September’s a lean month for paperbacks but there are a few that stand out, beginning with one of my books of last year which won the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and is now longlisted for this year’s Booker Prize.
I wasn’t as enthusiastic about Niall William’s Time of the Child despite enjoying its prequel This is Happiness very much. Set in the rain-soaked coastal community of Faha in December 1962 it tells the tale of what happens when an abandoned baby is discovered. An affectionate, occasionally dark humour runs through Williams’ lyrical narrative, studded with stories of Faha’s colourful characters, but he has serious points to make about the cruelty of Church and State towards both abandoned children and the aged, exploring similar themes to Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These, but in a very different way.
I’ve not read Rumaan Alam’s Leave the World Behind but I do remember it featuring on one of President Obama’s reading lists, an endorsement that still makes publishers’ hearts sing, I’m sure, predisposing me to read Entitlement. Alam’s new novel follows a bright, idealistic young black woman as she navigates the world of the super-rich in her new job working for a philanthropic foundation. Little by little as she becomes more accustomed to the way the wealthy live, the ease with which they spend the kind of money most people can barely imagine, her integrity slips. I enjoyed Alam’s novel for its themes rather than his writing style, likened to Don DeLillo’s in the press release, which is not to my taste. That said, I’m glad I read it.
I’m not as eager as I once was to get my hands on a new Haruki Murakami but I’ve no doubt I’ll read The City and Its Uncertain Walls at some stage. It follows a man who as a teenager was a Dream Reader in the shadow world, now an adult trying to recapture how it felt by taking up a position in a library once held by a ghost. Unsurprisingly with Murakami, any attempt at such a brief synopsis is doomed to failure, particularly when drawing on an opaque blurb which goes on to describe the novel as: ‘A love story, a quest, an ode to books and to the libraries that house them, and a parable for these strange post-pandemic times, The City and Its Uncertain Walls is a singular and towering achievement by one of modern literature’s most important writers’.
September’s short story collection is Ben Shattuck’s carefully constructed The History of Sound, another favourite from last year. It comprises twelve stories, each with a companion piece, bookended by the opening and closing stories. Crisscrossing centuries, Shattuck’s collection explores themes of love, loss, art and the natural world in lyrical, poetic but elegantly understated prose, often rooted in the dramatic New England landscape in which they’re set. Highly recommend this one, and not just to short story fans.
That’s it for September. A click on a title will take you either to my review or to a more detailed synopsis should you want to know more, and if you’d like to catch up with new fiction it’s here and here.
I’m reading The Land in Winter now and enjoying it. Thanks for the reminder about Time of the Child. That new paperback cover of the Shattuck is quite different!
Glad to hear you like the Miller. I prefer the original jacket of the Shattuck. I’d been expecting a more explicit film tie in for the paperback.
I really like Andrew Miller but I lost track of him a bit. Thank you for the reminder of this one, I’ll look out for it.
You’re welcome! Worth saving it for long winter evenings.
The Land in Winter is simply wonderful. I stayed up far too late some nights because I just kept wanting to read on and on.
I’m so glad you enjoyed this one, Karen. I thoink it’s one of his best.
A fellow reader whose opinion I really respect recommended Season to me. He isn’t a football fan either but said that it is wonderful
That’s very encouraging. Thanks, Cathy. It does sound as if it’s much more about the characters than the game.
I found The Time of the Child quite lovely as an audio book.
I think that might work better for me.
I loved The Land in Winter and hoping it will get further in the Booker prize. Williams won the Kerry Book Award but I still haven’t read it. I have just started Rachel Seiffert’s new book Once The Deed is Done. I think it’s going to be good. Loved two of her previous books.
I was very struck by The Dark Room and enjoyed A Boy in Winter, too. Fingers crossed for the Miller.
The Murakami is fabulous actually:
https://wordsandpeace.com/2024/10/23/book-review-the-city-and-its-uncertain-walls/
Pleased to hear that.
I’m not sure it’s fair, but I disproportionately love a book about sports/athletics that pulls me in despite my inherent resistance; it feels like such a hurdle the author’s climbed over to dispel all of my resistance! Both the Miller and the Shattuck are still on my TBR.
It certainly sounds as if the relationship between these two football fans is to the fore rather than the game. I hope you get to the Miller and Shattuck soon!