Whereas I’d read all the books in the first part of May’s paperback preview, I’ve only managed two in the second, starting with Joan Silber’s Secrets of Happiness which begins with the sudden revelation of the second family of an apparently happily married man. Ethan and Allyson took their parents’ happiness for granted until the arrival of legal demands for the maintenance of his two teenage sons, tucked away with their Thai mother in Queens. From this revelation radiates out a series of connections, all of which are knitted together to form a work of fiction which reads like an intricately connected set of short stories. After loving both this one and last year’s quietly impressive Improvement, I’m hoping her UK publishers won’t forget Silber’s extensive backlist.
I also enjoyed Vendela Vida’s We Run the Tides which follows four friends through the summer which will mark them for life. 
One day in 1984, on their way to school, they spot a man in a white car, a stranger who Maria Fabiola says is touching himself while watching them. Eulabee sees no such thing and finds herself ostracised. Then Maria Fabiola disappears, apparently kidnapped. By the end of the summer, Eulabee will have reassessed her friendship with Maria Fabiola but another disappearance will ensure that this summer casts a darker shadow on all their lives. Vida narrates this absorbing coming-of-age tale through Eulabee’s voice, smartly capturing the heady intensity of adolescent girls’ friendship.
Lots of pre-publication brouhaha last year for Francesca Reece’s Voyeur which sees a young woman leave London for Paris, delighted to get a job as a writer’s assistant. Leah’s enthusiasm proves infectious inspiring Michael to draw on his diaries, full of his life in ’60s Soho, which she transcribes in his family’s property in the South of France. All seems set fair, but Leah is nagged by suspicions about her new boss. I’m attracted by that writer/assistant relationship.
Cathy Rentzenbrink’s name will be familiar to many already, not least for her lovely reading memoir, Dear Reader. Her first
novel, Everyone is Still Alive, sees Juliet move her family into her late mother’s home on Magnolia Road. Unbeknownst to her, her writer husband has scented new material for his latest novel, making new friends while Juliet is distracted by grief. ‘Funny and moving, intimate and wise; a novel that explores the deeper realities of marriage and parenthood and the way life thwarts our expectations at every turn’ according to the blurb.
Entirely different, I suspect Antonio Muñoz Molina’s To Walk Alone in the Crowd will fall into the love it or hate it bracket. We’re invited to join the author on a series of walks through Madrid, Paris, London and New York for this novel made up of newspaper headlines, billboards and overheard conversations. ‘This is the digital metropolis, captured in notebooks, recorded on the iPhone, where Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Charles Baudelaire, Thomas de Quincey, Fernando Pessoa and Walter Benjamin step beside us, all of us writing the unfinished poem of the crowded city’ says the blurb. Well worth giving a try although I’m prepared for disappointment.
In Niven Govinden’s Diary of a Film, a moviemaker meets a woman in a café in the backstreets of a European city hosting a
prestigious festival. She takes him for a walk, showing him her city, while telling him a story of love and tragedy which he sees in his mind’s eye translated to the screen in his next film. ‘This is a novel about cinema, flaneurs, and queer love – it is about the sometimes troubled, sometimes ecstatic creative process, and the toll it takes on its makers. But it is also a novel about stories, and the ongoing question of who has the right to tell them’ say the publishers. It’s that last sentence that makes me want to read this one. I remember enjoying Govinden’s All the Days and Nights which I reviewed in the early days of this blog.
That’s it for May’s previews. As ever, a click on a title will take you either to my review or to a longer synopsis. If you’d like to catch up with part one of the month’s paperbacks, it’s here. New fiction is here and here.
I was underwhelmed by Everyone Is Still Alive, but I like the sound of Voyeur — one to seek out from the library.
Voyeur sounds intriguing, doesn’t it. Everyone’s not really my cup of tea but long, long ago Cathy regularly reviewed for me and she’s so lovely I couldn’t miss it out!
Voyeur sounds tempting – Paris, 1960s Soho… very promising!
Fingers crossed it’ll live up to that promise!
I really enjoyed Improvement so I’m tempted by Secrets of Happiness. And, let’s face it, who doesn’t want to discover those?
Absolutely! I think if you enjoyed Improvement you’ll like Secrets of Happiness, Cathy. Very similar structure and the same smart, compassionate insight
Your reviews are well done, but none of these sound like something I’d enjoy.
Your bank balance is safe for this month, then!
Till the next review I like LOL
I’ve enjoyed Govinden’s writing previously, so might look out for that one. I read a Vendela Vida last year and was incredibly underwhelmed (the name even escapes me!) but I do like the sound of the premise of this latest one.
I read The Diver’s Clothers Lie Empty some time ago but enjoyed this one more. Hopes are high for the Govinden, particularly given Annabel’s comment below.
I loved the Govinden so much it was my book of the year in 2021! Reviewed for Shiny here: https://shinynewbooks.co.uk/diary-of-a-film-by-niven-govinden
I enjoyed the Rentzenbrink, but it doesn’t really break new ground. Of the rest, Voyeur is the one I would love to read.
Thanks for the link, Annabel. You’ve ratcheted up my hopes now! Voyeur does sound appealing.
We Run The Tides really sounds great, I love a good coming of age story.
This one has quite a twist, too.
You’ve sold me on Voyeur just because it’s set in the South of France. I won’t get there this year but can imagine myself looking basking in the sunshine and sipping some rosé just by reading the book
A lovely idea, Karen.
We Run the Tides is the one that appeals to me the most – partly for the premise and partly the author’s reputation. (I recall you being impressed with another of her books a few years ago.)
You’ve an excellent memory, Jacqui. It was The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty we I enjoyed partly because it took me back to Morocco.
I haven’t heard of these, but the cover of To Walk Alone is somehow evocative (at least to me) of the UK cover for The Fortune Men
I see what you mean. I think it’s that hat!