The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

It is 1922 and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned, the out of work and the hungry are demanding change. And in the south of the city, on genteel Champion Hill, in a hushed Camberwell villa still recovering from the devastating losses of the First World War, life is about to be transformed.

Widowed Mrs. Wray and her daughter, Frances, an unmarried woman with an interesting past, now on her way to becoming a spinster find themselves obliged to take in lodgers.

The arrival of Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the 'clerk class' brings unsettling things with it: gramophone music, colour, fun. Open doors offer Frances glimpses of the newcomers' habits, Sounds travel from their rooms to hers and the staircase and landing have never seemed so busy.

As she and Lilian are drawn into an unexpected friendship, loyalties begin to shift. Secrets are confessed, dangerous desires admitted; the most ordinary of lives, it seems, can explode into passion and drama. And in the house on Champion Hill, no one can forsee just how far the disturbances will reach.

This is the best book I have read in a while. I am a big fan of Sarah Waters and I trust her to turn out quality writing with each new book. Whilst my favourite of her novels remains to be Affinity she has in no way disappointed me with this excellent book.

This book deals with relationships and the myriad of ways that people interact with one another. It also considers the ripple effect that the friendship between two people has on the others around us.

However, this book is about much more than relationships. It is an excellent thriller with the intensity of a courtroom drama to boot. With this being a vital part of the narrative there is so much to hold the readers attention. I found myself thinking about this book alot between reading sessions and I couldn't get back to it quickly enough.

It is no surprise to me that this book  is on the Shortlist for the Baileys Prize for Fiction for 2015 and I would be equally unsurprised if it wins the title. This is another excellent novel from the pen of the brilliant Sarah Waters and I highly recommend this to everyone.

Due for release in paperback on 4th June this book can be pre-ordered from Amazon.co.uk for a mere £3.85 which is a bargain for this brilliant book. However, don't forget your local library and bookshop will be carrying copies too.

ISBN:  978 0349004365

Publisher:  Virago

Price (based on today at Amazon.co.uk): £10.00

About the Author:

She is best known for her first novel, Tipping the Velvet, as well the novels that followed, including Affinity, Fingersmith, and The Night Watch.

Sarah Waters is a British novelist. She was born in Wales in 1966. She has a Ph.D in English Literature and has been an associate lecturer with the Open University.  Before writing novels Waters worked as an academic, earning a doctorate and teaching. Waters went directly from her doctoral thesis to her first novel. It was during the process of writing her thesis that she thought she would write a novel; she began as soon as the thesis was complete.

Outline by Rachel Cusk

A woman arrives in Athens in the height of summer to teach a writing course. Once there, she becomes the audience to a chain of narratives as the people she meets tell her one after another the stories of their lives.

Beginning with the neighbouring passenger on the flight out and his tales of fast boats and failed marriages, the storytellers talk of their loves and ambitions and pains, their anxieties, their perceptions and daily lives. In the stifling heat and noise of the city the sequence of voices begins to weave a complex human tapestry: the experience of loss, the nature of family life, the difficulty of intimacy and the mystery of creativity itself.

This was an interesting novel to read as the main character actually plays a very small part in the story although is the linchpin which holds the narrative of the stories told to her by other people together.

Rachel Cusk is a very skilled writer which she demonstrates on every page. In a lesser writers hands this book could have been presented as a collection of short stories but Ms Cusk elevates her book by the fascinating way she has structured the story. 

This works so well because it enables the reader to listen to the stories that are being told to her without her interpretation and thus made me listen for myself. This enabled me to form my own judgments and to become part of the story. I suspect that every reader of this book will come away with a different view of the people and the stories told.

I do not remember reading anything quite like this book before so cannot compare it to others. It completely defies the boundaries of genre and therefore will appeal to many.

Having said that, I think this novel might well divide readers as I am not sure that this book would be to everybody’s taste (although that is true of most books.) What I am certain about is that the author has structured this novel uniquely and skillfully that it is no surprise to me that it has made it onto the 2015 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist.

I would encourage you to give this one a read. Please do let me know what you think of it.

ISBN:  978 1784702441

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Price: (paperback released tomorrow 7th May): £8.99

About the Author:  

Rachel Cusk was born in 1967 and is the author of eight novels: Saving Agnes, which won the Whitbread First Novel Award, The Temporary, The Country Life, which won a Somerset Maugham Award,The Lucky Ones, which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel Award, In the Fold, Arlington Park, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize, The Bradshaw Variations and Outline. Her non-fiction books are A Life's Work, The Last Supper and Aftermath. In 2003 she was chosen as one of Granta's Best of Young Novelists.

The Memory Book by Rowan Coleman

When Claire begins to write her Memory Book she already knows that this scrapbook of mementos will soon be all her daughters and husband have left of her. But how can she hold on to the past when her future is slipping through her fingers?

Initially, this book begins with a familiar premise. Claire has a successful career as a teacher, she is married to the man of her dreams and has two beautiful daughters. Whilst this sounds like the outline for any number of chick lit novels this book is far from what it initially seems.

Claire has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer ’s disease and as we witness her mental demise alongside the effect that his devastating disease has on her family I found I became completely immersed in the characters and how they were dealing with the multitude of issues caused by the disease.

Indeed, it is the multiple narratives that run through this book that allows us to empathise with each of the characters. The majority of the narration is provided by Claire herself but alongside this there are chapters written from the point of view of her daughter, mother and husband. For me, this was what made this book stand out from the rest as we are able to witness the gradual demise of Claire's understanding of any given situation and compare it with the actual events as told in the chapters narrated by her family.

I learned much about this disease by reading this book. I am thankful that I have not had any family or friends who have suffered from this disease so I found this book informative.

I do not want to give the impression that this is a depressing book because it really isn't. Clearly, it is a difficult theme that the book deals with but there are times when we can see the humour in the situation particularly when we see the effect her illness has on her relationship with her young daughter, Esther.

Ms Coleman treats her novel with great sensitivity. She is an intelligent author who can couple sadness and light heartedness together seamlessly and, therefore, enable the reader to understand the heartbreak and hope that the novel conveys.

I highly recommend this compelling novel and I am looking forward to reading more of Rowan Coleman’s work.

ISBN:  978 0091953119

Publisher: Ebury Press

Price (based on Amazon.co.uk) £3.85

About the Author: 

Rowan Coleman lives with her husband and five children in Hertfordshire. She juggles writing novels with raising her family which includes a very lively set of toddler twins whose main hobby is going in opposite directions. When she gets the chance, Rowan enjoys sleeping, sitting and loves watching films; she is also attempting to learn how to bake.

Despite being dyslexic, Rowan loves writing, and The Memory Book is her eleventh novel. Others include The Accidental Mother, Lessons in Laughing Out Loud and the award-winning Dearest Rose, a novel which led Rowan to become an active supporter of domestic abuse charity Refuge, donating 100% of royalties from the ebook publication of her novella, Woman Walks Into a Bar, to the charity. 

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

“It was a beautiful, breezy, yellow-and-green afternoon…”

This is the way Abby Whitshank always begins the story of how she and Red fell in love that day in July 1959. The whole family on the porch, relaxed, half-listening as their mother tells the same tale they have heard so many times before.

And yet this gathering is different. Abby and Red are getting older, and decisions must be made about how best to look after them and their beloved family home. They’ve all come, even Denny, who can usually be relied on only to please himself.

From that porch we spool back through three generations of the Whitshanks, witnessing the events, secrets and unguarded moments that have come to define who and what they are. And while all families like to believe they are special, round that kitchen table over all those years we see played out the hopes and fears, the rivalries and tensions of families everywhere – the essential nature of family life.

This book represents what Anne Tyler does best in that she takes an ordinary family and develops them into something engaging and fascinating. She does this by looking at the idiosyncrasies of the individuals and then develops the dynamics of the family as a whole.

In addition to the well rounded characters of this book is the house in which Abby and Red live. The house plays an enormous part in this book and is the vehicle in which we can understand the family as a whole, not just Abby and Red but their adult children. The narrative then moves back a generation to the time when Red’s parents were living in the house and the part it had to play in their lives.

Ms Tyler is a great storyteller and I found it easy to lose myself in this book. I think what I really liked was that she makes her characters and their situations reassuringly recognisable and in reading this I almost felt part of the family as their secrets and lives were revealed.

I have read a few of Anne Tyler’s books and enjoyed them all. Her writing appears to flow effortlessly, which in my opinion is a sign of an excellent writer. This book is her on top form and is well worth reading.

ISBN: 978 0701189518

Publisher: Chatto & Windus

Price: (based on today’s price on Amazon.co.uk) £12.91

About the Author: 

Born on 25th October 1941 Anne Tyler is a Pulitzer Prize winning American novelist, short story writer, and literary critic. She has published 20 novels, the best known of which are Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (1983), The Accidental Tourist (1985), and Breathing Lessons (1988). All three were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the third won it.  While many of her characters have been described as quirky or eccentric, she has managed to make them seem real through skillfully fleshing out their inner lives in great depth. Her subject in all her novels has been the American family and marriage: the boredom and exasperating irritants endured by partners, children, siblings, parents; the desire for freedom pulling against the tethers of attachments and conflicted love; the evolution over time of familial love and sense of duty. Tyler celebrates unremarkable Americans and the ordinary details of their everyday lives. Because of her style and subject matter, she has been compared  to Jane Austen.

The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel

A brilliant – and rather transgressive – collection of short stories from the double Man Booker Prize-winning author of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies.

Hilary Mantel is one of Britain’s most accomplished and acclaimed writers. In these ten bracingly subversive tales, all her gifts of characterisation and observation are fully engaged, summoning forth the horrors so often concealed behind everyday façades. Childhood cruelty is played out behind the bushes in ‘Comma’; nurses clash in ‘Harley Street’ over something more than professional differences; and in the title story, staying in for the plumber turns into an ambiguous and potentially deadly waiting game.

Whether set in a claustrophobic Saudi Arabian flat or on a precarious mountain road in Greece, these stories share an insight into the darkest recesses of the spirit. Displaying all of Mantel’s unmistakable style and wit, they reveal a great writer at the peak of her powers.

I always approach the reading of short stories with trepidation because I really want to like them and very rarely do. I appreciate that this is my personal view and other people love them but I never find them satisfying. There is never enough to really get my teeth into.

However, because this volume is by Hilary Mantel I very much wanted to give them a chance. Whilst, I thoroughly enjoyed a couple of these stories the remaining ones still left me rather cold. The Heart Fails Without Warning and The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher were both excellent and in themselves have turned me slightly to the short story genre.

Without doubt Ms Mandel is creative, intelligent and writes wonderfully. Her characters are full bodied and she explores the psychology behind each character in turn. Also, her powers of observation and ability to convey this to the page are outstanding.

Despite the fact that this was not my cup of tea I would still encourage you to read it as it is very well done and if you like short stories you may think this collection are wonderful. I would love to hear your thoughts on it. 

About the Author:  

Hilary Mantel needs little introduction as she  is the bestselling author of many novels including Wolf Hall, which won the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Bring Up the Bodies, Book Two of the Thomas Cromwell Trilogy, was also awarded the Man Booker Prize and the Costa Book Award. She is also the author of A Change of Climate, A Place of Greater Safety, Eight Months on Ghazzah Street, An Experiment in Love, The Giant, O'Brien, Fludd, Beyond Black, Every Day Is Mother's Day, and Vacant Possession. She has also written a memoir, Giving Up the Ghost. Mantel was the winner of the Hawthornden Prize, and her reviews and essays have appeared in The New York Times,The New York Review of Books, and the London Review of Books. She lives in England with her husband. 

The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier

Honor Bright is a sheltered Quaker who has rarely ventured out of 1850s Dorset when she impulsively emigrates to America. Opposed to the slavery that defines and divides the country, she finds her principles tested to the limit when a runaway slave appears at the farm of her new family.

In this tough, unsentimental place, where whisky bottles sit alongside quilts, Honor befriends two spirited women who will teach her how to turn ideas into actions.

Tracy Chevalier has been one of my favourite authors for years. I initially read Girl With a Pearl Earring when it was first published in 1999 and with one or two exceptions I have read my way through her entire canon.

All of her books are set within an historical context and it certainly appears that Ms Chevalier does her research thoroughly. This book is set in America during the middle of the 19^th century and we follow Honor’s journey from a quiet town in Dorset to Ohio; a vast enterprise for the time.

Honor Bright was a delightful character to read about and I learned much about the lives of Quakers at the time. I felt real empathy for Honor as she tried to make a way for herself in this strange land amongst unfamiliar people.

Ms Chevalier also has the ability to bring the minor characters to life. Belle, the milliner, who first befriends Honor is a wonderful character who is full of life and colour and which is echoed in the hats that she makes.

As a needle woman myself I adored all the descriptions of quilting and millinery and this really enhanced the story for me and added a completely different dimension to the book.

However, the main theme of this excellent story is slavery and the equality of all people and this was handled sensitively whilst not shying away from the harsh realities faced by slaves and those who wished to help them towards freedom and eventual emancipation.

Overall, a good read and I think anyone who enjoys historical fiction will like it.

ISBN:  978-0007350353

Publisher: Harper

Price (based on today’s price at Amazon.co.uk): £4.98

About the Author:

Tracy Chevalier was born in Washington, DC but has lived in England all her adult life and now has dual citizenship. She has a BA in English from Oberlin College, Ohio, and an MA in creative writing from the University of East Anglia, Norwich, England. She lives in London with her English husband and son. Before turning to writing full-time she was a reference book editor for several years. She has written 7 novels. Her second novel, Girl with a Pearl Earring, won the Barnes and Noble Discover Award, sold 4 million copies worldwide, and was made into a film starring Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson.

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Set in Alaska in the 1920’s, Jack and Mabel have staked everything on a fresh start in a remote homestead, but the wilderness is a stark and lonely place to be. Mabel is haunted by the baby she lost many years ago and the pain never leaves her. When a little girl appears mysteriously on their land, each is filled with wonder and foreboding. Is she what she seems and can they find room in their hearts for her?

This book is a truly wonderful read simultaneously filled with harshness and magic. There is an enchanting fairytale quality to the whole book and as I read I wondered what was real and what was imaginary. In fact, throughout the book we can see that the story was based on a Russian fairytale and the prose runs parallel with this story.

The vivid description of the landscape was spellbinding. The bleakness of the Alaskan terrain was so convincingly portrayed that I was not surprised to learn that Ms. Ivey grew up and lives there still. She has done an amazing job of soaking up the atmosphere in which she lives and encapsulating it within the pages of this book.

There is also a wonderful simplicity in this book as the author describes the hardships of the characters making their lives there. Jack and Mabel are excellent characters and are described with both sensitivity and realism.

This sensitive and delicate work deals with the theme of love and more specifically, that love can be found in the most unexpected of places. I found this a very moving read; one that I found myself seeking out time alone to read this as I wanted to savour it and not rush through or to be distracted.

Above all, it is the magical quality contained within its prose that sets this book apart and which should ensure that this book is a bestseller for many years to come. For a debut novel, this is a stunning piece of work and Ms. Ivey is definitely one to watch. I would encourage you all to read this as it is an enchantingly beautiful book to read and one I feel sure I will re-read in the future.

ISBN: 978 0755380534

Publisher:  Tinder Press

Price (based on today's price on Amazon.co.uk): £3.85

About the Author:

The Snow Child is informed by Eowyn’s life in Alaska. Her husband is a fishery biologist with the state of Alaska. While they both work outside of the home, they are also raising their daughters in the rural, largely subsistence lifestyle in which they were both raised. As a family, they harvest salmon and wild berries, keep a vegetable garden, turkey and chickens, and they hunt caribou, moose and bear for meat. Because they don’t have a well and live outside any public water system, they haul water each week for their holding tank and gather rainwater for their animals and garden. Their primary source of home heat is a woodstove and they harvest and cut their own wood. Every penny Eowyn makes from the novel is a contribution to her well.