First of all, I was captivated by the narrator and main character James--the same Jim that was in Twain's Huck Finn but who in Everett's hands is completely reimagined and updated through the lens of the 21st century. I also enjoyed how Everett maintained the general outlines of Twain's story but in each instance reshapes the narrator through a slave's eyes. We are invited to enter the story through the complex interior world of James. In this version, Huck is still important and maintains his moral compass, but it is James who takes the high moral ground by saving Huck. A wonderful and exhilerating ride through the world of pre-Civil War America.
'Truly extraordinary books are rare, and this is one of them' - Roddy Doyle, Booker Prize-winning author of Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha
James by Percival Everett is a profound and ferociously funny meditation on identity, belonging and the sacrifices we make to protect the ones we love, which reimagines The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. From the author of The Trees, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and Erasure, adapted into the Oscar-winning film American Fiction.
The Mississippi River, 1861. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a new…
I enjoyed several of Boyne's other novels, including The Heart’s Invisible Furies and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, but I loved this one even more. Like The Boy in the Striped Pajama, this book is about the holocaust. However, Boyne's approach to his subect is completely original. Instead of giving us the horrific but often overdone details about the camps, he purposely avoids them, with the main character, Gretel, simply calling Auschwitz that "other place." Alternating chapters from present to past, he consciously delays the worst that Gretel has experienced until well into the novel. And juxtaposed to her past guilt is her present redemption in trying to save her neighbor's child Henry. Finally Gretel is a marvelous narrator--honest but cagey, brave but often cowardly, a woman who is so complex and engaging that the reader is completely swept off their feet.
'Beautifully told and gripping from first page to last' Sunday Express 'An incredible feat of storytelling... and an old-fashioned page-turner' Donal Ryan 'Gripping and well-honed...consummately constructed, humming with tension' Guardian 'You can't prepare yourself for the magnitude and emotional impact of this powerful novel' John Irving ________________________________
From the author of the globally bestselling, multi-million-copy classic, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, comes its astonishing and powerful sequel.
Gretel Fernsby is a quiet woman leading a quiet life. She doesn't talk about her escape from Germany seventy years ago or the dark post-war years in France with her mother. Most…
Swift Sword is a gritty, rigorously researched nonfiction book about a single battle on a single day in Vietnam. It taught me--someone whose friends and family went to Vietnam but who never went myself--what the gut-level experience was--one of fear, terror, courage, humility, and true valor for those having to experience the war. The prose, with its abundance of carefully researched details and abundant interviews, put me right in the action. It compared to the great novel Matterhorn as well as to Homer's The Iliad for immersing me in the profound chaos and terror of being under fire. An overwhelming experience.
Marine Lance Corporal Jack Swan crested the face of a bare, rocky knoll in the Que Son Valley of South Vietnam. Following Swan were the 164 Marines of Mike Company, Third Battalion, Fifth Marines, First Marine Division. Their mission was to locate and rescue two understrength and isolated companies of felow Marines who were under attack by the North Vietnamese Army. The sight of a quiet and serene rice paddy and shrub covered valley greeted Swan. Too serene, he thought, as he caught sight of a trembling bush.
Loosely based on actual events, Beautiful Assassin is a tale of love, loyalty and intrigue set during World War II, a story in which a decorated Russian sniper finds herself caught between two suspicious allies. As the beleaguered Soviets try to hold back the invading Germans, a brave and talented female Russian sniper named Tatyana Levchenko gains international fame at the battle of Sevastopol. With over 300 kills, she becomes so renowned that Woody Guthrie writes a song about her and Eleanor Roosevelt invites her to come to the White House. For the Soviets, the invitation is an opportunity to garner support for the Allies to open a desparately needed second front. But it is also a chance to gather information on secret tests the Americans are conducting behind the Soviets' back. Tat'yana thus becomes a vulnerable pawn in a dangerous game played between the Americans and Soviets, one that will have international consequences well after the war's end.
