Book Talk
with Smiffs book & card store, Nerja
The Catalan author and
screenwriter Carlos Ruiz
Zafón exploded onto the
global literary world in
2001 with the publication of
La Sombra Del Viento,
which would later be
translated into the English
version, The Shadow Of
The Wind. That enthralling
gothic mystery set in
Barcelona was followed by
The Angel’s Game and The
Prisoner Of Heaven, two
novels building on the plot
lines and characters of the
first book.
plot follows Hannah 31, an
American post-doctoral
researcher looking into the
lives of women during the
German occupation of Paris
in 1940–44; and Tariq, 19,
who has run away from
Morocco, searching for sex
and adventure. Through their
culture clash, Faulks takes us
back into the hidden Paris of
‘the Dark Years’, the Algerian
war, and the simmering
discontents of the city’s
suburbs.
In Henki Kawamura’s novel,
If Cats Disappeared From
The World (p), the narrator’s
days are numbered. Estranged from his family, living alone
with only his cat, Cabbage,
for company, he was
unprepared for the doctor’s
diagnosis that he has only
months to live. But before he
can set about tackling his
bucket list, the Devil appears
with a special offer: in
exchange for making one
thing disappear, he can have
one extra day of life. Thus
begins a very bizarre week.
How do you decide what
makes life worth living? How
do you separate out what you
can do without from what
you hold dear? In dealing
with the Devil, the narrator
will take himself, and his
beloved cat, to the brink.
Now comes the translation
of El Laberinto De Los
Espiritus (2016), The Labyrinth Of The Spirits (l), the fourth
and final work featuring byzantine conspiracies in the saga of
the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, the memorable Barcelona
book repository.
The Labyrinth Of The Spirits is the lengthiest novel of the
four. It solves all the remaining mysteries in the previous three
books, but may also be read as a standalone work as the author
fills in enough of the previous plots. It leads off this month’s
Soltalk Hotlist of titles, some entirely new, others moving into
small paperback format for the first time or being reissued,
sometimes after years out of print. All are due for publication
on dates in September, with availability in print this month or
in early October. The Hotlist helps readers to plan and budget
for book ordering.
Transcription (l) by Kate
Atkinson picks up in 1940
as Juliet Armstrong, 18, is
reluctantly recruited into
the world of espionage in
an obscure department of
the UK secret service
monitoring British fascist
sympathisers. When World
War II ends, she presumes
the events of those years
have been relegated to the
past forever. Ten years
later, and now a producer at
the British Broadcasting
Corporation, Juliet is
unexpectedly confronted
by figures from her past.
There is a different war
now, and a different
battleground, but she finds herself once more under threat. A
reckoning is due, and she finally realises that there is no action
without consequence.
Other general fiction works worth a look include: Love Is Blind
(l), by William Boyd; Three Things About Elsie (p), by Joanna
Cannon; The Rules Of Magic (p), by Alice Hoffmann; French
Exit (l), by Patrick de Witt;
The Rules Of Seeing (l), by
Joe Heap; Ghost Wall (l), by
Sarah Moss; The Oblique
Place (p), by Caterina
Soderbaum; and, Wish You
Were Here (p), by Graham
Swift.
Standouts among the crime
fiction and thrillers include:
The Tattoo Thief (p), by
Alison Belsham; The Rhythm
Section (p), a Mark Burnell
novel that is soon to be a
major movie starring Jude
Law and Blake Lively; Fox (l),
by Frederick Forsyth; Denial
(p), by Peter James;
Hallowdene (p), by George
Paris Echo (l) is the latest novel from Sebastian Faulks, the
author of Birdsong. At its core lies a question; does an
understanding of history and a deep cultural awareness help
people to live better and more useful lives? Set in 2006, the
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