdom, which follows a Ghanaian family who begin a new life in the American south, a story which Gifty loves to hear her parents tell.
Tragedy in the shape of opioid addiction strikes leaving Gifty ‘tracing her family’s story through continents and generations will take her deep into the dark heart of modern America’ according to the blurb. I still haven’t got around to reading Gyasi’s Homegoing despite it being on my list for quite some time.
That’s it for the first instalment of March’s paperbacks. As ever, a click on a title will take you either to my review or to a longer synopsis, and if you’d like to catch up with the month’s new titles, they’re here and here. Part two soon…
Reminds me I have the Nathan Harris on my shelves. I’d love to read the Heiny and Lahiri from this batch too.
I loved both the Heiny which was a perfect lockdown escapist read for me, and the Lahiri for her writing. Keen to read the Harris, too
Do read the Gyasi and Lawson! I can’t decide whether to read the Harris, even though it’s now been longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize as well.
All three are on my list although I suspect it will be a while before I get around to them.
I really enjoyed A Town Called Solace, seeing more to it than the superficial story told, the way she chooses the quieter characters to focus on, avoiding the temptation to follow the main dramatic event.
Interesting that you mention Academy Street, I’m planning to read that this year and a couple of her other novels as well, I am quite tempted by Whereabouts.
I definitely recommend Homegoing, it was was favourite book of the year when I read it, Transcendent Kingdom didn’t quite reach the same heights for me, possibly because I was more drawn to the expansive cultural offerings of her debut, whereas her latest novel is more domestic.
Academy Street is my favourite Costello, pared-back, elegant prose, and the Lahiri is beautiful. Thanks for the tip about Homecoming. It sounds as if I should start with that one.
I have The Sweetness of Water on my bookshelf and A Town Called Solace has been on my wishlist for a while.
Definitely keen to read both, Cathy
I thought Whereabouts was a beautiful little novel, very visual. I particularly want to read A Town Called Solace, I read a couple of other Mary Lawson books some years ago. The Inverts also sounds interesting.
Such a poetic novel, and so atmospheric. The Inverts is a hoot although it has its poignant moments.
I picked up Early Morning Riser in my favourite charity bookshop last week, remembering how much you’d enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to it!
Hurrah! A lovely peice of well-turned out escapism. I hope you enjoy it.
The first two don’t appeal – I struggle with books meant to be humorous because either they are too obvious or just not funny. But I’m tempted by Town Called Solace and Transcendent Kingdom.
Two to get your teeth into, I think. The Lawsons I’ve read have been long but rewarding.
That first cover sincerely catches my attention: I feel as though we don’t often see nice and bright bedclothes on bookcovers. Rumpled grey and blue, no?
That’s true. The contents are great, too!
Some excellent book here, judging by the range of reviews I’ve seen. It’s particularly good to see Whereabouts coming through, hopefully the paperback release will give it another boost!
It’s a good month, isn’t it, with more to come, too. I agree about the Lahiri. Such a beautifully expressed piece of fiction.