Edwin and Matilda

New Zealand’s South Island makes an atmospheric setting for Laurence Fearnley’s novel, Edwin and Matilda. Subtitled ‘an unlikely love story’, it traces the developing relationship between Edwin, a recently-retired wedding photographer, and Matilda, the soon-to-be bride at Edwin’s last assignment.

Edwin is on his way to Franz Joseph to meet the mother he had thought was dead. He has not seen her since he was a young boy growing up in a tuberculosis sanatorium where his father was a doctor. Many years later Edwin discovered a photograph of his mother in a tourist magazine but has waited until his retirement to try to find her.

When he drops in to deliver Matilda’s photos, he learns that not only did her wedding never eventuate, but that Matilda is eager to make a documentary, and Edwin’s quest is an ideal opportunity. Matilda is a quirky young woman in her early twenties with fragile health. As Edwin slowly discovers his family history, Matilda’s own difficult relationship with her mother unfolds as well as the terrible facts of her illness.

The two make their way across the South Island and their stories unravel against the rugged landscape, a stark contrast with the cramped spaces where their conversations seem to take place: the inside of Edwin’s car and poky motel units.

Fearnley is a wonderfully spare and refined writer and her characters original and sympathetic. Although this is an ‘unlikely’ love story, there is nothing awkward here. I also enjoyed her imagining of Edwin's childhood in a TB sanatorium and the sadness of his parents' relationship is particularly moving. This is a lovely novel, compelling and elegant.

Posted by Jam

Catalogue link: Edwin and Matilda

Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead

Winn van Meter is having something of an emotional crisis! His eldest daughter Daphne is pregnant and getting married in just a few days, his younger daughter Livia is brooding after a lost love, a somewhat unwanted array of relatives and future in-laws have arrived for the wedding and he is lusting after vivacious bridesmaid Agatha!

Seating Arrangements examines pretensions, expectations and disappointments in a way that is both witty and sad. It is well written, with a situation and setting that allows good scope for the action. Several points-of-view are examined, but it’s Winn and Livia who dominate the narrative and as such have some of the best and most outlandish scenes in the book. It’s rare to come across a scene that you’ve never read the likes of before and yet there is one in this book that you’d be unlikely to find again!

Maggie Shipstead is obviously a talented young writer and this, her debut novel, is a good start. It is a very readable if not entirely enjoyable book. The disappointment for me was a decided lack of likeable characters. Even one perhaps may have added to the emotional connection required for me to truly love a book. I would recommend it as a good filler book – great for public transport, a few days off, or a break between more serious reads. I look forward immensely to reading her next works and tracking her progression as a writer.

Seating Arrangements is the Winner of the LA Times Book Prize for First Fiction & the Dylan Thomas Prize. It is a NY Times Bestseller.

Posted by CP

Catalogue link: Seating Arrangements

A God in Every Stone by Kamila Shamsie

A God in Every Stone is an ambitious novel that carries the reader through major events of the last century - from the First World War to the developing independence movement in India. It is all tidily brought together through the viewpoints of three main characters.

Vivian Spencer is a budding archaeologist who has joined the dig run by family friend Tahsin Bey, a Turk with Armenian sympathies. The Kaiser’s sabre rattling seems far away in Labraunda as the two make new discoveries including a growing fondness for each other. When war in Europe is declared, Vivian is whisked back home to wait it out.

Working in a war hospital threatens to destroy Vivian's sanity, and she begs to go to Peshawar in the north of India as it was then, to another dig much talked about by Bey. She meets our second narrator on a train.

Pashtun soldier Qayyum Gul has returned from Ypres after losing an eye and is disillusioned with the Empire he bravely fought for. It is his younger brother, Najeeb, who discovers a kindred spirit in Vivian, and the two take on the role of teacher and pupil, much to the dismay of Najeeb’s family. More than a decade later, as stirrings of unrest take hold of the region, the three characters meet again when a clash of cultures comes to a head.

The three narrators have very different points of view but each gathers the reader’s sympathies. Shamsie creates plenty of drama round them, in settings richly brought to life, keeping you glued to the page. On top of that she gives you a wonderful understanding of the period, a time of social change and a crumbling empire. This is seasoned by the archaeological references which remind you that every event is a mere dot in the vastness of history.

Posted by JAM

Catalogue link: A God in Every Stone