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Aug 31

2023 Booker Longlist: House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng

Next up for our panel, we travel to Malaysia with Tan Tan Eng’s The House of Doors

Tan Twan Eng is probably one of the more well known authors on the list. He was born in Penang, Malaysia, and worked as an advocate in one of Kuala Lumpur’s leading law firms before becoming a full-time writer. His prior two novels were also listed as candidates for the Booker Prize. His second novel, The Garden of Evening Mists was shortlisted for the 2012 Booker prize and was named one of the 1001 books to read before you die (a list that brought several of our panelists together).

Synopsis from Booker Prize website: It is 1921 and at Cassowary House in the Straits Settlements of Penang, Robert Hamlyn is a well-to-do lawyer, his steely wife Lesley a society hostess. Their lives are invigorated when Willie, an old friend of Robert’s, comes to stay.

Willie Somerset Maugham is one of the greatest writers of his day. But he is beleaguered by an unhappy marriage, ill-health and business interests that have gone badly awry. He is also struggling to write. The more Lesley’s friendship with Willie grows, the more clearly she see him as he is – a man who has no choice but to mask his true self.

As Willie prepares to face his demons, Lesley confides secrets of her own, including her connection to the case of an Englishwoman charged with murder in the Kuala Lumpur courts – a tragedy drawn from fact, and worthy of fiction.

The novel will be released in the US on October 17th, 2023 and you can pre-order your copy here

Keep reading to find out how our panelists rated this book.

Aug 29

2023 Booker longlist: A Spell of Good Things by Ayòbámi Adébáyò

Next up for our panel is Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀’s A Spell of Good Things. Adébáyọ̀ is no stranger to literary acclaim. Her novel Stay with Me won the 9mobile Prize for Literature and Prix Les Afriques and was shortlist for the Women’s Prize. Many of our panelists have raved about her work.

Synopsis taken from Booker Prize website: Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀’s breathtaking novel shines a light on the haves and have-nots of Nigeria, and the shared humanity that lives in between. 

Ẹniọlá is tall for his age, a boy who looks like a man. His father has lost his job, so Ẹniọlá spends his days running errands, collecting newspapers and begging – dreaming of a big future.  Wuraola is a golden girl, the perfect child of a wealthy family, and now an exhausted young doctor in her first year of practice. But when sudden violence shatters a family party, Wuraola and Ẹniọlá’s lives become inextricably intertwined…

You can purchase a copy of the book here

Keep reading to find out how our panelists rated this book.

Aug 29

Read Around the World August 2023: The Democratic Republic of the Congo

Map link

Fun facts website https://factcity.com/facts-about-drc/

Due to its long name, Democratic Republic of the Congo is often referred to as DRC.
It is the second largest country in Africa
The capital city is called Kinshasa
Whilst you’re visiting, make sure you don’t take any pictures of the locals; it is believed to remove their spirit
Residents here enjoy a topical climate with wet and dry seasons split above and below the equator – north of the equator has a dry season from December to February and wet from April to October, whilst south of the equator is the opposite.
Several species of animal are endemic to DRC, including the Bonobos and Eastern Lowland Gorilla
French is the official language of DRC, however, around 700 native languages and dialects including Lingala, Kingwana, Kikongo and Tshiluba are also spoken here.
Despite not being one of the richest countries in the world, DRC actually has a space program
DRC grows coffee and sugar and produces palm oil, rubber and wood products
DRC exports diamonds, copper, crude oil, coffee and cobalt.

I chose to visit the DRC via Tram 83 by Fiston Mwanza Mujila. This was a 3 star read. Tram 83 is a night club in an un-named African country. The story revolves around those who frequent the night club and those who work there and specifically friends Lucien a writer fleeing from censorship and bad boy Requiem.

This is a very male novel, everything is seen through the eyes of the men, male characters are referred to by name whereas the women are referred to in sexual terms and appear to be either single mothers, respectable married women or prostitutes.

The action revolves around corruption, scamming tourists and the mining rush. The men are all there to exploit the countries natural resources or its women.

While the novel is vivid and alive it is also too male in outlook for me to fully appreciate it.

This quote for me best sums up what the novel is aiming to achieve:

“We’ve already had enough of squalor, poverty, syphilis and violence in African literature. Look around us. There are beautiful girls, good looking men, Brazza Beer, good music. Doesn’t all that inspire you? I’m concerned for the future of African literature in general. The main character in the African novel is always single, neurotic, perverse, depressive, childless, homeless and overburdened with debt. Here, we live, we fuck, we’re happy. There needs to be fucking in African literature too!”

Other readers visited in the following ways:

Currey from Litsy: King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild rated Pick and Before the Birth of the Moon by V. Y. Mudimbe also rated Pick.

Another book I read years ago and would recommend although the author is not from the DRC is Blood River by Tim Butcher.

Did you join us on this leg of our trip? Let us know what you read.

Next month we are off to Canada – this is the home of one of my favourite authors Margaret Atwood and she does have a new book out…Share your reading plans with us.

Aug 28

Prophet by Sin Blaché & Helen Macdonald

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Prophet by Sin Blaché & Helen Macdonald
UK Publication: August 2023
Reviewed by: Book Worm
Rating: [★★★★]

This ARC was provided by Random House UK (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review.

What a wild ride!

Aug 23

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2023 Booker Longlist – If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery

Next up for our panel is a debut novel by Johnathan Escoffery: If I Survive You

Jonathan Escoffery is no stranger to the literary world. His short stories have won several awards including the Plimpton Prize for fiction and 2020 ASME award for fiction. His work has appeared in the Paris Review, Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, and American Short Fiction. He has taught creative writing at numerous well-renowned colleges and universities and he founded the Boston Writers of Color Group.

If I Survive You is his debut novel and has received high praise from reviewers and authors across the world.

Synopsis from Booker Prize website: In 1979, as political violence consumes their native Kingston, Topper and Sanya flee to Miami. But they soon learn that the welcome in America will be far from warm.

Trelawny, their youngest son, comes of age in a society that regards him with suspicion and confusion. Their eldest son Delano’s longing for a better future for his own children is equalled only by his recklessness in trying to secure it.

As both brothers navigate the obstacles littered in their path – an unreliable father, racism, a financial crisis and Hurricane Andrew – they find themselves pitted against one another. Will their rivalry be the thing that finally tears their family apart?

You can purchase a copy of the book here

Keep reading to find out how our panelists rated this book.

Aug 21

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2023 Booker Longlist – Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry

It’s Booker season and our panel has begun our review of all the longlist books. Over the next month, we will be reviewing each of the 13 nominees. First up for our panel is Sebastian Barry’s Old God’s Time. Barry’s novels have been nominated several times for the Booker prize. A Long Long Way and The Secret Scripture were both shortlisted for the Booker, two others were nominated for the longlist, and he has won numerous other literary prizes.

The Booker panel describes Barry’s latest book as a “beautiful, haunting novel, in which nothing is quite what it seems, Sebastian Barry explores what we live through, what we live with, and what may survive of us.” Keep reading to see how our panel rated the book.

Aug 20