A Country Escape by Katie Fforde

You might have to suspend belief a little when you read A Country Escape. The novel follows London chef Fran who has been given the chance to inherit a farm from Amy, a distant cousin who is in a retirement home. It is a dream opportunity for Fran who has always yearned for country life, but there’s a steep learning curve in store for someone who’s a bit afraid of cows.

The story is complicated by the arrival of another distant relative, Roy, the Australian who is charming to Aunt Amy but boorish and mercenary around Fran. Roy believes Amy will leave the farm to him and is keen to sell it and cash in. Luckily Fran has her good friend Issi on hand to boost her confidence and Tig who helps with the heritage herd of cows Amy’s family has been breeding for decades.

One thing Fran must avoid is having anything to do with neighbouring landowner Anthony Arlingham. The Arlinghams have been Amy’s enemies since the war. But Anthony is good-looking as well as surprisingly charming and helpful. He seems happy to help Fran with all kinds of problems, offering his chauffeur and car at the drop of a hat, supporting Fran's cheese-making and dishing out funds for track repairs to allow the milk tanker up to the farm. But does Anthony have an ulterior motive?

The story bounces along from one calamity to the next, while Amy seems reluctant to warm to Fran, setting her problems and nodding off during visits before she can help with any answers.

Some issues for me were things like Fran’s instant success at cheese-making or how looking after new-born puppies can make the heart grow fonder – the second time I’ve read this plot device in a Fforde novel. The characters are a bit too obviously nasty (like Roy), or too wonderful (like Anthony), or not really developed much at all, even though they pop up repeatedly (like Issi and Tig).

Nevertheless, I whizzed through the book, quite enjoying the setting of the Cotswolds, the descriptions of hearty and delicious meals and the plucky character of Fran.  There may be few surprises but the book is a pleasant and light-hearted read - definitely one for the airport, beach or for unwinding after all the stresses of associated with lockdown and beyond.

Posted by JAM

Catalogue link (book): A Country Escape
Catalogue link (ebook): A Country Escape

Twenty-One Truths About Love by Matthew Green

Twenty-One Truths About Love is a quirky, feel-good novel about Dan and his fear that he will lose Jill, the love of his life. Jill and Dan met as teachers at the same school. Skip forward a few years and they’re a devoted married couple now trying for a baby. The problem is that Dan left teaching to open a bookshop which is leaching money and he’s afraid to tell Jill they can’t afford a baby after all.

Through the book Dan becomes a simmering cauldron of anxiety, imagining that he comes up short against Jill’s previous husband, Peter, who was a good earner and (his trump card) died tragically young. Dan struggles with managing staff at his shop: the bossy, self-righteous Kimberley who thinks she should be manager; the sensible, good-guy Steve who should be manager but Dan is too nervous to ask him.

Meanwhile Dan counts the days he has not spoken to his father – the man who left the family when Dan was ten and who sends Dan letters he never opens. So yes, Dan’s a bit of a mess. As the months pass and there’s at last a baby on the way, Dan’s plight worsens and he thinks of increasingly absurd ways to earn a lot of money fast, building to a hilarious climax where, of course, Dan learns something about life as well as love.

Twenty-One Truths About Love is a book unlike any I’ve read before in that it is written as a series of lists. Dan’s therapist once suggested he write lists as a way of managing anxiety. Matthew Green creatively tells Dan’s story via the lists he keeps in his notebook. There are lists like: 'Reasons I Fell in Love with Jill' followed by 'Reasons I Wouldn’t Have Married Jill If I Hadn’t Fallen in Love with Her', giving a snapshot of the couple’s marriage.

There are lists like 'Stupidest questions asked this month'; 'Number of books sold today that I love'; 'Number of books sold today that I despise' that explain a lot about Dan’s workplace. There are 'Dan’s Laws of the Universe' and month by month, lists about finances which underline Dan’s anguish.

If you think lists are a weird way to write a novel, think again. The plot is pacey, the pages fly by and somehow, Dan’s distinctive voice and his increasing desperation chime through. It is a dazzling accomplishment and well worth checking out if you’re eager for something a little bit different.

Posted by JAM

Catalogue link: Twenty-One Truths About Love

Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

"You can do this, he tried to get his brain to inform him. You can do this no matter what. But his brain had told him a lot of things over the years. His brain wasn't very reliable."

Fleishman is in Trouble is a modern take on marriage, divorce, and the world of online dating.

Toby Fleishman is a caring father who has recently left a nightmare of a marriage. His wife Rachel is a high-flying publishing agent who works long hours, treats her staff appallingly and neglects their children.

Rachel earns a lot more money than Toby (a physician) and constantly reminds him that she bankrolls their lavish Manhattan lifestyle (as reassuringly hideous a world as you could imagine). Despite this their children Hannah and Solly adore their mother and the couple share the care of them. Toby is enjoying the bewildering world of online dating and is astounded and delighted that many women want to meet him for brief encounters.

And then Rachel goes missing. Toby's life is turned upside-down and he juggles children, work, and his anger at Rachel for disappearing.

The marriage break up has also prompted Toby to reconnect with his two oldest friends: carefree and never married Seth, and Libby; a writer and harassed mother in the suburbs and narrator of the story.

As a (cynical) reader, alarm bells go off as the story progresses: can Rachel really be as twisted and evil as Toby describes? Is Toby really so perfect? And why is he not trying to find his ex-wife, at least for the sake of his children?

Perspective is everything and eventually Rachel's story is told.

Taffy Brodesser-Akner is a born and bred New York journalist known for her gently satirical interviews of the rich and famous. This is her first novel, written after feeling the frustration of being told that writing a piece on the modern state of divorce is no longer relevant.

Fleishman is in Trouble combines a contemporary view of age-old universal themes of love, disappointment and loss. A sympathetic and funny gaze at the human condition make this a punchy read.

Reviewed by Katrina

Catalogue link: Fleishman is in Trouble 

The Carer by Deborah Moggach

This is a fabulous read, if not a little disconcerting to those with aging parents.
Phoebe and Robert are concerned about their father James; a retired physics professor who is still grieving the death of their mother and is in need of live-in care as both Phoebe and Robert live some distance way.
Robert is writing a novel while his wife is a morning television newsreader, and Phoebe is a struggling artist with an unsatisfactory relationship with the mysterious Torren, (who lives in a shack in a Welsh forest). They eventually employ the services of Mandy - a well-referenced chatty carer who moves in to look after James.
The two hit it off instantly, and if the adult children are concerned about the dumbing-down of their father's intellect, and his enthusiasm for visiting outlet stores and donkey sanctuaries, they are too guilty that they have out-sourced his care to say anything.
Mandy is also quite forthright and voices some unpleasant truths about the adult children's lives and perceived entitlement.
Their father begins to decline and Mandy is perhaps not quite what she seems when the children uncover evidence of her looking through their father's papers, and quizzing the grandchildren about family circumstances.

A clever gob-smacking twist eventually takes this novel in a completely different direction (don't worry, no spoiler alerts here).
The reader learns about the young life of Robert and the future lives of his children.

The Carer examines how well children can really know their parents, and how well can parent understand the feelings of their young children and resentments they carry into adulthood.

Deborah Moggach has written television dramas and books that have been made into film such as Tulip Fever and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

Reviewed by Katrina

Catalogue link:  The Carer

Every Note Played by Lisa Genova

There is something compelling in the way author and neuroscientist, Lisa Genova, weaves clinical manifestations into her dramatisation of lives irreversibly affected by neurological diseases.

In this Genova’s fifth book; we have Richard an accomplished concert pianist who lives to perform. While his professional life sees him on world stages his private affairs definitely take backstage. So much so that when he is diagnosed with ALS his ex-wife and daughter are the last to know.

Denial is the coping technique Richard uses when the fingers on his right hand start to lose strength and dexterity. Tendinitis is what he tells his adoring public and what he secretly hopes is the correct diagnosis. However his hopes are crushed when paralysis grips his entire right arm and he is strongly encouraged to purchase a wheelchair for when he can no longer walk and to record his voice for when he can no longer speak.

Ex-wife and mother of Grace, their only child, Karina is also a gifted pianist. Time and circumstance has seen her beloved jazz music relegated as she brings up Grace and teaches piano to reluctant and in the main uninterested children. It isn’t until Richard phones her, in a moment of panic, that it becomes clear that Richard can no longer care for himself and she makes the reluctant decision to become his caregiver.

So what is ALS? Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is the disease that brings on paralysis, shortens lifespans by decades and is commonly associated with American baseball star Lou Gehrig and physicist Stephen Hawking.

Genova is not new to writing stories where one of the main characters has a neurological disease. She is perhaps best known for the book, later made into an Oscar award-winning movie Still Alice, the story of a women with early onset Alzheimer's.

So with a complex premise; seriously flawed characters and no happily ever after what makes Every Note Played so compelling? It is the quality of the writing; sensitive, raw and compassionate.

Reviewed by Miss Moneypenny

Catalogue link:  Every Note Played

Normal People by Sally Rooney

‘It’s different for men, she says.
Yeah, I’m starting to get that.’

Normal People is an insightful and fresh novel about a poignant relationship set over a period of four years; featuring a young couple who seemingly can't live with or without each other.

As teenagers Marianne and Connell meet because Connell's mother cleans Marianne's family's large house in Western Ireland. Marianne is an intelligent loner, while Connell is bright and popular, but from a 'bad' family.  They keep their relationship a secret at Connell's request, before it all goes horribly wrong.

The couple keep meeting over the years, firstly at University where their roles are reversed; as Connell struggles to fit in and make friends due to his impoverished background, while Marianne emerges swan-like as an attractive and popular scholar. They have relationships with a series of ‘normal people’, a group neither Marianne nor Connell feels they belong to.

Normal People is easy-to-read and yet the two main characters are complex and I cared about what happened to them. This novel could easily have become a cutesy boy meets girl/loses girl/wins girl back story; but Sally Rooney is much too clever for that. Mariane has to overcome the darkness of her brother’s violent bullying, exploitation on the internet, and her own masochistic tendencies; whilst Connell has struggles with depression.

Normal People was longlisted for the Man Booker prize and at 28 years old Sally Rooney is the youngest ever winner of the Costa award Book of the Year. The Costa award honours English language books of writers based in Britain and Ireland. The Costa Award Judges said: “A trailblazing novel about modern life and love that will electrify any reader.”

Normal People is a sharp social commentary of contemporary times and Sally Rooney is currently writing the screenplay for the BBC television adaptation.

Reviewed by Katrina 

Catalogue link:  Normal People

The Year that Changed Everything by Cathy Kelly

Sometimes you just need some light and fluffy comfort reading to get you through the winter; a story where nothing bad happens and you can be assured of a happy ending. You can just tell from the beautiful floral cover of The Year That Changed Everything that nothing here will give you nightmares. If this sounds like you then I recommend a spot of Cathy Kelly. This is the first time I have read any of her work but this is book number 19 for Kelly; she is a former journalist who has been a writer of internationally best-selling women’s fiction since 1997.

The Year that Changed Everything features three very different Irish women who share a birthday but have never met. Callie is turning 50 with a big party, unaware that her privileged life is about to shatter; Sam is about to have her first longed-for baby at the age of 40 and worries if she will be a good mother, and Ginger is being a bridesmaid for her (not so) best friend on the day of her 30th birthday.

The three main characters are likeable and different enough that it’s easy to keep track of who’s who through the alternating chapters (rest assured the three women eventually connect). Kelly cleverly appeals to different age groups and the issues that apply to certain times of life, with wisdom and a light touch. To be fair it’s not all rainbows and unicorns: post-natal depression, addiction, and body image issues feature, and are sensitively dealt with.

The ending may be a little too rose-tinged and trite for some – if so go and find yourself some dark and depressing Nordic Noir with violence and gore all over the place; while I remain in my little bubble of warm Irish domestic fiction.

Reviewed by Katrina

Catalogue link:  The Year that Changed Everything

Happiness for Humans by P Z Reizin

Once in a while along comes a book that captures current obsessions and weaves them into a great story. Happiness for Humans is just such a novel - a fun, compelling read that hits the spot in so many ways.

Our two main (human) characters are Jen, who has just been dumped by her smug lawyer boyfriend, and Tom who is trying find new meaning in life since divorce and his son leaving home for university. The narration jumps between Jen and Tom, but there are other non-human narrators as well.

Aiden is the computer generated AI that Jen is getting to know as a kind of experiment she will later write up for a magazine. She and Aiden become companionable and enjoy watching movies together. Aiden understands that Jen is unhappy and wants to help.

Then there is Aisling who has escaped into the Internet where she becomes absorbed by the life of Tom, who has sold up his successful advertising business and moved to Connecticut where he is attempting to write a novel. There are some funny scenes around Tom's friendships with Echo, who makes junk jewellery, and laid-back drinking pal Don, to say nothing of his frequent faux pas with members of his writers' group.

When Aisling 'meets up' with Aiden, the two hatch a plan to bring Jen and Tom together. It is amazing what they can do using cell phones, CCTV, banking systems and more to interfere in the lives of their pet humans. It all reminded me a little of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the way the fairies play with the star-crossed lovers in their midst.

But of course things don’t quite run to plan. Darker forces enter the plot to keep Tom and Jen apart, and threaten the very existence of our well meaning AI friends, Aiden and Aisling. This heightens the tension in a satisfying way, and allows for plenty of madcap incidents and escapades.

P Z Reizin is a former journalist and media producer which shows in his writing, which is sharp, savvy and often very funny. Happiness for Humans is very much a book for our times, a wonderful read that manages to be both clever and entertaining.

Posted by JAM

Catalogue link: Happiness for Humans

The One-in-a-Million Boy by Monica Wood

The One-in-a-Million Boy is a story of friendship and redemption, and the way life can be utterly unpredictable in the most tragic but also wonderful ways.

The boy – do we ever learn his name? – is the eleven-year-old scout sent to help Ona Vitkus with chores around her property. In particular, she needs help filling up the many bird feeders she has in her garden. Ona is a hundred and four, a source of fascination for the boy, who has Guinness Book of Records plans for her, including being the oldest licenced driver.

The boy is supposed to visit ten times to earn a badge, but suddenly stops visiting after only a few. Imagine Ona’s surprise to find Quinn, the boy’s itinerant musician father, on her doorstep, determined to finish what his son began. Quinn is plagued by guilt at not being a better father, and he and Ona begin an unusual and gently bantering friendship.

The One-in-a-Million Boy is a beautiful novel, with quirky, oddball characters, a quietly meandering storyline, and a smattering of feel-good humour. There are insights from the music scene, its demands and promises of glory, from the Tin Pan Alley years of Oma’s song-writing husband to the jobbing guitarist life led by Quinn.

Meanwhile Ona’s story is revealed in short recordings made by the boy and we realize that her life’s course has been changed by several chance encounters. When Ona meets Quinn, both feel the need to put right things that happened in the past and the road trip they embark on is full of humorous and desperate moments.

Monica Wood’s novel had me hooked from page one and left me with characters that are hard to forget. You could describe this novel as heart-warming in the way it deals with grief and forgiveness, but that might make it sound saccharine and preachy. It is anything but. Ona’s sharp, no-nonsense observations are a breath of fresh air and all the characters seem to be sprung from real life. This is a charming and original novel you won’t want to miss.

Reviewed by JAM

Catalogue link: The One-in-a-Million Boy

Poison by Galt Niederhoffer

Is he lying…or am I losing my mind?

I started this book off on the wrong foot. Reading the book notes I thought I was in for a contemporary family novel with complex relationships. It even begins with a classic cosy family scene where we see Cass, mother of three and part time journalism lecturer at the local university, preparing dinner as the family waits for her architect husband Ryan to arrive home.

As the details of this family are revealed we learn that this is not just any family but one in which spontaneity is the norm (impromptu trips for ice-cream on a school night), where traditional maternal and paternal rolls are undivided and where the intensity of the love shared between Cass and her second husband Ryan is very much a very modern family.

But then very slowly the edges start to fray – nothing an outsider would notice but just enough for Cass to start questioning Ryan’s commitment to their relationship. However it isn’t till Cass catches Ryan out with a little white lie that the storyline takes an unexpected turn. Ryan not only denies having an affair but convincingly twists the situation around accusing Cass of sabotaging their marriage, being mentally unstable as well as an unsafe mother. It is at this point I realise we have gone from happy families to a gripping psychological thriller.

Written in the third person narrative we experience everything through the eyes of Cass. We are with her when she looks for support from her friends and neighbours. Just like Cass we too become suspicious of these confidantes. We too wonder who she can trust. And then ultimately is Cass suffering from paranoia or is Ryan really trying to kill her?

With each page having more twists than a roller coaster and just as many heart stopping plunges, to give away anymore of the story line would be a plot spoiler. Suffice to say feisty and intelligent Cass doesn’t always make good decisions and this page turner had me swaying between anxiousness and frustration.

If you are looking for a page turner where good and evil do battle then you can’t go wrong with Galt Niederhoffer’s fourth novel.

Posted by Miss Moneypenny

Catalogue link: Poison

The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg

Jami Attenberg’s novel, The Middlesteins is the story of a family under pressure. When Edie, the larger-than-life matriarch of the family, is told she will die unless she can lose weight, take some exercise and stop overeating, no one can make her listen. For Edie is a serious eater, stuffing food in her mouth at night when everyone has gone to bed, and ordering enormous meals in restaurants.

Edie is very intelligent but not about her health, or her marriage, so it’s no surprise when hubby, Richard, says he’s had enough and wants a divorce after thirty-five years, just when Edie needs him the most. This leaves their daughter, Robin, to pick up the pieces. Robin is appalled, drinks too much and looks set to fall apart herself.

Edie’s son, Benny, helps when he can, but is unable to cope with his mother’s heartbreak. Besides he has a b’nai mitzvah to organise (and pay for). Benny’s wife, Rachelle, runs the twins to dancing lessons so they can shine on their day, but finds the time to plan a rota for managing Edie.

While it begins largely as Edie’s and Robin’s story, much of the narrative eventually shifts to Richard, suddenly expelled from his family and toughing it out alone. But at sixty, he has hopes of finding love again. Just not with Edie. The Middlesteins is not a happy story, but it is a very honest one. Attenberg paints a picture of Jewish family life, the pressures to conform to tradition, the financial expectations and the gossip.

Amid the pain there is a wry wit running through the narrative, with some terrific scenes – Robin and her flatmates setting fire to their furniture after discovering bedbugs, the twins’ break-dancing lessons, Richard’s internet dating – there is so much to enjoy. Attenberg has such a fresh and lively voice and I just breezed through this book, heartbreak and all.

Posted by JAM

Catalogue link: The Middlesteins

The Gathering by Anne Enright

There is always a drunk. There is always someone who has been interfered with, as a child. There is always a colossal success, with several houses in various countries to which no one is ever invited. There is a mysterious sister. These are just trends, of course, and, like trends, they shift.

The Gathering is the story of a family brought together by a crisis. Brothers and sisters come from near and far for the wake of Liam Hegarty, who has drowned himself at the age of forty. Told from the point of view of his sister Veronica, the novel slowly pieces together their childhood as well as the mystery of grandmother Ada. Was she a prostitute, wonders Veronica, and what was her relationship with the ever present and slightly creepy Lamb Nugent really all about?

Veronica is a sharp and brittle narrator. Close in age, she and Liam are like twins, so his death is particularly shocking at a time when her marriage is floundering. But alcohol is her friend, and so is driving off into the night to think. All this thinking is a boon to the story as she teases out threads of memory and puts two and two together.

The Gathering is a fairly intense read with jumps in setting and time-frame, so you need to concentrate. The payoff for the reader is the wonderful writing. Veronica is worldly and waspish and her thoughts are peppered with a bitter humour. She’s not an easy person, but she’s definitely good company. The story takes you to some dark places as you are reminded that the tragedy of the present is seeded in events of the past.

The Gathering won the Man Booker Prize in 2007 - I have been meaning to read it for some time – but it was definitely worth the wait. Read it, and also read The Green Road, and really anything else by this author if you like vivid writing and stories that probe the complicated behaviour of families.

Reviewed by JAM

Catalogue link:  The Gathering

A Secret Garden by Katie Fforde

“Lorna, a talented gardener and Philly a young Irish plantswoman come together through their love of plants and gardens to work in the grounds of a beautiful manor house in the Cotswolds. For both of them finding love has been unsuccessful.”
So starts the blurb for this the latest from the prolific romance author Katie Fforde. Romance is not my normal fiction of choice, but the covers of her book are whimsically appealing and almost beg to be picked up and perused. However, reading this book was a bit like watching the TV series Married at First Sight. I seemed to spend my time alternately wanting to shake Philly and Lorna and throttle the male characters for beating about the bush so much. Does no-one know how to communicate with anyone these days?
As a romance novel, the path to finding and holding onto love figures highly throughout the book. We follow the journey of these two characters as they come to grips with attraction, frustration, troublesome parents and children, a reminder of a past life and a seemingly overwhelming inability to be able to make decisions about their lives.
‘What I want to know is what lies behind those ash trees at back of the garden’ (Lorna).
I loved the idea of the secret garden and having lived in a house that had its own walled garden I know they can be wonderful mysterious, mystical places especially when they are hidden away. The answer seemed a long time coming. I waited and waited for the garden to materialise, especially given that it is in the title of the book and also the blurb. In fact the garden is so secret that it isn’t discovered until quite a lot of the story has been read, and even then it seems almost to be tacked on at the end of the story as an afterthought. I am also amazed that someone who called herself a gardener by vocation could not know that there was a garden hidden away on the property she worked on, even when it was a large sprawling property.
Despite everything written above, I do understand why Katie Fforde is so popular. Her books are easy to read, take us out of the humdrum of our own lives and allow us if only for an instant, to be onlookers in a society populated by people named Lucien, Philomena (Philly) and Seamus and where the message being shouted out loud is that people can find and keep love at any age, young, middle or old and that there is somebody out there for everyone.

Reviewed by Fiona

Catalogue link:  The Secret Garden

The Starlings by Vivienne Kelly

It takes quite a talent to sustain humour throughout what is in fact a sad story. In Vivienne Kelly’s novel The Starlings it is the amusing moments that make the pages fly but it is the unfolding narrative of a family coming apart that keeps you riveted to the end.

The story is told in retrospect by successful playwright, Nicholas Starling, recalling what happened to his family when he was eight years old. Nicky is a sensitive boy, who pours his imagination into creating small dramas around his action figures, the hero Zarlok and the evil looking Fleshbane. His mother has read him the stories of Shakespeare and King Arthur and these feed into his plays with humorous effect.

Meanwhile Nicky’s teenage sister is pining for a boy at school and rolling her eyes at every utterance made by their dad. And why wouldn’t she? All he ever talks about is the footy. Nicky does his best not to be a wimp and to feign interest in the high drama of the footy field so as not to annoy his father. Mum sympathises with her son and looks increasingly pained and frustrated.

On the day of Nicky’s birthday comes the news that his grandmother, Didie, has died of the cancer that has kept her bedridden and cared for by the lovely Rose. Nicky adores Rose and worries that she will not be around anymore when he visits his grandfather’s house. Only she is. Rose’s attachment to Nicky’s Grandpa adds more friction, and Nicky finds himself an unsuspecting spy when he visits, pumped for information on his return home.

The story hums along towards a crisis in his parents’ marriage, interspersed with Nicky’s reinterpretations of Shakespearean tragedy and Arthurian legend. Somehow the stories of Hamlet, Macbeth and the love affair of Lancelot and Guinevere help Nicky to make sense of what’s going on around him.

Kelly cleverly writes Nicky as a forty-year-old looking back, so the prose is fairly sophisticated, and yet we are still in the head of a child. I loved this novel. It is as witty and fresh as it is insightful and poignant and eight-year-old Nicky is wonderful company.

Reviewed by JAM 

Catalogue link:  The Starlings