Author: Elaine Lau

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Lit Review: ‘A Ladder to the Sky’ by John Boyne

Who: Irish author John Boyne has written 11 novels for adults and five for younger readers, including the acclaimed and highly successful, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, which was turned into a film. He is also the author of the short story collection, Beneath the Earth, and is a regular book reviewer for The Irish Times. Boyne has been awarded numerous Irish book awards and international literary awards, such as the Que Leer Award for Novel of the Year in Spain and the Gustav Heinemann Peace Prize in Germany. In 2012, he was awarded the Hennessy Literary ‘Hall of Fame’ Award for his body of work. In 2015, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of East Anglia. His latest adult fiction is A Ladder to the Sky.

What: Maurice Swift has harboured ambitions to be a writer since his teens. As a young man in post-war Berlin, Maurice has a fortuitous encounter with celebrated novelist Erich Ackerman with whom he ingratiates himself. Erich is lonely and has a tragic story to tell, and Maurice needs a story to write about. Maurice’s debut novel based on Erich’s life story is a hit and sets him on the path to literary stardom. But that only intensifies Maurice’s pursuit of other people’s stories, and he will stop at nothing to succeed.

Why: I have a confession to make: This is my first John Boyne novel, and it is a great introduction to Boyne’s storytelling prowess. A Ladder to the Sky is a brilliantly crafted, riveting tale of dark ambition and of the extremes that a man would go to attain his goal. It’s a familiar trope to be sure: an ambitious, psychopathic protagonist with a bit of talent but not quite enough to become one of the greats, and thus resorts to manipulation and theft. What makes A Ladder to the Sky intriguing is the setting of the tale, which takes place in the literary world; I wouldn’t be surprised if Boyne drew from his personal experiences in the industry to pen this tale.

By turns salacious, scandalous and shocking, the story is told in a non-traditional way using multiple narrators. Far from it being distracting, however, I enjoyed the manner in which this thrilling, plot-driven tale unfolded. The novel is divided into three parts that span three stages of Maurice’s career, with each successive stage seeing him become increasingly ruthless. In between the three main chapters are two shorter, third-person interludes that serve to enhance the overall narrative.

The novel begins with Maurice as a young man with only aspirations of being a writer, and this is told from Erich’s perspective, the veteran novelist he befriends. Part two picks up a few years after Maurice’s successful debut but he is now experiencing a mid-career slump and getting desperate by the day. He is married to Edith, also a novelist, and the story is told from her point of view. In the third and final portion of the book, we finally get inside Maurice’s head and learn that his is a pattern of behaviour established from young.

Does Maurice get his comeuppance? All I will say about this is that the novel is satisfactorily resolved at the end.

Verdict: A page-turner on the pitfalls of ambition. (8/10)

Availability: Trade paperback, RM81.50

Special thanks to Times Distribution for an advance copy of the book.

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Lit Recap: Author meet-and-greet with Zaheera Hashim

On Friday, Aug 3, we had the pleasure of hosting Zaheera Hashim, a Singapore-based artist and writer, for a meet-and-greet at Lit Books. She was in town to promote her debut graphic novella called Lost, which comprises vignettes on the the theme of loss. Accompanying the text is Zaheera’s soulful artworks. Min Hun had a Q&A with her, an edited version of which is reproduced below.

Min Hun: Tell us about your book.
Zaheera: This book has taken me almost a decade to complete. It’s not that it took 10 years to write but 10 years to put together. The writing and the paintings have been done in stages, in different periods. Life has got ups and downs, and I started writing when I was in the down period… At the end of the day it’s a compilation of a lot of things that happened in my life.

Lost is about two boys. The inspiration is my two boys who are the centre of my world really, but they’re also the centre of a lot of angst and stress — so a lot of material for a book. The pictures were independently created but they also accompany the words, the stories, because not everything can be explained in words. It’s about two of them losing each other and finding each other again. It’s about healing.

One thing I would say when I read the book is there is a very distinct sense that it’s autobiographical. I know you mentioned your two children and how they were your inspiration but what about the particulars of the stories?
Every chapter has a bit of me in it… in that way it’s autobiographical.

Is this book something you view as a work of catharsis?
Catharsis is a bit of a strong word. It’s more of a healing, an acceptance maybe. A lot of times we go through things that we don’t understand, and this was the time I finally understood some of the things that happened and put them together. So, perhaps, yes, in a way it was quite cathartic.

The story is about a lost sibling and there’s also an old uncle who loses his soulmate in a fire. There’s a lot of tragedy and grief. You address the theme of loss from several directions. Why does this theme interest you so much?
I think it’s a universal theme. A lot of people have lost someone or something. for me, it’s also the loss of time, the loss of opportunity that bothers me a lot. And the fragility of life, how you have someone one day and then not, the next. And you don’t really know what you’ve lost until it’s gone. It’s clichéd but it’s the truth.

I wouldn’t call it a cliché. I think you’re carrying on that tradition of loss and loneliness that’s so prevalent in works of literature. What inspires you in terms of literature?
The Little Prince is one of my favourites and I used to read it to my sons chapter by chapter every night. The theme there that resonated with me from beginning to end is how things are not always as they seem — the fox, the rose in the jar.

One artwork in the book that struck me is the Schubert — it features a painting of a clockwork doll grieving on a piece of sheet music. Tell us about this piece.
That piece is a song about Gretchen at the spinning wheel, spinning and spinning for her lover to come back but he doesn’t come back…. And in that chapter, it’s about waiting for the son who never comes back. It portrays that longing and sadness.

One thing about the book is the typesetting is not done in the traditional way where it’s just a block of text. There’s ornamentation in the text itself. The first time I read it I thought it was a bit distracting but once you get used to it, you realise it plays a particular function. Can you explain to us the thought process behind this?
I have to admit it wasn’t my idea. I worked with a friend who’s a book designer. At the end of the day I had to decide whether it was a literary work or an artwork. I decided it was going to be an artwork so it might as well look like art even in the text. He had this idea of using typographical styles to bring out certain words and certain parts of the book. There’s one chapter where some of the words are actually right at the edge of the page. My printer saw this and thought it was an error and asked me if I wanted to move it in. I told them to just leave it because that’s meant to be — the words have actually fallen off the page. The story was about the one who’s lost from his mother’s view, so it’s intentional.

 

Lost by Zaheera Hashim
When his older brother, Alif, abruptly leaves home and never returns, Sol is left to watch his mother withdraw into a world he can no longer enter. As they search for each other in their respective worlds, they reminisce their common past, eventually comprehending the reality of what they’ve lost. One story unfolds after another and they finally meet… or do they?
Hardback, RM90

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Lit Review: ‘Love and Ruin’ by Paula McLain

Who: American author Paula McLain shot to international stardom with her bestselling historical fiction, The Paris Wife, which is based on Ernest Hemingway’s marriage to his first wife Hadley Richardson during their Paris years. Written from Hadley’s perspective, the novel has since been published in 34 languages. Paula is the recipient of fellowships from Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony, the Cleveland Arts Prize, the Ohio Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. She has also written two collections of poetry and a memoir, Like Family, Growing up in Other People’s Houses.

Her latest novel Love and Ruin revisits Hemingway. This time, the story is focused on his relationship with his third wife, Martha Gellhorn who is considered to be one of the 20th century’s greatest war correspondents.

What: Martha Gellhorn is an ambitious young woman with dreams of making a name for herself with her writing. A chance meeting with Ernest Hemingway in 1936 at a bar in Key West, Florida seems fated. The following year they both take off to Madrid to report on the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War. Captivated by Ernest’s larger-than-life personality — Hemingway was a man already on his way to becoming a legend — Martha revels in his attention and falls in love with him.

Their shared passion for writing draws them to each other, but ironically would also be the thing that drives a wedge into their relationship. The cracks start to show when Ernest publishes the biggest literary success of his career, For Whom the Bell Tolls. Martha is confronted with having to surrender to the confining demands of being a famous man’s wife or risk losing Ernest by forging a path as her own woman and writer.

Why: Martha Gellhorn is undeniably among the most interesting characters of the 20th century. She is among the first female war correspondents and enjoyed a long and fruitful career, retiring only when her eyesight started failing in her 80s. She was bold, tenacious and fiercely independent, and it is from her perspective that author Paula McLain writes this story. As a former journalist myself, I enjoyed McLain’s retelling of Martha’s journalistic exploits in Spain, Finland, China and on D-Day. It is obvious that McLain has done her research.

What I didn’t find particularly compelling was the story of their doomed union. It’s one we’ve seen played out time and again — an older man taking a professional interest at first in a young, talented woman only to then seduce and bed her. Ernest is a scoundrel, there’s no question about it: he was still married to his second wife when courting Martha, but in his defence, his advances were met with not much resistance. I have no sympathies for either of them, to be honest.

Martha’s ambition and spirit excites Ernest initially but would ultimately be a source of resentment for him as he begrudges her for not being the dutiful, stay-at-home wife. As much as she loved Ernest, Martha’s desire to be her own woman and to be defined by something other than “a footnote in someone else’s life” was equally important. In the end, something had to give.

In masterful prose, McLain paints a portrait of their ill-fated relationship — from lust, rust to dust — with depth and sensitivity. We hear also from Ernest — McLain incorporates interludes written from his perspective in the form of monologues that reveal his hopes, fears and vulnerabilities.

Verdict: McLain’s writing paints a vivid picture of conflict in war and love. (6/10)

Availability: Arriving in-store soon.

Special thanks to Times Distribution for an advance reading copy of the book.

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Shakespeare retold: Six novels inspired by the Bard’s plays

Writing more than 400 years ago in a land and culture far removed from our own, the question is worth asking: Is Shakespeare, or has Shakespeare ever been, relevant to us? While the bard’s continued grip on the West can certainly be attributable to historicity and the need for cultural continuity — we have our own legends and stories here both local and carried upon the shoulders of our ancestors — can we make the same argument in all earnestness? Or perhaps Shakespeare is so inseparable from English literature that to read the English story is to doff one’s cap to him?

It is not within the remit of this article to question the validity of the claim, i.e. that “Shakespeare reveals a different face to different cultures and different people at different times”, but it is sufficient for our purposes to agree that Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets remain an integral part of our cultural imagination, even as far removed away as we are from Stratford-upon-Avon. Romeo and Juliet is still the love story par excellence, Hamlet remains the tragic existentialist, and Caesar’s Brutus the betrayer above all other betrayers, Judas notwithstanding.

It is these characters, these faces, these ideas —arguably so foundationally representative of the  human psyche — that keep the bard relevant. And it is these ideas also that have inspired a new generation of writers to reimagine and retell the stories in contexts that find greater resonance with the contemporary reader.

Enter the Hogarth Shakespeare project, which invites modern novelists to reimagine some of his most celebrated plays.

 

Dunbar by Edward St Aubyn
A reimagining of one of Shakespeare’s most well-read tragedies, King Lear, Dunbar is an excoriating novel for and of our times — an examination of power, money and the value of forgiveness.

Henry Dunbar, the once all-powerful head of a global media corporation, is not having a good day. In his dotage he hands over care of the corporation to his two eldest daughters, Abby and Megan, but as relations sour, he starts to doubt the wisdom of past decisions. Now imprisoned in Meadowmeade, an upscale sanatorium in rural England, with only a demented alcoholic comedian as company, Dunbar starts planning his escape. As he flees into the hills, his family is hot on his heels. But who will find him first, his beloved youngest daughter, Florence, or the tigresses Abby and Megan, so keen to divest him of his estate? (RM52.90)

 

The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson
The Winter’s Tale is one of Shakespeare’s “late plays” that tells the story of a king whose jealousy results in the banishment of his baby daughter and the death of his beautiful wife. His daughter is found and brought up by a shepherd on the Bohemian coast, but through a series of extraordinary events, father and daughter, and eventually mother too, are reunited.

In The Gap of Time, Jeanette Winterson’s cover version of The Winter’s Tale, we move from London, a city reeling after the 2008 financial crisis, to a storm-ravaged American city called New Bohemia. Her story is one of childhood friendship, money, status, technology and the elliptical nature of time. Written with energy and wit, this is a story of the consuming power of jealousy on the one hand, and redemption and the enduring love of a lost child on the other. (RM59.90)

 

Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood
William Shakespeare’s The Tempest is retold as Hag-Seed by master storyteller, Margaret Atwood.

Felix is at the top of his game as artistic director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival. His productions have amazed and confounded. Now he’s staging a Tempest like no other: Not only will it boost his reputation, it will heal emotional wounds. Or that was the plan. Instead, after an act of unforeseen treachery, Felix is living in exile in a backwoods hovel, haunted by memories of his beloved lost daughter, Miranda. He’s also plotting revenge.

After 12 years, revenge finally arrives in the shape of a theatre course at a nearby prison. Here, Felix and his inmate actors will put on his Tempest and snare the traitors who destroyed him. It’s magic! But will it remake Felix as his enemies fall? Atwood’s novel take on Shakespeare’s play of enchantment, retribution, and second chances leads us on an interactive, illusion-ridden journey filled with new surprises and wonders of its own. (RM55.90)

 

Shylock is My Name by Howard Jacobson
Man Booker Prize-winner Howard Jacobson brings his singular brilliance to this modern re-imagining of one of Shakespeare’s most unforgettable characters: Shylock

Winter, a cemetery, Shylock. In this provocative and profound interpretation of The Merchant of Venice, Shylock is juxtaposed against his present-day counterpart in the character of art dealer and conflicted father Simon Strulovitch. With characteristic irony, Jacobson presents Shylock as a man of incisive wit and passion, concerned still with questions of identity, parenthood, anti-Semitism and revenge.

While Strulovich struggles to reconcile himself to his daughter Beatrice’s “betrayal” of her family and heritage — as she is carried away by the excitement of Manchester high society, and into the arms of a footballer notorious for giving a Nazi salute on the field — Shylock alternates grief for his beloved wife with rage against his own daughter’s rejection of her Jewish upbringing. Culminating in a shocking twist on Shylock’s demand for the infamous pound of flesh, Jacobson’s insightful retelling examines contemporary, acutely relevant questions of Jewish identity while maintaining a poignant sympathy for its characters and a genuine spiritual kinship with its antecedent — a drama which Jacobson himself considers to be “the most troubling of Shakespeare’s plays for anyone, but, for an English novelist who happens to be Jewish, also the most challenging”. (RM59.90)

 

New Boy by Tracy Chevalier
Tracy Chevalier brings Shakespeare’s harrowing drama of jealousy and revenge, Othello, to a 1970s era elementary school playground.

Arriving at his fifth school in as many years, diplomat’s son, Osei Kokote, knows he needs an ally if he is to survive his first day — so he’s lucky to hit it off with Dee, the most popular girl in school. But one student can’t stand to witness this budding relationship: Ian decides to destroy the friendship between the black boy and the golden girl. By the end of the day, the school and its key players — teachers and pupils alike — will never be the same again. Chevalier’s powerful drama of friends torn apart by jealousy, bullying and betrayal will leave you reeling. (RM52.90)

 

Macbeth by Jo Nesbo
Set in the 1970s in a run-down, rainy industrial town, Jo Nesbo’s Macbeth centres around a police force struggling to shed an incessant drug problem. Duncan, chief of police, is idealistic and visionary, a dream to the townspeople but a nightmare for criminals. The drug trade is ruled by two drug lords, one of whom — a master of manipulation named Hecate — has connections with the highest in power, and plans to use them to get his way.

Hecate’s plot hinges on steadily, insidiously manipulating Inspector Macbeth: the head of SWAT and a man already susceptible to violent and paranoid tendencies. What follows is an unputdownable story of love and guilt, political ambition, and greed for more, exploring the darkest corners of human nature, and the aspirations of the criminal mind. (Trade paperback, RM79.90)

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Lit Recap: Author meet-and-greet with Carol Jones

On June 16, we had the pleasure of hosting Australian author Carol Jones at Lit Books to talk about her novel, The Concubine’s Child. The great majority of the novel is set in 1930s Kuala Lumpur, where a young girl is sold off to become the unhappy concubine of the rich Chan towkay. All hopes and dreams shattered, she curses the family and its descendants with her final breath. Fast forward 80 years and Nick, the last surviving heir of the Chan line, finds himself lost and adrift, and decides to return to Malaysia to discover his roots. However, he may have found more than he had intended in uncovering these musty old skeletons.

The following are highlights from the Q&A session.

Min Hun: Why did you decide to write this story and what was the research that went into it?
Carol Jones: I’ve been coming to Malaysia for a long time. My husband’s Malaysian and we’ve been married for 27 years. We visit for 2-3 weeks every year. It’s a fascinating place; Kuala Lumpur is a great city and there are a lot of interesting stories. I married into the Chinese culture and I find it’s a really interesting culture with all sorts of contradictory elements to it. It was a way for me not only of writing for another audience but exploring stories for myself… It was a way for me, I suppose, to process a lot of things I’ve experienced over the years. I was inspired by some things my family had told me. For instance my mother-in-law, who grew up in the 1930s, she never actually went to school; she went to the clan association. This, in fact, inspired the first chapter of my book.

MH: The story of the unhappy concubine is one that’s familiar to me because it’s so much of my lived experience. I have an uncle with two wives and I know my great grandfather had multiple wives. I’m curious as to how you fell into this particular story, this particular trope of the concubine.
CJ: Reading some of the memoirs of people growing up in the early 20th century in the Straits settlements, what’s interesting to me was the idea of the concubine seemed quite matter-of-fact. People just took it for granted that any man with any money had more than one wife. When I was researching this book, one of the first things I did was come back to those memoirs: Down Memory Lane in Clogs (Growing up in Chinatown) by Si Jing, Memories of a Nonya by Queeny Chang, and Nyonya Mosaic: Memoirs Of A Peranakan Childhood by William Gwee Thian Hock.

MH: In the book, you incorporate cultural and linguistic constructs that are unique to the Cantonese Chinese or to Malaysia. How much do you expect your non-Malaysian readers to understand them?
CJ: It’s like any metaphor… These Cantonese Chinese phrases or sayings that I put in there, sometimes I would say, “Like the old saying, blah blah”, but often I just put them in there. I’m not really worried about people not understanding it; I thought they’d just see it as a metaphor and work it out. I’m actually more concerned they would think I’m a lot smarter than I am. They might think I made up this really clever, funny metaphor when in fact it’s a Cantonese or Malaysian saying.

It’s always a balancing act when you’re writing for an international audience. I’ve got to balance writing a wonderful story with enough information that the non-Malaysian reader can get the gist of what’s going on and also get enough colour in the story that they will find it interesting. But I have to balance that with the local reader so they don’t read and think ‘why did she have to explain that’ and for it to become really boring. It’s a balancing act and I think you never get it totally right. There were some things where I chose not to explain and I just left them there as a little extra thing for a local reader.

MH: In this age of political correctness, was cultural appropriation something that crossed your mind when you were writing the book?
CJ: It did cross my mind; I was conscious of it all the time when I was writing the book. But I wanted to write the story — it had been growing in my head for several years. I had to write the story; it wouldn’t let me go. I just had to make sure that I was as thorough as I could be with my research and that I was true to the history and to the characters, and that I try to understand why they would act the way they act. That’s all I think you can do when you’re writing the story.

One American book blogger — I think she’s coming from the perspective of you should never write about a culture that’s not your own, which is a stance that a lot of people have — she was saying that she thought the book was just critical of every character in it. I thought she just didn’t understand the book. I was trying to get beyond the surface and show how people felt.

MH: I really liked your 1930s arc. I thought that story was great: nostalgic, sentimental — a lot of stuff I could relate to. The contemporary arc, however, I enjoyed it less. What was the role of the contemporary arc? To bring closure to the saga or…?
CJ: I expected that. When you have a dual timeline story, a lot of people enjoy the historic story more than the contemporary one. That’s just what happens. I think it’s because the historic story is usually a mystery and it usually has so much more of an exotic flavour. This is not just my book but in general with any dual timeline story. Of course, in this instance, it’s all that nostalgia as well.

[The historic and the contemporary arcs], they are mirror stories. The contemporary story is the reverse of the historic story. I won’t explain how because that would ruin the story for those who haven’t read it. The contemporary story finishes what started in the 1930s and that’s why it’s called The Concubine’s Child, because the concubine’s child is the key to both the historic story, the contemporary story and the future.

The Concubine’s Child is available in-store for RM69.90.

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The Write Stuff: Jeyna Grace, author of ‘The Slave Prince’

The Slave Prince is the third book by Malaysian author Jeyna Grace. An imaginative retelling of the story of Moses, The Slave Prince is set in the fantasy kingdom of Alpenwhist where young Prince Thom believed himself to be the heir apparent to the throne. However, his dreams of glory are cut short one day when he learns that he is no prince but is instead the descendant of slaves. Thom quickly realises that he must first accept his past before he can move on to the future.

Lit Books is pleased to be a stockist of Jeyna’s book, and we managed to ask her a few questions regarding her process.

1. The Slave Prince is a retelling of the story of Moses. Why did you pick such a well-told tale to be the basis of your novel, and were you at all concerned that your interpretation of events might ruffle some feathers?
The story of Moses is one of my favourite biblical tales. Growing up, I would rewatch The Prince of Egypt countless times, with family karaoke nights incomplete without the song, When You Believe. In its essence, the story of Moses and the plight of the Israelites is a powerful representation of faith and belief — it shows us how nothing is impossible, that there can be miracles, when we believe. And as someone who enjoys writing spin-offs and retellings, what better story to pick than the one with such a compelling message?

Before writing The Slave Prince, I decided on two things: to stay as close to the original timeline and to build on the core message of belief. I didn’t worry much about ruffling feathers as I was focused on creating a tale that would resonate with readers and inspire them to believe in the impossible and to fight for what they believe in. And I believed — that’s a lot of ‘believe’ in one paragraph — that by adding magic, the twist of events would make the old and familiar tale fresh and exciting again.

2. The biblical story of Moses, at its heart, is the story of God’s chosen who eschews a life of luxury to lead his people to freedom. In a sense, it is a story of redemption. Is The Slave Prince similarly focused on redemption?
Redemption is indeed a part of the story, but not the part I chose to focus on. There’s a lot of the story of Moses and the Israelites that reflects the current world we live in — injustice and modern-day slavery are rampant, with many individuals struggling to believe in themselves and their abilities. I chose to focus on issues that we’re all familiar with, creating characters that are just like us in a world that could benefit from more hope, unity, and love.

3. The Slave Prince is not your first book. Has your experience with your previous books been instructive in writing and producing this third book? If so, in what way?
Certainly! All of my books presented new learning opportunities. Self-publishing my first novel, The Dreamer, introduced me to the publishing industry. Publishing my second novel, The Battle for Oz, with Inkshares taught me how to create better characters and sentence structures. The Slave Prince has helped me to expand my imagination — I’ve learned how to build bigger worlds, create more complex plot lines, and push past the cliches for something more unique and exciting.

4. You are still holding down a day job whilst writing books. That has got to be difficult. Are you looking to make the switch to writing full-time?
It’s a dream of mine to be a full-time author. Alas, I’m not in a position to make that shift yet. Hopefully, the day will come where I’ll get to write books day and night.

5. You are a Malaysian author published by a US publisher on a unique crowd-funded structure — it seems that you have embraced technology quite a bit to become a published author. What has your experience on this platform been, and have you considered more traditional publishing/distribution arrangements?
Crowd-funding is never an easy process. Getting both of my books, The Battle for Oz and The Slave Prince, published required a lot of asking, selling, pleading, hoping, and praying. It’s not an easy route to get published, but it’s also not impossible if you have the determination to succeed. Once you do cross the finish line, you’ll experience the full publishing process similar to that of a traditional publisher. Have I considered taking the traditional route? Yes. I’m actually pitching my next book to literary agents! Hopefully, I’ll be able to find a representative for my trilogy soon.

6. What’s next for you? Is there another book in the making?
There is! I’m working on a trilogy which is neither a spin-off nor a retelling. I’m currently pitching Book One to literary agents, and plotting Book Two in hopes of finishing the first draft this year. The trilogy is also a young adult fantasy novel with a royal teenage protagonist. I don’t want to give away too much information, but it involves traveling through realms with, of course, magic.

The Slave Prince is available in-store for RM48.90.

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10 punchy novellas to read now

Don’t have much time to read? A short novel is just the thing for you. Take your pick from these punchy novellas, all of which are less than 150 pages. Engrossing, enchanting, and some just downright weird, these books can be easily devoured in one sitting.

 

1. Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushima follows, over a course of a year, a young woman left by her husband who starts a new life in a Tokyo apartment. Her new home is filled with light, streaming through the windows, but she finds herself plummeting deeper into darkness. She struggles to bring up her two-year-old daughter alone. At once tender and lacerating, luminous and unsettling, Territory of Light is a novel of abandonment, desire and transformation.

 

2. Infidels by Abdellah Taïa is set in Salé, Morocco and follows the life of Jallal, the son of a prostitute witch doctor. As a ten-year-old sidekick to his mother, Jallal spits in the face of her enemies both real and imagined. The cast of characters that rush into their lives are unforgettable for their dreams of love and belonging that unravel in turn. Built as a series of monologues that are emotionally relentless, the book follows Jallal out of boyhood on the path to Jihad. It’s a path that surprises even him.

 

3. Per Petterson’s debut novel Echoland is about 12-year-old Arvid, who is on holiday with his family and staying with his grandparents on the coast of Denmark. Arvid is on the cusp of becoming a teenager: feeling awkward in his own skin, but adamant that he can take care of himself. At the beach, Arvid meets an older boy Mogens and together they set out to find fresh experiences. Echoland is a breathtaking read, capturing the unique drift of childhood summers, filled with unarticulated anxiety.

 

4. The background to Found Audio by N. J. Campbell is that of Amrapali Anna Singh, an historian and analyst capable of discerning the most cryptic and trivial details from audio recordings. One day, a mysterious man appears at her office with three Type IV audio cassettes that bear the stamp of a library in Buenos Aires that may or may not exist. On the cassettes is the deposition of an unnamed adventure journalist and his obsessive pursuit of an amorphous, legendary, and puzzling “City of Dreams”. Spanning decades, his quest leads him from a snake-hunter in the Louisiana bayou to the walled city of Kowloon on the eve of its destruction, from the Singing Dunes of Mongolia to a chess tournament in Istanbul. Despite being explicitly instructed not to, Singh mails a transcription of the cassettes with her analysis to an acquaintance before vanishing. The man who bore the cassettes also disappears. This book is the complete archival manuscript of the mysterious recordings accompanied by Singh’s analysis.

 

5. The Years, Months, Days by Yan Lianke contains his two most acclaimed novellas, masterfully crafted stories that explore the sacrifices made for family, the driving will to survive, and the longing to leave behind a personal legacy. Marrow is the haunting tale of a widow who goes to extremes to provide a normal life for her four disabled children. The Years, Months, Days, winner of the prestigious Lu Xun Literary Prize, is about an elderly man stays behind in his small village after a terrible drought forces everyone to leave. With touches of the fantastical and with deep humanity, these two magnificent novellas ― masterpieces of the short form ― reflect the universality of mankind’s will to live, live well, and live with purpose.

 

6. Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson is a collection of linked short stories that presents a unique, hallucinatory vision of contemporary American life. In their intensity of perception, their neon-lit evocation of a strange world brought uncomfortably close to our own, the stories offer a disturbing yet eerily beautiful portrayal of American loneliness and hope.

 

7. All This Has Nothing To Do With Me by Monica Sabolo is about an obsession spiralling out of control, and an exposé of a broken heart. With photos, diary extracts and emails, it documents MS and XX’s relationship from jubilant start to painful finish. Highly original, funny and darkly moving, this is a glimpse into the depths of one woman’s psyche.

 

8. Cynan Jones’ Cove is a short, sharp punch of a book about a man out at sea, who is struck by lightning. When he wakes, injured and adrift on a kayak, his memory of who he is and how he came to be there is all but shattered. Now he must pit himself against the pain and rely on his instincts to get back to shore, and to the woman he dimly senses waiting for his return. With its taut narrative and its wincingly visceral portrait of a man locked in an uneven struggle with the forces of nature, this is a powerful new work from one of the most distinctive voices in British fiction.

 

9. The Last Horror Novel in the History of the World by Brian Allen Carr is set in Scrape, Texas, a nowhere town near the Mexican border. Few people ever visit Scrape, and the unlucky ones who live there never seem to escape. They fill their days with fish fries, cheap beer, tobacco, firearms, and sex. But Scrape is about to be invaded by a plague of monsters unlike anything ever seen in the history of the world.

 

10. Banana Yoshimoto’s Kitchen is an enchantingly original and deeply affecting book that juxtaposes two tales about mothers, love, tragedy, and the power of the kitchen and home in the lives of a pair of free-spirited young women in contemporary Japan. There’s Mikage, an orphan raised by her grandmother, and Mikage’s friend Yoichi and his mother Eriko, who take Mikage in after her grandmother passes away. The three of them form an improvised family that soon weathers its own tragic losses.

All titles are available at Lit Books.

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Lit Review: ‘The Children of Castle Rock’ by Natasha Farrant

Who: Natasha Farrant has worked in children’s publishing for almost 20 years, running her own literary scouting agency for the past 10. She is the author of the Carnegie-longlisted and Branford Boase-shortlisted YA historical novel, The Things We Did For Love, as well as two successful adult novels. Farrant was shortlisted for the Queen of Teen Award 2014, and the second Bluebell Gadbsy book, Flora in Love, is longlisted for the Guardian Children’s Prize. The Children of Castle Rock is her latest novel for young readers.

What: Following her mother’s untimely death, 11-year-old Alice Mistlethwaite is sent off to Stormy Loch Academy, a boarding school in Scotland. Understandably, Alice dreads the move but soon finds that the school is nothing like she had imagined. Run by the mysterious Major, there are no punishments — only Consequences — and students are more likely to be taught about body painting or extreme survival than maths or English. Alice soon finds her place in Stormy Loch and friends in Fergus and Jesse.

One day, her father sends her a mysterious package with instructions to keep it secret. He then follows this up with a note to meet him at the castle on the Isle of Nish with the package. Alice enlists her friends’ help in making the long journey there, and so begins an epic quest across wild Scottish highlands and islands where friendships are tested, lies untangled, and danger and excitement abound at every turn.

Why: Natasha Farrant has written a riveting adventure story with all the elements that is sure to make this an enduring favourite among young readers. Told with sparkling prose, the story boasts a cast of interesting and endearing characters, thrilling developments at various turns, and a good mystery to boot. It’s all rollicking good fun.

But that is not all — the story also has emotional depth. It starts off on a melancholic note, where we find Alice having to say goodbye to the only home she ever knew, and one in which is full of warm memories of time spent with her late mother. Farrant tackles the subject of dealing with the death of a parent with sensitivity and authenticity, without getting maudlin about it. Alice’s story is essentially an empowering one — we see her gradually find her own sense of self and independence, but most of all, she learns that life does go on despite tragedy and disappointments and that it can be beautiful once again.

Best/Worst Line: “Stories end, darling, and that’s sad, but they have to so new ones can begin.”

Verdict: I was hooked from the first page — need I say more? (9/10)

Reading Level: Aged 10 and up

Availability: Paperback, RM40.90

Special thanks to Times Distribution for an ARC of the book.

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Six food books to savour

What’s the next best thing to eating good food?

Why, to read great writing on food, of course! Here at Lit Books, we have a growing selection of delectable food books. Evocative and vivid, these six delicious reads will give you much to chew on.

 

Super Sushi Ramen Express: One Family’s Journey Through the Belly of Japan by Michael Booth
From the author of The Almost Nearly Perfect People comes a fascinating and funny culinary journey through Japan

Japan is arguably the preeminent food nation on earth; it’s a mecca for the world’s greatest chefs and has more Michelin stars than any other country. The Japanese go to extraordinary lengths and expense to eat food that is marked both by its exquisite preparation and exotic content. Their creativity, dedication, and courage in the face of dishes such as cod sperm and octopus ice cream are only now beginning to be fully appreciated in the sushi and ramen-saturated West, as are the remarkable health benefits of the traditional Japanese diet.

Food and travel writer Michael Booth takes the culinary pulse of contemporary Japan, learning fascinating tips and recipes that few westerners have been privy to before. Accompanied by two fussy eaters under the age of six, he and his wife travel the length of the country, from bear-infested, beer-loving Hokkaido to snake-infested, seaweed-loving Okinawa. Along the way, they dine with — and score a surprising victory over — sumo wrestlers, pamper the world’s most expensive cows with massage and beer, share a seaside lunch with free-diving female abalone hunters, and meet the greatest chefs working in Japan today. Less happily, they witness a mass fugu slaughter, are traumatised by an encounter with giant crabs, and attempt a calamitous cooking demonstration for the lunching ladies of Kyoto. (RM79.90)

 

A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle
An irresistible feast of humour and heart, this is the bestselling, much-loved classic account of an English couple enjoying the fruits of French rural living.

Peter Mayle and his wife did what most of us only imagine doing when they made their long-cherished dream of a life abroad a reality: Throwing caution to the wind, they bought a glorious 200-year-old farmhouse in the Lubéron Valley in Provence, France and began a new life.

In a year that begins with a marathon lunch and continues with a host of gastronomic delights, they also survive the unexpected and often hilarious curiosities of rural life. From mastering the local accent and enduring invasion by bumbling builders, to discovering the finer points of boules and goat-racing, all the earthy pleasures of Provençal life are conjured up in this enchanting portrait. (RM54.90)

 

The Table Comes First by Adam Gopnik
From the author of Paris to the Moon comes a beguiling tour of the morals and manners of our present food mania, in search of eating’s deeper truths.

Never before have we cared so much about food. It preoccupies our popular culture, our fantasies, and even our moralising. With our top chefs as deities and finest restaurants as places of pilgrimage, we have made food the stuff of secular seeking and transcendence, finding heaven in a mouthful. But have we come any closer to discovering the true meaning of food in our lives? With inimitable charm and learning, Adam Gopnik takes us on a beguiling journey in search of that meaning as he charts America’s recent and rapid evolution from commendably aware eaters to manic, compulsive gastronomes. (RM63.90)

 

The Whole Fromage: Adventures in the Delectable World of French Cheese by Kathe Lison
The French, sans doute, love their fromages. And there’s much to love: hundreds of gloriously pungent varieties — crumbly, creamy, buttery, even shot through with bottle-green mould. So many varieties, in fact, that the aspiring gourmand may wonder: How does one make sense of it all?

In The Whole Fromage, Kathe Lison sets out to learn what makes French cheese so remarkable — why France is the “Cheese Mother Ship”, in the words of one American expert. Her journey takes her to cheese caves tucked within the craggy volcanic rock of Auvergne, to a centuries-old monastery in the French Alps, and to the farmlands that keep cheesemaking traditions alive. She meets the dairy scientists, shepherds, and affineurs who make up the world of modern French cheese, and whose lifestyles and philosophies are as varied and flavourful as the delicacies they produce. Most delicious of all, she meets the cheeses themselves — from spruce-wrapped Mont d’Or, so gooey it’s best eaten with a spoon; to luminous Beaufort, redolent of Alpine grasses and wildflowers, a single round of which can weigh as much as a Saint Bernard; to Camembert, invented in Normandy but beloved and imitated across the world.

With writing as piquant and rich as a well-aged Roquefort, as charming as a tender springtime chèvre, and yet as unsentimental as a stinky Maroilles, The Whole Fromage is a tasty exploration of one of the great culinary treasures of France. (RM52.90)

 

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
Homer called it a divine substance. Plato described it as especially dear to the gods. As Mark Kurlansky so brilliantly relates here, salt has shaped civilisation from the beginning, and its story is a glittering, often surprising part of the history of mankind. Wars have been fought over salt and, while salt taxes secured empires across Europe and Asia, they have also inspired revolution — Gandhi’s salt march in 1930 began the overthrow of British rule in India. (RM57.90)

 

Butter: A Rich History by Elaine Khosrova
It’s a culinary catalyst, an agent of change, a gastronomic rock star. Ubiquitous in the world’s most fabulous cuisines, butter is boss. Here, it finally gets its due.

After traveling across three continents to stalk the modern story of butter, award-winning food writer and former pastry chef Elaine Khosrova serves up a story as rich, textured, and culturally relevant as butter itself. From its humble agrarian origins to its present-day artisanal glory, butter has a fascinating story to tell. With tales about the ancient butter bogs of Ireland, the pleasure dairies of France, and the sacred butter sculptures of Tibet, Khosrova details butter’s role in history, politics, economics, nutrition, and even spirituality and art. Readers will also find the essential collection of core butter recipes, including beurre manié, croissants, pâte brisée, and the only buttercream frosting anyone will ever need, as well as practical how-tos for making various types of butter at home — or shopping for the best. (RM79.90)