When Holden Caulfield quotes Robert Burns as saying “If a body catch a body comin’ through the rye” instead of saying “If a body meet a body coming through the rye”, he is, either consciously or subconsciously, describing his essence and, indeed, the very essence of the novel itself. He may appear unruly and undisciplined …
Pagford is a small rural village in west England where the inhabitants take pleasure in not being part of the nearby (much larger) town of Yarvil while being endlessly thankful that they are not like the residents of the Fields. The Fields, part of Pagford and halfway between Pagford and Yarvil, had once been included …
I was in two minds about this book. The title – The Woman in the Window – and the fact that the book was written in the first person from the woman’s point of view, led me to believe that A.J.Finn was a woman. However, a few chapters into the book, I began to wonder …
Sitting awkwardly somewhere between a memoir and a teaching manual, Bush School tells of O’Brien’s appointment to the small New England school of Weibonga in 1960 when he was twenty. The blurb on the front cover claims that he was ‘fresh out of college’, but prior to his country appointment he taught for two years …
A book about domestic violence seen through the eyes of the victim’s mother, Miriam. Miriam is both aware and not aware of what is going on, and although Caro is presenting domestic violence from the perspective of a third person, her main focus is on the unconditional love of a mother for her child. Without …
In The Dig, Preston tells the story of the discovery and the excavation in 1939 of one of the most important archaeological finds in the UK. The mound, at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, revealed itself to be the resting place of a ship from the Anglo-Saxon period and was eventually dated to 500-600 AD. The …
Fredrik and Paula move to an idyllic house in the countryside outside of Gothenburg. Fredrik has a secure position with the council, Paula is an upcoming artist, and the two children – Fabian and Olivia – complete the picture of the perfect family. Initially everything is perfect, but then Fredrik meets a little man inside …
This is a delightful little book, which is quite obviously aimed at a YA audience but which, because of a number of thought-provoking passages, could actually appeal to anyone. Its fairytale format makes it easy to read, and though there is no depth of character development, it is the type of book that manages to …
A woman in her late forties is invited to spend a few days with her cousin Luise and her cousin’s husband, Hugo, at their hunting lodge in the Austrian alps. The woman (whose name we are never told) is a widow with two grown children, and even though she is not enthusiastic about hunting, she …
In Duneen, south of Cork, bones are discovered at a construction site. The local guard, Sergeant Patrick James Collins (aka PJ), finds himself propelled from the relatively boring, nothing-ever-happens policing of a small, insignificant Irish village into the world of plain-clothes detectives and forensics. Single, overweight PJ is somewhat daunted by the efficient Detective Superintendent …