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New Author
Interviews |
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Paul Auster
A video interview with Paul Auster about his 2009 book Invisible
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Malla Nunn
A brief but revealing Q&A with Malla Nunn, author of A Beautiful Place to Die, the first in a new series set in 1950s South Africa starring Detective Emmanuel Cooper.
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Kate DiCamillo
Kate DiCamillo and Yoko Tanaka, the illustrator of The Magician's Elephant, discuss the writing and illustrating of the book. In a separate Q&A, Kate discusses The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.
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Brigid Pasulka
Brigid Pasulka explains why she wrote her first novel, A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True, which is set in Poland during World War II, and in Kraków 50 years later.
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October
Recommendations
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October 14, 2009
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Next
Issue:
On October 28 we'll send you "BookBrowse Highlights:
November & early December Previews".
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Hello,
In this issue I invite you to:
- Read reviews of, and back-stories about,
After The
Fire, a Still Small Voice, a first
novel by Evie Wyld; and
The Wasted
Vigil by Nadeem Aslam, set in
Afghanistan.
- Enter to win copies of
The
Casebook of Victor Frankenstein by
renowned English author Peter Ackroyd.
- And, for book clubs, enter to win copies
of
Cleopatra's Daughter. Author
Michelle Moran will send the 25 winning book
clubs copies for every member of their
clubs!
- Enjoy a Q&A with Uwem Akpan about his
first collection of stories,
Say You're
One of Them.
- Browse our book club recommendation,
Finding
Nouf set in Saudi Arabia.
- Browse our latest book club interview
with a club that's transformed their
traditional meetings into literary salons.
- Read blogs by Elizabeth Berg and Cherie
Priest.
Best regards
Davina Morgan-Witts
Editor, BookBrowse.com
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Hardcover Recommendation
Below is part of BookBrowse's review.
Read the review in full here
After the Fire, a Still Small
Voice by Evie Wyld
Hardcover (Aug 2009), 304 pages.
Publisher: Pantheon Books
ISBN 9780307378460
BookBrowse Rating:
Critics' Consensus:
 From
the book jacket: After the departure of the
woman he loves, Frank drives out to a shack by the
ocean that he had last visited as a teenager. There,
among the sugarcane and sand dunes, he struggles to
rebuild his life.
Forty years earlier, Leon is growing up in Sydney,
turning out treacle tarts at his parents' bakery and
flirting with one of the local girls. But when he's
drafted to serve in Vietnam, he finds himself
suddenly confronting the same experiences that haunt
his war-veteran father.
As these two stories weave around each other, we
learn what binds Frank and Leon together, and what
may end up keeping them apart.
Review: Evie Wyld's impressive first novel
employs the harsh and often dangerous Australian
environment as a setting for the loneliness and
devastation that can ruin a man's life after he
returns from war. Asked about writing a book almost
completely from a male perspective, she says, "I've
always leant toward a more masculine voice. It was
quite a nice thing to do to sit at my desk and to
have to physically imagine myself as a man and sort
of stomp around the flat a bit." She wrote the book
as a tribute to her beloved uncle who fought in
Vietnam, only to return traumatized.
In After the Fire, the trauma reaches through
three generations. Frank Collard's grandfather
fought in Korea and his father went to Vietnam.
Though these two men were to a certain degree
rescued by caring wives, neither one could conduct
life successfully or be a good father after
returning to the civilian world. Through chapters
alternating between Frank's viewpoint and that of
his father Leon, the reader discovers along with
Frank the tragic history of this family. It is their
inability and unwillingness to talk about their war
experiences that creates the legacy of suppressed
rage, alcoholism and depression that runs like a
live wire through the generations of Collards.
The book requires a reader with the necessary
toughness to confront these horrors. That said, the
story should interest both men and women, since it
is usually the men who go to war and the women who
wait, worry and take care of the men when they
return. I would also recommend it to adult children
of soldiers or young adults who may be deciding
whether or not to join the military. Certainly, Ms.
Wyld does not glorify war. ....continued
Australia's role in the Korean and Vietnam Wars
When war broke out in Korea in June 1950, the United
Nations Security Council asked all of its members to
assist in repelling the North Korean invasion into
South Korea. North Korea was under the influence of
the Soviet Union and later in the war Communist
China entered the fray as well. Fifteen nations sent
contingents to defend South Korea, with the United
States being the largest.
Australia committed a squadron of Air Force
personnel, equipment, and a battalion from the Royal
Australian Regiment. The country's security was felt
to be at risk from Communist aggression and the
Prime Minister was eager to show its full support of
the United Nations. More particularly he wanted to
secure a formal alliance with the United States, who
were assuming the former British Empire's dominance
in Asia. The result was the ANZUS Treaty of 1951.
Casualties from Australian troops came to over 1500,
with 339 killed. ... ....continued
Reviewed by Judy Krueger
Above is part of BookBrowse's review of After
the Fire, a Still Small Voice.
Read the review in full here
Browse the book
Write your own review
Buy this book at Amazon
Compare prices at AddAll
Read-Alikes:
Dirt Music by Tim Winton
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
The Father of All Things by Tom Bissell
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
The King's Rifle by Biyi Bandele
Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
This is one of the
14 detailed book reviews in our early October issue
of "BookBrowse Recommends". BookBrowse's online
magazines are one of the many benefits of a
BookBrowse membership. Start your
free one-month trial now.
Patrons of
libraries that subscribe to BookBrowse can access
BookBrowse's membership features, including the
ezines, for free by logging in through your
library's website. Librarians, please visit
BookBrowse for Libraries
to find out more.
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Paperback
Recommendation
Below is part of BookBrowse's review of
The Wasted Vigil.
Read the review in full here
The Wasted Vigil
by Nadeem Aslam
Paperback (Sep 2009), 336 pages.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN 9780307388742
BookBrowse Rating:
Critics' Consensus:
 From
the book jacket: The author of Maps for
Lost Lovers gives us a new novel-at once
lyrical and blistering - about war in our time,
told through the lives of five people who come
together in post-9/11 Afghanistan.
Review: To enter Nadeem Aslam's world is
to enter a darker, more perfectly rendered world
than our own. Here, cemeteries are 'bone
forests,' night insects have knees and elbows of
'finest wire,' memories rise 'like bruises' and
the mountains ripple like 'sapphire water.' The
characters that inhabit this world are also
deftly drawn, and they echo familiar people and
situations. Yet, they are distinctly different;
each character is a stereotype unwrapped, a
mysterious personality revealed. What we think
we know about Aslam's characters in the
beginning, we learn by the end is merely
superficial.
The Wasted Vigil explores the
relationship between six tragic people in
Afghanistan. Marcus, Lara, David, Casa, Dunia,
and James come together in Marcus's house to
wait. Each is searching for something, but as
the title suggests, they will ultimately wait in
vain. Employing irony and flashback, Aslam
delicately reveals the deep ties connecting
these characters. As the six interact, they grow
into a type of family as they each become the
replacement for someone important in another's
life. The hatred they are supposed to have for
each other - Casa should hate David for being
American, Marcus should hate Lara for being
Russian- begins to disappear. It doesn't
completely leave, we watch the characters
struggle with their perceptions of 'the other,'
but we see the internal discussion and this
opens up a larger rumination on the function of
stereotype and the power of prejudice. Even
Casa, the heartless terrorist, the creature who
vows to destroy America, becomes human as we
watch him help David build a birch-bark canoe or
wonder where his mother is; and when we learn of
the abject abuse that was leveled on him as a
child in a madrassa, we begin to feel deep pity
for him. Aslam's ability to reveal the complex
qualities in all his characters is one of this
novel's strengths. ...
continued
Afghanistan 1979 - 1994
At the beginning of the novel, Lara, a
character reminiscent, in her painful past and
gracefulness, of Lara in Dr. Zhivago,
arrives on Marcus's doorstep to uncover the fate
of her brother Benedikt, who came to Afghanistan
with the 1979 Soviet invasion...
The Soviets invaded Afghanistan at the request
of the largely unpopular, pro-Soviet Afghan
government, who sought military assistance
against the Mujahideen (various Afghan
opposition groups who eventually formed one
aligned political bloc). The Mujahideen were
partially funded by the CIA during the Carter
and Reagan administrations, and by a number of
other countries. In 1979, the Soviet Union
intervened to maintain the communist regime in
Afghanistan. During this same year, President
Carter, who saw this altercation as critical to
the Cold War struggle, pledged support to the
insurgent forces. Once the Soviets invaded, they
quickly took control of the urban centers and
major military bases, which had the undesired
effect of exacerbating nationalist fervor and
fueling the rebellion. The war soon devolved
into a pattern of concerted offenses by the
Soviets and guerrilla warfare from the
Mujahideen.
In 1989, after ten years of fighting, the
Soviets exited the country as no solution or
victory to the conflict was in sight. Over one
million Afghans were killed during this war, and
five million fled the country. ...
continued
Reviewed by Sarah Sacha Dollacker
Above is part of BookBrowse's review of
The Wasted Vigil.
Read the review in full here
Browse the book
Write your own review
Buy this book at Amazon
Compare prices at AddAll
Read-Alikes:
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled
Hosseini
Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje
Half A Life by V.S. Naipaul
The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra
The Warlord's Son by Dan Fesperman
This is one of
the 14 detailed book reviews in our early
October issue of "BookBrowse Recommends".
BookBrowse's online magazines are one of the
many benefits of a BookBrowse membership. Start
your
free one-month trial now.
Patrons of
libraries that subscribe to BookBrowse can
access BookBrowse's membership features,
including the ezines, for free by logging in
through your library's website. Librarians
please visit
BookBrowse for Libraries
to find out more.
|
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Giveaway
The Casebook of Victor
Frankenstein
by Peter Ackroyd
Publication Date: Oct 2009
Enter the Giveaway
Buy at Amazon
Compare prices at AddAll
From the Jacket
This haunting and atmospheric novel opens with a
heated discussion, as Shelley challenges the
conventionally religious Frankenstein to consider
his atheistic notions of creation and life.
Afterward, these concepts become an obsession for
the young scientist. As Victor begins conducting
anatomical experiments to reanimate the dead, he at
first uses corpses supplied by the coroner. But
these specimens prove imperfect for Victor's
purposes. Moving his makeshift laboratory to a
deserted pottery factory in Limehouse, he makes
contact with the Doomsday men-the
resurrectionists-whose grisly methods put
Frankenstein in great danger as he works feverishly
to bring life to the terrifying creature that will
bear his name for eternity.
Filled with literary lights of the day such as
Bysshe Shelley, Godwin, Lord Byron, and Mary Shelley
herself, and penned in period-perfect prose, The
Casebook of Victor Frankenstein is sure to
become a classic of the twenty-first century.
Reviews:
"Starred Review. [M]ost will agree that his novel
is a brilliant riff on ideas that have informed
literary, horror and science fiction for nearly two
centuries." - Publishers Weekly
"Essential for Ackroyd fans and readers who can't
get enough of Frankenstein's monster." - Library
Journal
"A questionable mishmash of cultural, scientific,
literary, psychological and political material gives
birth to an atmospheric but unnatural doppelganger
to Shelley's classic." - Kirkus Reviews
"Ackroyd takes Mary Shelley's hint of the
doppelganger, and plays with it fascinatingly in a
fast-paced thriller.... The novel leaps to its
climax nimbly as a pursuing fiend, and ends suitably
in fiery revelation." - The Independent (UK)
"A brilliant jeu d'esprit. Above all, it stands as a
tribute to the power of the human imagination." -
Daily Telegraph (UK)
"It takes a writer of considerable confidence, wit
and skill to attempt a modern retelling of a bona
fide English classic...[Ackroyd] is the man for the
job.... terrifying and fascinating in equal
measure.... An intelligent, creepily beautiful and
haunted thing." - The Times (UK)
___________________________
3 people will each win a hardcover copy of The
Casebook of Victor Frankenstein.
This giveaway is open to residents of the USA
only, unless you are a BookBrowse member, in which
case you are eligible to win wherever you might
live.
Enter the giveaway here
Past Winners
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Featured
Author Q&A - Uwem Akpan
After publishing "An Ex-Mas Feast", one of the
stories in his first collection Say You're
One of Them (2008), in The New Yorker's
Début Fiction issue, Akpan discussed his writing
with Cressida Leyshon, deputy fiction editor.
Read the Interview
Books by this author
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Book Club Q&A
After 15 years, Ron Longe's book club recently
transformed their traditional meetings into
literary events with the author. They create
themed menus and invite other book clubs,
publishing professionals, and friends to make it
a memorable night of fun, networking, and
serious discussion.
Read the interview
|
Cleopatra's
Daughter - Book Club Giveaway
 Are
you a book club member? Does your book club
enjoy historical fiction?
Beginning October 10th and ending November 15th,
all book club members are invited to enter for a
chance to win personalized hardcover copies of
Cleopatra's
Daughter by Michelle Moran for
every
member of their club.
More than 400
copies available.
25 Book Clubs Will Win!
Michelle is also available to chat with your
club (whether or not you win) via speakerphone!
And for those of you who do not belong to a book
club but would like a personalized book, please
feel free to check out Michelle's bookplates
page.
Visit Michelle Moran's website to enter
http://www.michellemoran.com/bookclubgiveaway.htm
Please, only one entry per person, and
one entry per club.
Due to the cost of mailing overseas, this
contest is open to US Book Clubs only.
|
Blogs
Steampunk for
Beginners by Cherie Priest
 It's
not as new, confusing, or weird as you may have
heard. In fact, this sub-genre of science fiction is
actually quite warm and welcoming - and it's
loads of fun. So let's take a minute to talk
about what it is, and where it came from.
"Steampunk" is a style (of books, video games, comic
books, movies, and more) that hearkens back to the
fantastic/adventure literature of the nineteenth
century. Jules Verne's stories about exploration and
mayhem, H.G. Wells and his tales of alien invasion
and time travel, and Mary Shelley's tome about
science gone awry ... in these famous works you'll
find the seeds of the modern steampunk sensibility.
. ....
continued
Pride Falls by
Elizabeth Berg
 I
have a friend who's a very famous author, and the
other day I asked her, "What's the first thing you
wrote that you were proud of?" And she said it was
her first novel. Which is a beautiful novel, but it
was written when she was in her thirties. And I
thought, What? Because the first thing I remember
being proud of (and I'm talking proud, proud) was a
poem I wrote when I was nine. It ended with the
soul-stirring line, "The beauty enchantment now was
broke." I actually submitted this poem to a magazine
(where it was promptly rejected, needless to say).
Never mind. I got proud again, very soon afterwards,
of something I wrote in the third grade. It was a
page-long essay about Abraham Lincoln and the
Emancipation Proclamation, accompanied for no extra
charge by a construction paper silhouette. The essay
moved me to tears every time I read it. The last
line here was: "He had always wanted to free the
slaves, and now he had." So. There you are. Don't
you have tears in your eyes? ....
continued
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