Five new books to read this week
By Ella Walker, Press Association
A gripping debut crime novel and dystopian climate change story are worth picking up this week…
Fiction
A Bad, Bad Place by Frances Crawford is published in hardback by Bantam. Available February 12th
Janey Devine, 12, stumbles across the body of a murdered woman as she walks her dog along an abandoned railway. The victim is the daughter of a feared local criminal who befriends Janey when she tells him she held the dead woman’s hand in an act of kindness. Flashes of the grim discovery haunt the young girl, who struggles to remember exactly what happened, or who she saw, apart from one crucial fact she keeps from the police. Her grandmother Maggie enters Janey’s new, dangerous world in a bid to find the killer, despite struggling with a shocking secret of her own. Turf wars in Glasgow’s gangland complicate the search for the murderer, but Janey suddenly starts to remember things, and the hunt for the killer takes an unexpected twist. Glasgow-based Frances Crawford researched real cases for the book, being surprised by the level of connection the finder has to the corpse. Her debut novel will keep readers guessing, even after the final chapter, thanks to an ingenious ending.
8/10
Review by Alan Jones
A Guardian And A Thief by Megha Majumdar is published in hardback by Scribner UK. Available now
Much lauded, shortlisted for many an award already and an Oprah book club pick too, A Guardian And A Thief is undeniably one to watch, but it is a difficult, painful read. The heat of Kolkata, India, in a not too distant future, is palpable, melting pavements and inflicting deadly heatstroke, while food shortages and flooding abound. Ma is mere days from extracting her two-year-old Mishti, and father, from this increasingly hellish environment, to join her husband in America. But then their passports are stolen, by a thief called Boomba, who is trying to protect his own family, and is willing to do whatever that takes. An unflinching look at the lengths people will go to for their families, Majumdar is masterful at ratcheting up the moral ambiguity, but the sense of dread that no one will escape this climate-wracked world order, is suffocating.
7/10
Review by Ella Walker
The Shock Of The Light by Lori Inglis Hall is published in hardback by The Borough Press. Available February 12th
During the Second World War, 39 British women were sent behind enemy lines in occupied France by the Special Operations Executive. The authorities were later slow to acknowledge their role, the extreme danger they worked in and the errors made in London which only increased it. In her debut novel, Lori Inglis Hall creates a tale of two twins, Theo and Tessa, whose bond has begun to fray before the Second World War separates them; Theo fighting on the front lines as an RAF pilot and Tessa behind them with the SOE. Inglis Hall created Tessa’s story from genuine personnel files held at the National Archives and the Imperial War Museum, drawing together different real-life events into one. But it is the second part of the book, chronicling Theo’s search for his sister in the chaotic aftermath of liberation, that stretches credibility too far.
6/10
Review by Ian Parker
Non fiction
Philip Roth: Stung by Life by Steven J. Zipperstein is published in hardback by Yale University Press. Available now
Writing about writers is fraught with pitfalls, especially when the writer in question is as revered and recorded as much as the great American novelist Philip Roth. But Steven J. Zipperstein’s biography, encouraged by Roth himself, delivers a concise and penetrating look at a problematic subject. Roth emerged as one of America’s greatest writers with novels like Portnoy’s Complaint, which delved into themes of sexual obsession, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Pastoral. Zipperstein focuses on Roth’s Jewish identity and deftly navigates his tumultuous relationships and sexual voracity. Fans of Roth, who died in 2018, will relish Zuckerman’s relatively light touch and resistance to the kind of lurid exposition that marks out some of his previous biographies. More general readers, however, may struggle with the still-exhausting complexities of Roth’s literary creations, his feuds and his desires that make him a distinctly difficult subject to warm to.
7/10
Review by Mark Staniforth
Children’s book of the week
Kid Potato: Welcome To My World by Neil Coslett is published in paperback by Hodder Children’s Books. Available February 12th
Liverpool-based director, animator and illustrator Neil Coslett presents a series of wacky adventures for young readers, following Kid Potato, his alien friend Dudz, and a cast of madcap characters in this Beano-inspired collection. Five tales feature intergalactic visitors, cheesy scientific inventions, bowling competitions, and the zany consequences of bringing a pet dog to school. Each story is sillier than the last, with large-format text and comic-strip illustrations throughout, designed to captivate readers aged seven and up. Realistically, parents are unlikely to enjoy the snot jokes, crude toilet humour and deliberately nonsensical plots. But children probably will, and for reluctant readers, that may be a compromise worth making.
6/10
Review by Holly Cowell
BOOK CHARTS FOR THE WEEK ENDING
HARDBACK (FICTION)
1. King Of Ravens by Clare Sager
2. Vigil by George Saunders
3. My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney
4. Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy
5. Departure(s) by Julian Barnes
6. The Persian by David McCloskey
7. Glyph by Ali Smith
8. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
9. The Elsewhere Express by Samantha Sotto Yambao
10. The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman
(Compiled by Waterstones)
HARDBACK (NON-FICTION)
1. Always Remember by Charlie Mackesy
2. The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins & Sawyer Robbins
3. Eat Yourself Healthy by Jamie Oliver
4. Protein In 15 by Joe Wicks
5. I Still Believe In Miracles by Lucas Jones
6. Don’t Believe Everything You Think by Joseph Nguyen
7. Everybody Loves Our Dollars – How Money Laundering Won by Oliver Bullough
8. The Greatest Story Ever Told by Bear Grylls
9. Mary 90 by Mary Berry
10. The Wisdom Of Ancient Japan by Saori Okada
(Compiled by Waterstones)
AUDIOBOOKS (FICTION AND NONFICTION)
1. Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
2. Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
3. Harry Potter And The Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
4. The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
5. The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins
6. We Are All Guilty Here by Karin Slaughter
7. My Friends by Fredrik Backman
8. Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
9. The Names by Florence Knapp
10. The Mysterious Affair Of Judith Potts by Robert Thorogood
(Compiled by Audible)
