Imbecile definition: a person who behaves in an extremely stupid way. By no means can Mary Ann be described as such. She is a strong child and a level-headed, caring and self-educated young woman. With no punctuation and an open verse, it is, initially, a difficult read. Do persevere. The more I read, the more fluid it became and I kind of 'found my feet'. Challenging read - yes. Interesting story - yes. A different time, a different life - yes.
View Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile
Beautifully drawn characters and a great sense of time and place encourage the reader to tackle the sometimes difficult language, but the Irish tempo soon estabishes itself in your mind. A moving read that will remain with you long after the last page is read.
View At Swim, Two Boys
I have never read anything like this book. I had thought that Coney Island in the first years of the 20th century might be interesting, but this world of gangsters, impoverished immigrants, circus freaks and show people just drags you in and holds you fast. Totally absorbing.
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This is the kind of story that chews you up and spits you out at the end, older and wiser. It’s presented as part biography, part academic paper and part contemporary murder story. You will learn more than you ever wanted to know about the history of the Mormon Church and its modern adherents. It’s riveting.
View The 19th Wife
This is probably the best book I've read this year. It made me think a lot and laugh a little. A wide ranging tale about a child genius and his search for his father. Along the way we confront, with him, modern life, education stereotyping and much more.
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A mammoth novel featuring four stories of crime, murder, conspiracy and fraud. Its size makes War & Peace look like a Janet & John reading book! The mixture of characters and complexities of the plot lines are a major achievement, reminiscent of John le Carré. The book may be very long - very explosive, very risqué and brave in its entirety, but it's also very good. It may have taken me two months to read but it definitely wasn’t time wasted.
View The Kills
This is not an easy read but I believe this is because the book captures modern Africa, and so is chockful of traditions and magic about which I knew nothing but which came alive as I read. Full too of Black history and colonialism, beauty and cruelty which made me despair. Read this book if it's the only one you read this century.
Good for a wild ride through ancient and modern China, this reads a little like a short story collection although there is an overriding story arc concerning who is sending Wang mysterious letters and why. I wouldn't call it an enjoyable read, since it’s really very grim and unsettling. Yet the unpredictable nature of the narrative is intriguing, and it is certainly a powerful story.
Structured as if in musical form and written as a collection of 'selected papers', you are immersed in the obsessional world of bagpipe music. You hear the low drone in the sonorously, lyrical prose echoing in the landscape and understand the meaning of home and loneliness, love and loss. The rhythm and repetition of the music is mirrored in the text as the story of fathers and sons unfolds. Not an easy read but enchanting and original.
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A sensory assault into an inhospitable Greenland that seamlessly combines a hallucinatory, imaginative world with colonial history. The multi-stranded, audacious narrative has an intense emotional urgency that is somehow exhilarating despite the stark storytelling and enigmatic main protagonist. You may be shocked but will also appreciate the beauty.
View The Prophets of Eternal FjordYou won’t find the biggest bestsellers on Whichbook as everyone knows about them already. But you can use your enjoyment of a current bestseller to see titles with a similar mood that you might try next.
