Tag Archives: book review

Recommended Read – A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

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Mariam is only fifteen when she is sent to Kabul to marry Rasheed. Nearly two decades later, a friendship grows between Mariam and a local teenager, Laila, as strong as the ties between mother and daughter. When the Taliban take over, life becomes a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear. Yet love can move a person to act in unexpected ways, and lead them to overcome the most daunting obstacles with a startling heroism.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a classic novel which should be read by anyone who loves books which delve into human relationships and the impact that the world around us has on these. Set in Afghanistan, the story documents the changes from a country progressing towards a society where women were treated with more respect and equality than previously to a country run by religious fanatics.

Through war, deprivation, cruelty, inequality and much, much more we follow a raft of totally convincing characters as they struggle to survive in a hostile world and, in the process, learn about themselves. This may sound depressing, and I have to admit that this book is not full of fun and laughter, but at its heart is something worth so much more. Mr Hosseini has a depth of understanding of the human condition which he is able to express in a way which focuses on the one thing that can bind us all together – love. Love of a mother for her child, of a man and woman, of two strangers who come to depend on each other in such a way that we come to see that love is not just about family, it is so much more. Despite all the hardship and heartbreak in this book it does end on a note of hope.

Khaled Hosseini writes beautifully, evoking a time and place in such a way that you feel you are there. The plotting of this novel is delicate yet intricate, and true to life. A Thousand Splendid Suns is not an easy read but it is well worth the emotional involvement required as fact and fiction are exquisitely woven together to create an important historical novel of the human condition. I heartily recommend this book to everyone (with the caveat that people who have suffered domestic violence in the past are likely to find it a difficult read).

A Thousand Splendid Suns can be found on Amazon 

You can find out more about Khaled Husseini here

You can find more of my Recommended Reads here

Book Review – The Cardinal by Henry Morton Robinson

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The Cardinal tells a story of a working-class American’s rise to become a cardinal of the Catholic Church. The daily trials and triumphs of Stephen Fermoyle, from the working-class suburbs of Boston, drive him to become first a parish priest, then secretary to a cardinal, later a bishop, and finally a wearer of the Red Hat. An essential work of American fiction.

Before anything else I must say that you should not be put off this book if you are not religious, or not of the Catholic faith. This is not a book about Catholicism (although there is much about Catholic beliefs and practice within its pages), at its heart The Cardinal is historical fiction, a saga of the greatest tradition, anyone who enjoys that style of novel will love The Cardinal.

We follow Stephen Fermoyle from the outbreak of the First World War to the days leading up to the Second. At the beginning of the novel he is a new priest returning to America from Rome, and we follow him on his swift rise through the ranks of the church, facing both financial and spiritual challenges as the Depression takes hold and society has to find ways to care for the most vulnerable. As Stephen progresses in his career he moves back to Rome where we see the rise of facism in all its ugliness, and the threat it poses to the world, both religious and secular. Stephen also falls in love, probably the greatest challenge for a celibate priest, and one can only sympathise with a man torn between his love for a woman and his love for God. As the reader accompanies the priest on his soul-searching journey to find his way forwards through this dilemma, we are given a deeper understanding of the cost and rewards of following a vocation.

But The Cardinal is not a novel confined to the priestly, not only do we follow Stephen on his journey of faith, but also the members of his family who face trials and tribulations no different to the rest of us. The Fermoyles are a loving family of Irish extraction, a group of characters who follow their own paths through life whilst staying closely knit and offering support to each other through the tragic events which shape them. They are not a ‘sugar-coated’ family, the have their disputes and arguments, their rifts and tragedies, but through it all there is a love and faith which binds them together.

The Cardinal is a beautifully written novel with a well-crafted plotline, believable dialogue, and engaging characters which draw the reader in and leaves you wanting more – which is my one criticism of this novel. At the end we journey with the new cardinal from Rome back to America where new challenges await him; he is only fifty-one and there is potential for so much more in the lives of the Fermoyle family in general and Stephen in particular, so I found it disappointing that the novel ends at the point where Stephen’s work as a cardinal begins. Having said that, this is a beautiful novel which I highly recommend to anyone who is a lover of historical fiction.

‘The Cardinal’ can be found on Amazon

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Recommended Read – Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

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TWO EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE. A LOVE THAT DRAWS THEM TOGETHER. A LOSS THAT THREATENS TO TEAR THEM APART.

On a summer’s day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a sudden fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home? Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London. Neither parent knows that Hamnet will not survive the week.

Hamnet is a novel inspired by the son of a famous playwright: a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, but whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays ever written.

Hamnet was the son of William Shakespeare, but other than that we know little about him, save that he died young and was then immortalised by his father in what some believe is his best play. Miss O’Farrell brings this shadowy child to life in her compelling novel about life in Elizabethan times which is described in careful detail. Her beautiful prose brings to life the sights, sounds, and smells of the countryside, as well as the crowds and filth and stink of a capital city often ravaged by the plague. Her characters are beautifully drawn with a deft touch and an understanding of the emotional heart of us all.

It is an episode of the plague which opens this novel with Hamnet desperately seeking help for his sister who has suddenly fallen ill. Alongside this we have the story of how ‘the husband/father’ (William Shakespeare is never mentioned by name in the novel) meets and falls in love with the enigmatic Agnes. Both come from difficult backgrounds and recognise in each other a soulmate who can make them whole, they fall in love and are married. But Agnes comes to realise that she is perhaps not enough for him, and that her husband will never be completely whole until he is able to pursue a life revolving around writing and theatre in London. Agnes is strong enough, and understanding enough, to let her husband go, realising that this is perhaps the only way for her to keep his love.

Alongside this love story we see Hamnet’s struggle to save the life of his sister, a compelling tale even though we know the outcome from the historical record, (although we know that Shakespeare’s son died, we don’t know the exact circumstances). The death of the boy in the novel wrings at the heart-strings and is followed by a compelling description of the grief of a whole family in mourning. When Agnes hears about her husband’s new play, Hamnet, she travels to London to confront him, a journey which brings the novel to a fitting conclusion as the couple come to an understanding of how the loss of their beloved son has impacted both of their lives.

The death of a child is always heart-breaking – it seems to go against nature for a parent to out-live their son – and Miss O’Farrell has portrayed this with a sensitive touch which cannot fail to move the reader. Hamnet is a tale of love and loss, of how parents grieve in their own way for the loss of a child, and how this grief has the potential to tear them apart or to bring them closer together. As such, it is a tale for all people and all times, just like the tales told by Shakespeare himself.

Hamnet can be found on Amazon   

You can find out more about Maggie O’Farrell here 

Recommended Read – Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder

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When 14-year-old Sophie encounters a mysterious mentor who introduces her to philosophy, mysteries deepen in her own life. Why does she keep getting postcards addressed to another girl? Who is the other girl? And who, for that matter, is Sophie herself? To solve the riddle, she uses her new knowledge of philosophy, but the truth is far stranger than she could have imagined.

An addictive blend of mystery, philosophy and fantasy, Sophie’s World is an international phenomenon which has been translated into 60 languages and sold more than 40 million copies.

Sophie’s World is a unique look at the history of philosophy combined with an engaging and thought-provoking story. Who are we? Where do we come from? What is the purpose of life? These are questions which we all ponder at one time or another, yet many people don’t delve into philosophy in the search of answers because they feel that it will be beyond them. That is precisely why Jostein Gaarder wrote this novel. I used Sophie’s World when teaching philosophy to teenagers who, without exception, found it a fascinating way to study the subject.

Sophie’s World leads the reader on a journey through time from the earliest history of philosophical thought to the philosophers of today, presenting their ideas in a clear and concise manner. The style of this novel, with a teacher-student relationship in which Sophie is able to ask the questions we, too, would like to ask, is an excellent vehicle for the subject. Mr Gaarder’s writing is clear, the different styles for the philosophical discourse and the ‘story’ making it clear as to where we are at that precise moment. Some of the philosophical ideas may require re-reading to fully comprehend but it is well worth the effort.

Alongside the philosophers we are introduced to fictional characters – Sophie, the philosopher, Sophie’s mother and friend, the Major and his daughter – all of whom are well-described and add to the well-rounded dimensions of this novel. Although Sophie’s World Might sound like heavy reading the ‘story within the story’ often has touches of gentle humour which lightens the mood, and none of the philosophical explanations is over long so the reader doesn’t feel ‘bogged down’ but encouraged to read on and find out who Sophie really is. This is a novel which I have read more than once, and each time I find something different to take away with me and ponder. Whoever you are and whatever your outlook on life, this novel will include your view and lead you to an understanding of where your personal philosophy comes from and how it fits into the whole world view.

Sophie’s World is a novel which everyone should read at least once in their life and I heartily recommend it to you.

Sophie’s World can be found on Amazon

You can find out more of my Recommended Reads here

Caravans by James A Michener

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First published in 1963, James A. Michener s gripping chronicle of the social and political landscape of Afghanistan is more relevant now than ever. Combining fact with riveting adventure and intrigue, Michener follows a military man tasked, in the years after World War II, with a dangerous assignment: finding and returning a young American woman living in Afghanistan to her distraught family after she suddenly and mysteriously disappears. A timeless tale of love and emotional drama set against the backdrop of one of the most important countries in the world today, Caravans captures the tension of the postwar period, the sweep of Afghanistan’s remarkable history, and the inescapable allure of the past. 

It is rare for a country to undergo change as rapidly as Afghanistan did following the end of the Second World War which makes this novel a fascinating insight to the dividing line between past and present, old and new. Caravans looks forward to the modernisation of Afghanistan through the eyes of well-educated men who had studied abroad and could see the potential within their homeland. These key characters are aware that the mullahs could halt this progress but look forward in hope to a more progressive and prosperous society. This changed Afghanistan existed when Michener wrote his novel in 1963 not knowing that the mullah’s would eventually take power and the country lose much of the progress it had made. One wonders if Michener realised that the interference of western powers which he writes about would be responsible for much of the damage that has happened to Afghanistan in the years since he wrot

The plot of Caravans revolves around the journey undertaken by Mark Miller to try to find Ellen Jasper, a missing American woman. Whilst there is adventure in spades the plot is not action-packed or a great thriller in the classical sense, its allure lies more in the sweeping vistas described in detail, and the lives of the people of Afghanistan from the political elite to the nomads who wander ancient routes irrespective of modern-day borders. The author’s knowledge of life in this remote country is incredible and described in vivid detail, but what really strikes home is his ability to get to the heart of what makes people tick. This novel delves into the nature of evil and forgiveness, the roles assigned to gender, societal expectations and a search for the unconventional. The character of Ellen Jasper is selfish and self-absorbed and I found it impossible to warm to her as a person, yet found her musings on the meaning of life fascinating at times. This ability of Michener to create multi-faceted characters is one of the things I like about this book; these could be real people who lived in 1946 or who live today, the psychology has not changed.

In some way this novel is very different from Michener’s sweeping historical sagas which follow the history of nations over centuries (think of Hawaii, Centennial, or The Covenant) as this has a more intimate focus on a single event, yet it is a fascinating story for all that. If you like historical novels that make you think then Caravans should be on your reading list.

Caravans can be found on Amazon

You can find out more about James A Michener here

You can find more of my Recommended Reads here

Recommended Read – The Book Of Negroes by Lawrence Hill

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WINNER OF THE COMMONWEALTH PRIZE FOR FICTION
Based on a true story, Lawrence Hill’s epic novel spans three continents and six decades to bring to life a dark and shameful chapter in our history through the story of one brave and resourceful woman.

Abducted from her West African village at the age of eleven and sold as a slave in the American South, Aminata Diallo thinks only of freedom – and of finding her way home again.

After escaping the plantation, torn from her husband and child, she passes through Manhattan in the chaos of the Revolutionary War, is shipped to Nova Scotia, and then joins a group of freed slaves on a harrowing return odyssey to Africa.

The Book Of Negroes is an incredibly moving story which draws you in right from the first page when we are introduced to Aminata, an eleven-year-old Muslim girl who can read the Quran and is already an accomplished midwife – not the naked savage which was how the peoples of Africa were described in a perverted excuse for the slave trade. Firmly rooted in historical fact, Mr Hill enables the reader to discover more about a multitude of aspects of life for those who were torn from their homes and sold into slavery. This is a compelling story moving from freedom in Africa to the indigo plantations of the New World, from initial freedom in New York to failed promises by the British in Nova Scotia and on the exodus back to Africa; and the character of Aminata is a believable and compekking companion on our journey.

The Book of Negroes in the title is an actual historical document and is the largest single document about black people in North America up until the eighteenth century. Containing the names and details of 3,000 black people who received freedom from the British at the end of the American War of Independence, Mr Hill has utilised this document as a source for the characters who people this novel. Some of these characters are real historical individuals, but the fictional ones are also totally believable as they are well drawn, both physically and emotionally, and give an insight into the traumatic lives that these people lived. The dialogue is also strong and believable, which allows the story to develop and flow realistically.

The author has great skill at descriptive prose, and the reader cannot fail to be moved by the beautiful rendering of the land or the visceral horrors of the Atlantic crossing, the contrasting life on slave plantations and in the city, the clothes and food of the different strata of society. But, above all, this is a beautiful and compelling, dark and harrowing, totally engrossing story of the slave trade.

As the world begins to openly face the history of slavery, I believe that The Book Of Negroes is a must read for all.

The Book Of Negroes can be found on Amazon

You can find out more about Lawrence Hill here

You can find more of my Recommended Reads here

Recommended Read – Dissolution by C J Sansom

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Dissolution is the first in the Shardlake series by bestselling author, C. J. Sansom.

England, 1537: Henry VIII has proclaimed himself Supreme Head of the Church and the country is waking up to savage new laws, rigged trials and the greatest network of informers ever seen. Under the order of Thomas Cromwell, a team of commissioners is sent through the country to investigate the monasteries. There can only be one outcome: the monasteries are to be dissolved.

But on the Sussex coast, at the monastery of Scarnsea, events have spiralled out of control. Cromwell’s Commissioner Robin Singleton, has been found dead, his head severed from his body. His horrific murder is accompanied by equally sinister acts of sacrilege – a black cockerel sacrificed on the altar, and the disappearance of Scarnsea’s Great Relic.

Dr Matthew Shardlake, lawyer and long-time supporter of Reform, has been sent by Cromwell into this atmosphere of treachery and death. But Shardlake’s investigation soon forces him to question everything he hears, and everything that he intrinsically believes . . .

Dissolution is at its centre a medieval detective story with the required twists and turns to keep the reader guessing as to ‘who dunnit’. A strong, well-paced plot which weaves together a well-researched historical background with good characterisation and realistic dialogue makes this a novel which you may find difficult to put down.

The settings of the novel, whether in London or on the Sussex coast, are well drawn so that the reader can almost feel the cold, taste the food, and touch the buildings which breathe life into this book. The juxtaposition of life for the monks in the monastery with that of the peasants who live in the nearby village is carefully drawn and focusses attention on why so many people at that time were keen for the monasteries to be reformed. It was a time of deep mistrust when true feelings were hidden as an act of self-preservation for many whilst they payed lip-service to the new rules.

Commissioner Shardlake is a realistic character with a deformity which creates a refreshing vulnerability in the ‘hero’ of a novel. An astute man he is aware from the very beginning that the truth is being hidden from him not only to cover up a murder but also to try to preserve a way of life which it is becoming increasingly obvious really has no future. Sansom cleverly uses Dissolution to lay out the reasons why people wanted reform – the wealth of the church, corruption in the use of relics and selling masses, the use of Latin to keep the ordinary people apart from the religious leaders etc. At the beginning of the novel Shardlake is a true supporter of the reformation, but as he conducts his investigations and discovers the tactics his superiors are willing to employ to achieve their ends he is led to disillusionment and begins to question his own motives and feelings.

Sansom holds a PhD in history which has enabled him to write authoritatively about the historical context and the driving forces behind the main characters in his novel, but his style is never scholarly or stuffy but rather easy and lending a flow to the writing which entices the reader to keep turning the pages to find out what happens next. In Dissolution historical research gives an authentic backdrop to a compelling murder mystery, and I look forward to finding out more about Matthew Shardlake in the next book of the series.

Dissolution can be found on Amazon

You can find out more about C J Sansom here

You can find more of my Recommended Reads here

Recommended Read – Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

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Yeongdo, Korea 1911. In a small fishing village on the banks of the East Sea, a club-footed, cleft-lipped man marries a fifteen-year-old girl. The couple have one child, their beloved daughter Sunja. When Sunja falls pregnant by a married yakuza, the family face ruin. But then Isak, a Christian minister, offers her a chance of salvation: a new life in Japan as his wife.

Following a man she barely knows to a hostile country in which she has no friends, no home, and whose language she cannot speak, Sunja’s salvation is just the beginning of her story.

Through eight decades and four generations, Pachinko is an epic tale of family, identity, love, death and survival.

Pachinko is a classic family saga set in a place and period of history about which I know (or knew) very little. The Japanese occupation  of Korea during the first half of the 20th century led to many Koreans moving to Japan to escape poverty only to be faced with discrimination, and even when the story ends in 1989 their grand-children and great-grandchildren who were born in Japan are treated as immigrants with less rights than those of native born Japanese.

Ms Min Jin Lee has created a compelling story which encompasses the legacy of the occupation, the Second World War, the division of Korea into two countries during a bitter civil war. But it is not merely a novel about history, Asian peoples have a deep spirituality which also shapes them and the way they live their lives so Confucianism, Buddhism and Christianity underpin the actions of a well-crafted cast of characters who bring Pachinko to life. The story-arc is complex, weaving the lives of a number of families together, and it is easy to become attached to them as you sympathise with the troubles they face, the lives they are forced to live and the heartbreak which follows them.

Ms Min Jin Lee has an eye for detail and brings to life the living conditions, food and work place of her characters; life in the city and life in the countryside are equally well portrayed as are the trials and tribulations of an immigrant community where people struggle with a sense of dual identity. There is much in this novel which will speak to people today about their place in society – how welcoming they are to others, how much others strive to fit in. But above all it will speak to people on a human level as Sunja and her family struggle with friendship and duty, pain and loss, and above all love, in a way which affects all people no matter what age or nationality.

Pachinko is absorbing, distressing and yet heart-warming in almost equal measure. Yes, it is a family sage, but it is also much more than that. It is a story of resilience and compassion as four generations of Koreans struggle to find their identity and place in a world which does not want them. A powerful novel which I heartily recommend.

Pachinko can be found on Amazon

You can find our more about Min Jin Lee here

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Recommended Read – The Far Pavilions by M M Kaye

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The Far Pavilions is the story of an English man – Ashton Pelham-Martyn – brought up as a Hindu. It is the story of his passionate, but dangerous love for Juli, an Indian princess. It is the story of divided loyalties, of friendship that endures till death, of high adventure and of the clash between East and West.

To the burning plains and snow-capped mountains of this great, humming continent, M.M. Kaye brings her exceptional gifts of storytelling and meticulous historical accuracy, plus her insight into the human heart.

The Far Pavilions is a long-time favourite of mine. The sweeping saga covers more than 30 years of British and Indian history which has been meticulously researched and is written in such a way as to portray the politics and social life of both cultures in a realistic way that it draws the reader in. Although at the heart this novel is a love story the attention to detail which is found in the descriptions of camp life and palaces, sunburned plains and snow-capped mountains, monotonous travel by train and horseback etc. is testament to the years which Ms Kaye spent in India and her love for the country and its culture. She has also been able to write about the British army during the Raj with a depth of understanding which comes from having lived in military families in India as the Raj drew to a close, and it is interesting to see the roots of political issues which still face the world today grown out of the time and place which is so beautifully evoked in The Far Pavilions.

From India under ‘The Company’ through the Great Mutiny and on to the Second Afghan War Ms Kaye has woven together the lives of people from all levels of society and a variety of religious faiths with a depth of understanding of human nature and morality with makes the story totally believable and it is easy to feel sympathy towards people from both sides of the divide. The writing is beautifully descriptive, some passages are really artistic canvases painted with words. The characters are totally believable and the dialogue realistic which combine to give real depth to the people who fill the pages of this novel. The descriptions of life for women in India is enlightening, and the device of having Ash as a British boy brought up as a Hindu allows the author to show a confusion of identity which gets to the heart of the problems of colonisation and its impact on the local population.

This is a very long book, a saga in all senses of the word, but well worth reading if you are interested in history and the psychology of Empire which has created so much of the modern world in which we live. The Far Pavilions is classic historical fiction which weaves a carefully crafted plot through the realities of the place and time so that it is sometimes difficult to know where one ends and the other begins. A great adventure story and a sweeping romance set against the backdrop of a stunning landscape, what more could any lover of historical fiction want?

The Far Pavilions can be found on Amazon

You can find out more about M M Kaye here

You can find more of my Recommended Reads here

Recommended Read – Silence by Shusaku Endo

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SilenceBeneath the light of the candle I am sitting with my hands on my knees, staring in front of me. And I keep turning over in my mind the thought that I am at the end of the earth, in a place which you do not know and which your whole lives through you will never visit.

It is 1640 and Father Sebastian Rodrigues, an idealistic Jesuit priest, sets sail for Japan determined to help the brutally oppressed Christians there. He is also desperate to discover the truth about his former mentor, rumoured to have renounced his faith under torture. Rodrigues cannot believe the stories about a man he so revered, but as his journey takes him deeper into Japan and then into the hands of those who would crush his faith, he finds himself forced to make an impossible choice: whether to abandon his flock or his God.

The recipient of the 1966 Tanizaki Prize, Silence is Shusaku Endo’s most highly acclaimed work and has been called one of the twentieth century’s finest novels. As empathetic as it is powerful, it is an astonishing exploration of faith and suffering and an award-winning classic.

Silence is set in what is known as the ‘Christian century’ in Japan – Christian missionaries first arrived there in 1549 and the faith spread rapidly; the writings of these Portuguese missionaries are the source of much of what we know of Japan at that time. After an initial period where the western visitors – both traders and missionaries – were respected, those in power in Japan were increasingly worried by the influence of the foreign missionaries. This led to a time of persecution in which many Christians were executed and the foreign missionaries were banned, if they came to Japan they were forced to give up their faith or face martyrdom. Many Christians were brutally tortured before being burned, drowned, or slowly bleed to death. Despite this, missionaries from Europe continued to sneak into Japan which is where the novel Silence begins.

The story of Rodrigues, a 17th century Portuguese priest, is a mixture of history and theology told through the interweaving lives of a range of believable characters. Shusaku Endo writes of the conflict between east and west – the relationship between Japan and Christianity – in a way which shows that Christianity must adapt if it is to take root in a culture so very different to its Middle Eastern origins and European development. It is a tale of the struggle between faith and belief, a study of martyrdom versus apostasy written in a restrained style which reflects the time period yet with a simplicity which gets to the heart of the pain and suffering of the Europeans who were often placed in an impossible position.

Endo writes with sensitivity about the clash of cultures creating a novel which is moving and disturbing in equal measure. Although Rodrigues is a fictional character his story is based upon a real person, the Italian priest Giuseppe Chiara, and like Chiara Rodrigues takes a physical and theological journey to his own calvary, struggling with the eternal concept of why God is silent in the face of suffering. Silence gives us no clear answer to that question but leaves us with much to ponder on and apply to our own situation.

Endo has created a novel which paints a vivid picture of life in 17th century Japan whilst at the same time being an excellent study of man and faith, a book which is at times delicate and at other times brutal, a sometimes harrowing picture of the mental and physical challenges faced by the missionary. It is a testament to the translator that the reader can feel deeply the ideas and emotions which the author so clearly wished to convey. If you feel that a story about a missionary in Japan is not for you then you will be missing out on a philosophical novel which challenges many fundamental beliefs and morals and is likely to change the way you think about life.

Silence can be found on Amazon

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