Diamonds At the Lost And Found by Sarah Aspinall

 

Diamonds At the Lost And Found by Sarah Aspinall.

Published in paperback 10th June 2021 by 4th Estate.

From the cover of the book:

My Mother attracted unusual people and events to her, and she made things happen….

Sarah Aspinall grew up in the glittering wake of her irrepressible mother Audrey. Born into poverty in 1930s Liverpool, Audrey had always known that she was destined for better things and was determined to shape that destiny for herself. From the fading seaside glamour of Southport, to New York and Hollywood, to post-war London and the stately homes of the English aristocracy, Audrey stylishly kicked down every door she encountered, on a ceaseless quest for excitement – and for love.

Once Sarah was born, she became Audrey’s companion on her adventures, travelling the world, scraping together an education for herself from the books found in hotels or given to her by strangers, and living on Audrey’s charm as they veered from luxury to poverty – an accessory to her mother’s desperate search for ‘the one’.

As Sarah grew older, she realised that theirs was a life hung about with mysteries. Why, for instance, had they spent ages living in a godforsaken motel in the Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina? Who was the charming Sabet Sabescue, and what was his hold over Audrey during several months in Cairo? And what on earth happened to the heirlooms that an ancient heiress, Miss Gillette, gave Sarah when they visited her in Palm Springs?

And why, when they returned to Southport was Audrey ostracised by the society she so longed to be part of?

Diamonds at the Lost and Found tells the story of how Sarah eventually pulled free of her mother’s gravitational pull to carve out a destiny of her own. It is a beguiling testament to dreams, defying convention and exasperated love.

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Diamonds at the Lost and Found is a fascinating love letter of a memoir from Sarah Aspinall to her remarkable mother Audrey, which I found myself consuming on one delicious bite - even though it left me with many contradictory feelings.

This is a book which tells Audrey's tale in an unusual way, befitting the story of a woman who was unconventional in every sense of the word, as it comprises a string of anecdotes and scraps of stories pieced together to give us a picture of the charismatic Audrey, a woman almost constantly on the search for glamour, excitement and true love - a woman not afraid to use her daughter as an accessory, nor to break the bounds of the rules imposed by polite society, in the pursuit of her dreams.

For the most part, this includes instances of Aspinall meeting a curious collection of murky and famous characters, many of whom were clearly Audrey's lovers, in exotic locations around the world, but because Aspinall tells it through the eyes of her childhood self, it lends an intriguing air of mystery and innocence to what might otherwise come across as a rather sordid existence. These episodes are also broken up with the details of Audrey's early life and times, which picture her as a force to be reckoned with, and a woman I think it would have been rather exciting to meet at her vivacious best.

It is not until Audrey finally manages to capture a man who not only fits the bill as husband material but also falls for her charms, back home in Southport, that the nature of the tale changes to one of the kind of domesticity that neither Audrey nor her daughter really know how to adjust to. Although, incredibly, Audrey and her new husband settle into a happy, if somewhat unconventional, marriage, it's clear that Aspinall herself struggled and rebellion was they only way she could cope with the change in their lives - leading to a turbulent period in her own life, before she too could find a way to move on from her past. 

There is much in this book that made me sad and uncomfortable, despite marvelling at the antics, escapades and sheer guts of Audrey, a woman well ahead of her time. It's clear from Aspinall's account that her childhood was one filled with incredible experiences, but it was also overwhelmed with loneliness, bemusement and yearning for a settled home life. Although Audrey had many talents, she was not a woman cut out for motherhood, and I found many of her lessons about how to be a woman, and her disregard for the importance of education, very troubling - especially considering the inevitable way her teenage daughter spiralled out of control when she was suddenly expected to adjust to Audrey's new domestic idyll.

It is interesting to me that Aspinall says this is a book took her a long time to write. As we grow older, our own attitudes to what has gone before, and our level of understanding about what our own parents went through changes over time. I find it hard to advocate her words that her own experience offers anything approaching a way to raise a child, but have been struck by the way she has found a way to make peace with her unconventional upbringing, the mystery that still surrounds much of Audrey's life, and her own behaviours that she acknowledges are traits she has inherited from her mother, highlighting the ways in which her mother's unorthodox lessons have shaped her into the independent and resilient person she is today rather than focus on the negatives. I suspect that Aspinall has not always felt so philosophical about her relationship with her mother, but the love and esteem she feels for the complicated woman that gave her life really shines out from these pages, and makes this memoir something special.

Diamonds at the Lost and Found is available to buy now in hardcover, paperback, e-book and audio formats from your favourite book retailer.

Thank you to Hannah Bright at Midas Public Relations for sending me a hardback copy of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Sarah Aspinall is an award-winning producer and documentary maker.

She has four children and lives with her partner in London and on the South coast.

Mrs England by Stacey Halls

 

Mrs England by Stacey Halls.

Published 10th June 2021 by Manilla Press.

From the cover of the book:

A gripping feminist mystery where a nanny must travel to a grand house filled with secrets. For there's no such thing as the perfect family...

'Something's not right here.'
I was aware of Mr Booth's eyes on me, and he seemed to hold his breath. 'What do you mean?'
'In the house. With the family.'

West Yorkshire, 1904. When newly graduated nurse Ruby May takes a position looking after the children of Charles and Lilian England, a wealthy couple from a powerful dynasty of mill owners, she hopes it will be the fresh start she needs. But as she adapts to life at the isolated Hardcastle House, it becomes clear there's something not quite right about the beautiful, mysterious Mrs England.

Distant and withdrawn, Lilian shows little interest in her children or charming husband, and is far from the 'angel of the house' Ruby was expecting. As the warm, vivacious Charles welcomes Ruby into the family, a series of strange events forces her to question everything she thought she knew. Ostracised by the servants and feeling increasingly uneasy, Ruby must face her demons in order to prevent history from repeating itself. After all, there's no such thing as the perfect family - and she should know.

Simmering with slow-burning menace, Mrs England is a portrait of an Edwardian marriage, weaving an enthralling story of men and women, power and control, courage, truth and the very darkest deception. Set against the atmospheric West Yorkshire landscape, Stacey Halls' third novel proves her one of the most exciting and compelling new storytellers of our times

**********************

Mrs England takes us into the world of the children's nanny in 1904, but not just any nanny, because Ruby May is a highly esteemed Norland nanny - the kind employed by the finest families in the land.

When Ruby is employed by a wealthy mill-owning family in the north of England to look after their four children, she is expecting a fine house and the kind of traditional family she has become familiar with, but what she finds at Hardcastle House has her bemused. While Mr England is charming and welcoming, fitting the bill as the perfect father, Mrs England seems distant and withdrawn, with little interest in her own children. There is something not quite right about what goes on behind closed doors in this house, and Ruby is inclined to think that the odd behaviour of Mrs England is the cause of the uncomfortable atmosphere, but stuck as she is in a position somewhere between that of a servant and family member, she does not really have anyone to talk to about her worries. However, it turns out that she is the perfect person to see what is actually happening here, and the traumatic childhood that she has done her best to hide may be the very thing that gives her the power to make a difference.

As she does so well, Stacey Halls beautifully recreates another historical setting in which complex female characters are at the mercy of a world ruled by men, this time in Edwardian Yorkshire, and there is a lot of fascinating social history about the changing times that she weaves subtly into the story. It is a delicious slow-burner of a tale that explores power, control, mental health and family secrets, with a pervasive feeling of insidious menace that nips at the corners of your mind, and I thoroughly enjoyed the way the truth about all the characters unfurls ever so slowly as events play out. The way Halls uses letters as an important story device is really interesting here, and the relationships that develop between Ruby and many of the characters as she finds her feet and makes peace with her past is delightful.

While I can't really go into the plot in any depth without giving the game away, suffice to say this is one that will keep you guessing all the way through as Halls leads you down the garden path until knocking you for six with a glorious climax full of female rage on the windswept moors. It's definitely my favourite Stacey Halls' book yet!

Mrs England is available to buy now from your favourite book retailer in hardcover, e-book and audio formats.

Thank you to Manilla Press for providing me with an e-copy of this book, via Netgalley, and to Tracy Penton of Compulsive Readers Tours for inviting be to be part of this blog tour. I have also purchased a special edition hardcover edition of this book.

About the author:

Stacey Halls was born in Lancashire and worked as a journalist before her debut The Familiars was published in 2019. The Familiars was the bestselling debut hardback novel of that year, won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the British Book Awards’ Debut Book of the Year. The Foundling, her second novel, was also a Sunday Times top ten bestseller. Mrs England is her third novel.

Heaven by Mieko Kawakami

 

Heaven by Mieko Kawakami.

Translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd.

Published 10th June by Picador.

From the cover of the book:

From the bestselling author of Breasts and Eggs and international literary sensation Mieko Kawakami, comes a sharp and illuminating novel about a fourteen-year-old boy subjected to relentless bullying.

In Heaven, a fourteen-year old boy is tormented for having a lazy eye. Instead of resisting, he chooses to suffer in silence. The only person who understands what he is going through is a female classmate, Kojima, who experiences similar treatment at the hands of her bullies. Providing each other with immeasurable consolation at a time in their lives when they need it most, the two young friends grow closer than ever. But what, ultimately, is the nature of a friendship when your shared bond is terror?

Unflinching yet tender, sharply observed, intimate and multi-layered, this simple yet profound novel stands as yet another dazzling testament to Mieko Kawakami’s uncontainable talent. There can be little doubt that it has cemented her reputation as one of the most important young authors at work today.

***********************

I am more than a little partial to translated Japanese fiction, being fascinated with the way Japan is a country of such contradictions, so this book from rising star Mieko Kawakami was one I was really looking forward to reading - and it did not disappoint.

Kawakami writes this story from the point of view of a fourteen year old, Japanese middle school boy, whose name we never learn as he is always referred to as 'Eyes', the nickname given to him by the bullies that make his life hell at school because of his lazy eye. The punishment he receives from his tormentors is violent in the extreme, but rather than resist them he chooses to submit to their reign of terror and suffer in silence. Only one person seems to understand what he is going through - a girl in his class called Kojima, who is also subjected to terrible bullying because of her shabby appearance and poor hygiene.

When 'Eyes' finds a mysterious note in his desk one morning, which simply says "We should be friends", he thinks it might be a ploy by the bullies to draw him into some cruel game, but as more notes follow in a similar friendly vein, he eventually discovers that they are actually from Kojima. The two lonely students take to meeting each other for secret assignations, including a day trip in the summer holidays during which Kojima explains about her concept of heaven, and they form a bond which helps them cope with their pitiable situations, sharing their innermost thoughts, dreams, histories and philosophies about life - until something happens that breaks their friendship and leads to a shocking confrontation with the bullies.

Heaven is a brutal book, and although quite short at only 176 pages, it packs in a lot of powerful themes. It is a story of two characters drawn together by circumstance, who seem to have a lot in common with each other - each being subjected to the most terrible bullying at school - but as the story progresses, you come to realise that they are actually very different, and the rift in their friendship is inevitable. 

'Eyes' seems tied to his destiny by a medical condition over which he has no control, and endures his treatment, but longs for a day when he no longer stands out. But for me, it is Kojima who is the far more intriguing character, and at times I would have preferred to be in her head rather than in the more simple mind of her male friend - although he is written rather well. As Kojima gets to know 'Eyes', we learn a lot about her rather unhealthy view of the world and why she is the way she is - we also learn that in many ways she views the bullying as defining her 'signs', and almost welcomes the experience as a way of affirming her existence, and the reality of things she has lost. She is misguided, but deliciously complex at the same time, and a much stronger character than her friend - something she only comes to realise some way into their friendship. The kind of connection and understanding she craves, and the help she so clearly needs, is not to be found between the two of them, which I found very sad.

"Heaven is a painting of two lovers eating cake in a room with a red carpet and a table. It's so beautiful. And what's really cool is they can stretch their necks however they want. So wherever they go, whatever they do, nothing ever comes between them. Isn't that the best?"

One of the most interesting, if stomach churning, things about this book is the chilling narrative justifying the actions of the bullies from one of them himself. It's so cold and evocative of A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess that I found it quite terrifying. No spoilers, but I defy you not to be seriously unsettled by his words - they amount to a horrifying indictment of adolescent violence.

This is a compelling read, with a vague undercurrent of Twelve Reasons Why by Jay Asher. It will set you thinking a lot about the motivation of bullies, and the way they act out in an attempt to deal with their own teenage insecurities, including the role that their victims play - not to mention the way a lack of good pastoral care at school, and the emotional absence of parents, can lead to misery for vulnerable students. It's raw and disturbing, but it is also a fine example of modern Japanese fiction.

Heaven is available to buy now from your favourite book retailer.

Thank you to Alice Dewing from Picador for sending me a paperback proof of this boo in return for a honest review.

About the author:

Mieko Kawakami is the author of the internationally best-selling novel, Breasts and Eggs, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and one of TIME’s Best 10 Books of 2020. Born in Osaka, Kawakami made her literary debut as a poet in 2006, and published her first novella, My Ego, My Teeth, and the World, in 2007.

The Serpent King (The Whale Road Chronicles Book 4) by Tim Hodkinson

 

The Serpent King (The Whale Road Chronicles Book 4) by Tim Hodkinson.

Published 10th June 2021 by Aries/Head of Zeus.

From the cover of the book:

The fight for vengeance has no victors...

AD 936

The great warrior, Einar Unnsson, wants revenge. His mother's assassin has stolen her severed head and Einar is hungry for his blood. Only one thing holds him back. He is a newly sworn in Wolf Coat, and must accompany them on their latest quest.

The Wolf Coats are a band of fearsome bloodthirsty warriors, who roam the seas, killing any enemies who get in their way. Now they're determined to destroy their biggest enemy, King Eirik, as he attempts to take the throne of Norway.

Yet, for Einar, the urge to return to Iceland is growing every day. Only there, in his homeland, can he avenge his mother and salve his grief. But what Einar doesn't know is that this is where an old enemy lurks, and his thirst for vengeance equals Einar's...

Read Tim Hodkinson's newest epic Viking adventure.

***********************

I think it's fair to say that this is a book that drops you straight in at the deep end, especially if you have not read the three books in The Whale Road Chronicles that come before, like myself, as it begins with a bloody night raid by the Wolf Coats. 

Who are the Wolf Coats I hear you ask? Well, this is something I also asked myself, since I had no prior knowledge of the characters that make up this tight little band of warriors, but it wasn't long before I had a pretty good idea who they were - and was sure that I would want them on my side in a fight. Led by the tough Ulrich, the Wolf Coats are an intriguing collection of tough-as-you-like warriors, hailing from a selection of Norse homelands, but they also include the Moor, Surt, all the way from Al-Andalus (Spain to you and me) and a Norse-Irish princess, Affreca, who is very handy with a bow.

At the start of this adventure, Einar Unsson, newly sworn in as a Wolf Coat, is on a quest for revenge against those involved in his mother's death, which brings him up against his own father, and Princess Affreca finds herself offered both a throne and an arranged marriage, neither of which she is keen to accept - and of course, the rest of the gang are along for the blood-thirsty ride, tied together by a combination of fierce loyalty and firm friendship that gets you right in the feels.

And what a ride it is, dear readers! Tim Hodkinson weaves a bit of glorious Norse saga magic in these pages with a twisty plot of murderous machinations on all sides around Einar and Affreca, which takes you on a journey around the North Sea all the way to Iceland, and back again. Throughout, there is an authentically gritty feel for the brutality of the times, the clash of cultures, and the never ending game of thrones at play, with allegiances shifting as the various kings and jarls rise and fall. There are more savage battles than you can poke a rune stick at, all described in full colour by Hodkinson, which makes them beautifully cinematic; a cracking climax that takes place in Iceland as all hell breaks loose around the combatants; and a delicious ending that hooks you into the next adventure, which I cannot wait to read.

Being book four of the series did make me feel that I was playing catch-up at the start, but the Wolf Coat members and their destinies are so compelling that I was soon pulled right into the sweeping tale by the force of their personalities, the relationships between them and the trials they faced. There are enough details about what has come before to make the story flow well, and I did not feel at a loss at all, so you can read this as a standalone if you are so inclined.

This is a hugely entertaining read, beautifully written, with great characters and full of period detail that will appeal to the fans of well-crafted historical fiction - if you love writers like Bernard Cornwell this will definitely be your bag too. I cannot believe that Tim Hodkinson has gone under my radar for so long, because this book was completely my cup of tea, and I loved it so much that I will be going back to read the first three books very soon!

The Serpent King is available to buy from your favourite book retailer in e-book now (in paperback from 2nd September 2021), or via the links below:

Amazon UK     Kobo     Google Books     Apple Books

Thank you to Vicky Joss at head of Zeus for sending me an e-copy of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Tim Hodkinson was born in 1971 in Northern Ireland. He studied Medieval English and Old Norse Literature at University with a subsidiary in Medieval European History. He has been writing all his life and has a strong interest in the historical, the mystical and the mysterious. After spending several happy years living in New Hampshire, USA, he has now returned to life in Northern Ireland with his wife Trudy and three lovely daughters in a village called Moira.

Tim is currently working on a series of Viking novels for Aries Fiction, an imprint of Head of Zeus.

Sixteen Horses by Greg Buchanan

 

Sixteen Horses by Greg Buchanan.

Published 29th April 2021 by Mantle.

From the cover of the book:

Near the dying English seaside town of Ilmarsh, local police detective Alec Nichols discovers sixteen horses’ heads on a farm, each buried with a single eye facing the low winter sun. After forensic veterinarian Cooper Allen travels to the scene, the investigators soon uncover evidence of a chain of crimes in the community – disappearances, arson and mutilations – all culminating in the reveal of something deadly lurking in the ground itself.

In the dark days that follow, the town slips into panic and paranoia. Everything is not as it seems. Anyone could be a suspect. And as Cooper finds herself unable to leave town, Alec is stalked by an unseen threat. The two investigators race to uncover the truth behind these frightening and insidious mysteries – no matter the cost.

Sixteen Horses is the debut literary thriller from an extraordinary talent, Greg Buchanan. A story of enduring guilt, trauma and punishment, set in a small seaside community the rest of the world has left behind . . .

******************

Just outside the decaying seaside town of Ilmarsh, the day after Bonfire Night, the heads of sixteen horses are found buried on a farm - the only indication that they are there is the bizarre sight of a single eye of each horse head positioned to look as if they are peering through the earth in the direction of the low winter sun, accompanied by a pile of severed horse tails.

Police detective Alec Nichols has no idea what to make of this almost ritualistic crime scene, but after forensic veterinary Cooper Allen joins the investigation, together they discover a string of gruesome crimes in this maladjusted community that point to some seriously disturbed goings on... and something far more deadly in the ground than equine remains. 

This is a book that takes you to unsettling places, and Greg Buchanan holds nothing back in his descriptions of dark deeds, depravity, desperation and disturbed relationships. From the word go, Buchanan uses the obvious decline of this town and its surrounding area, the greyness and chill of the weather, and the awkward social interactions of his characters to enhance the feeling that there are some very bad things going on at the heart of this community, and the feeling does not let up once throughout the torturous and terrifying plot.

This is a very intelligent novel that crosses the line somewhere between literary fiction and noir police procedural in rather daring and unusual way. The writing style is disconnected, with short, punchy chapters and interrupted passages that jump between characters (some of whom we are unsure about the identity of) and time frames, before and after the discovery of the horses' heads, which keeps you disoriented and on your toes at all times - sometimes verging into the country of fever dream like vignettes, as events spiral out of control. Often you feel you have no idea what is going on at all, as you progress through the numbered days of the investigation and the story veers around in totally unexpected ways, until the conclusion brings everything into horrifying focus with a clarity that is completely shocking.

It's fair to say that this is a book with a hefty dose of distressing content, especially in the form of animal cruelty, disturbed childhoods, abuse and violence, and I did have to put it to one side on more than one occasion before continuing, but something drew me back each time to compulsively follow the story to the bitter end, and a big part of the attraction is the way Buchanan's characters are all flawed in one way or another - each of them carrying substantial emotional baggage, laced with guilt and shame, and a fatalistic desire that they should be punished for their past sins.

This is definitely a challenging read, but there is gold to be had here among the squalid realms of  human frailty and basest of behaviours, and there is a reason why this book has taken the literary world by storm. I promise you will be haunted by this book for quite some time after you close the covers, but the experience will be worth it.

Sixteen Horses is available to buy now from your favourite book retailer.

Thank you to Greg Buchanan for sending me a copy of this book, in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Greg Buchanan was born in 1989 and lives in the Scottish Borders. He studied English at the University of Cambridge and completed a PhD at King’s College London in identification and ethics. He is a graduate of UEA’s Creative Writing MA. Sixteen Horses is his first novel.

A TV adaptation of Sixteen Horses is being produced by Gaumont Television (Narcos, Tin Star) after a bidding war for the rights. The novel has sold in over seventeen international territories.

Summer In The City by Fiona Collins

 

Summer In The City by Fiona Collins.

Published in e-book 27th May 2021 and in paperback 8th July 2021 by Transworld.

From the cover of the book:

Prue is not someone you would notice willingly. She likes to keep herself to herself and fade into the background. If it were not for the birthmark on her left cheek, she might actually succeed at becoming invisible.

She spends all of her time with her blind father, Vince. Together, they sit in silence and ignore the vibrant city just on their doorstep. Life is as good as what's on TV. That is, until something forces them both to go outside and see what they have been missing. For Vince, that means discovering how to see the world without his sight. For Prue, that means finding the courage to finally love and be loved in return.

A story about family, friendship and facing your fears head on, this is a heart-warming story that will stay with you long after you have finished the last page.

***************************

Prue likes to fade into the background, although her attempts to be invisible are somewhat hindered by the prominent strawberry birthmark on her left cheek, that unfortunately brings more than a little unwanted attention. She and her blind father Vince, both seem to do little else but keep themselves to themselves these days - battered by the past, they have taken to sitting in silence in their flat, ignoring the bustling world outside their splendid Edwardian windows, and reflecting on their own private thoughts.

Until the day Prue is forced out of her rut by the suicide of a young woman waiting on the same crowded Tube platform as her. Although Prue didn't actually see the young woman fall, she is compelled to find out why someone with her her life ahead of her would take her own life, and she takes up the offer of a free counselling session to help those traumatised by the tragic event - a session that makes her think about the way she has allowed her own and her father's lives to shrink as they have.

Spurred on by an idea from the counsellor, Prue and Vince decide to venture outside on day trips around London. With Prue acting as Vince's eyes, they both begin to realise that they have been missing so much, and in doing so learn to open up to not only the world around them, with the chances it offers, but also to each other.

Summer in the City is the most wonderful of books about love, family, friendship, how the weight of secrets can divide people, and how facing your fears can transform your life. The relationship between Prue and Vince is so beautifully written by Fiona Collins, and I both laughed and cried so many times as they learned how to open up to each other over the course of this book, sharing their observations, their fears, their secrets, and their hopes and dreams. 

However, this is not just a heart warming emotional journey, although Collins does this so well, because at the centre of this tale there are a wealth of dark themes that she begs us to examine too. An obvious one is the way Prue has had to deal with discrimination because of her appearance and how this has shaped her view on life, and what she feels she deserves from it. But we are also treated to the heart breaking gut punches dished out by threads dealing with abandonment, loss in it's many forms, toxic relationships, misplaced guilt and shame, which skilfully tie everything together and give substance to the piece.

It is a rare and lovely thing to come across a book that mixes light and shade as well as Collins does in this story, all the while drawing the reader towards a perfect, uplifting ending of forgiveness, reconciliation and hope for the future, which left me sobbing (in a good way) - an ending which shows both Prue and Vince have been affected by blindness in different ways, but that their love for each other can teach them how to see the light. I adored the whole book from start to finish, and will be thinking about these characters for a very long time to come.

Summer In The City is available to buy now in e-book, and in paperback from 8th July, from your favourite book retailer.

Thank you to Izzie Ghaffari-Parker at Transworld Books for sending me a paperback proof of this book in return for an honest review, and to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Fiona Collins grew up in an Essex village and after stints in Hong Kong and London returned to the Essex countryside where she lives with her husband and three children. She has a degree in Film and Literature and has had many former careers including TV presenting in Hong Kong, traffic and weather presenter for BBC local radio and film/TV extra.

The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam

 

The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam.

Published 3rd June 2021 by Canongate.

From the cover of the book:

Halfway through her PhD and already dreaming of running her own lab, computer scientist Asha has her future all mapped out. Then a chance meeting and whirlwind romance with her old high-school crush, Cyrus, changes everything.

Dreaming big, together with their friend Jules they come up with a revolutionary idea: to build a social networking app that could bring meaning to millions of lives. While Asha creates an ingenious algorithm, Cyrus’ charismatic appeal throws him into the spotlight.

When the app explodes into the next big thing, Asha should be happy, shouldn’t she? But why does she feel invisible in the boardroom of her own company? Why are decisions being made without her? 

Gripping, witty and razor-sharp, The Startup Wife is a blistering novel about big ambitions, speaking out and standing up for what you believe in.

***********************

Asha is a young woman who seems to have her life mapped out, following a calm and orderly path in the sphere of academia, but a chance meeting with her high school crush, Cyrus, sets her on quite a different path. Knocked off her feet by the strength of her feelings for Cyrus, a whirlwind marriage follows, and the two set up a somewhat unorthodox home life with Cyrus' gay best friend Jules. 

With Asha devoting less and less time to her academic pursuits, and more and more to her unexpectedly compelling personal life, she becomes intrigued with the idea of using the ingenious algorithm she has created for quite a different purpose than the one she originally intended -  to establish an App that offers the opportunity to incorporate rituals into your life, even if you are non-religious, based around Cyrus' intriguing obsessions. Cyrus is unsure, eschewing anything that pertains to the commercial world, but Asha and Jules become convinced there is something in the idea.

When a highly desirable startup incubator in New York, called Utopia, offers them the chance to develop their idea, they grab the chance, even though Cyrus needs some persuading to go along with their plans. With lots of hard work from Asha and Jules the new platform, WAI, takes off and becomes an instant success, even though things inevitably start to revolve around Cyrus as some sort of guru figure. But with success, comes change of an unwelcome kind - change that finds Asha being sidelined in both her own company, and her marriage. 

Tahmima Anam uses her own experiences of being an executive director of a startup founded by her husband to take us on a journey into the fiercely competitive world of the startup. There is so much to delve into here, and Anam explores a myriad of subjects with intelligence, whip smart humour and a sharp eye. She lays bare this strange, almost surreal, world where everything is cutting edge and super hip, as entrepreneurs battle it out to bring the next big thing to the masses, and in doing so she looks at the battle of the sexes, powerplays in relationships and the board room, and the innate nature of humans to crave love and connection.

There is so much humour in the way she pokes fun at the weird and wonderful ideas that get thrown into the ring of the startup arena, and the absurdity of the workplaces that are so fixated on the notion of the 'fun' environment. But the magic of this book lies in the canny poignant way she explores the experience of women in the world of business, through Asha and her female colleagues. There are some absolute gems of scenes here - offices where trampolines and swimming pools form the corridors, and childlike CEOs spew teenage fantasies of annihilating the opposition, with their eyes fixed firmly to the bottom line, while common sense and empathy are derided - and while women are forced to retreat to toilet cubicles to express breastmilk. Feel the burn!

Asha is the brains behind this outfit, but the double whammy of being both of immigrant descent and female finds her being pushed to the side, even though you can see almost from the very start that this is the way the story is going to go. At every turn, Asha is given a plausible reason why she cannot be the one to pitch her ideas, tender for funds etc. and she accepts it all at face value, even though she can see the signs, sure that Cyrus will remain the man she thinks she knows and save her from this breeding ground of toxic masculinity. At times, with my blood boiling, I wanted to give Asha a shake, but this does serve to build the tension brilliantly across the piece - all the way to the triumphant ending, where she finds her mettle.

Yes, it made me seethe with righteous indignation, but Anam also makes us think about how much the experience of women in business is wholly a product of its age-old patriarchal framework, and how much comes from the way women are driven to play the game, rather than stick two fingers up to the status quo and work at changing the rules instead. There is no doubt that Asha is sometimes complicit in what happens, blinded by her love for Cyrus and unable to see the male entitlement that lies at his heart, but there is also a whole bevy of wonderful strong female warriors too - both in and out of the workplace. In keeping with a subject that has no easy answers, she leaves it up to us to make up our own minds, which I found intriguing. 

This is a corker of a powerful book, and one which I absorbed in one delicious sitting. This is the kind of must read book that would set tongues wagging at the water cooler - if such things were still common place. I loved it!

The Startup Wife is available to buy now from your favourite book retailer in hardcover, e-book and audio formats.

Thank you to Lucy Zhou at Canongate for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Tahmima Anam is the recipient of a Commonwealth Writers' Prize and an O. Henry Award, and has been named one of Granta's best young British novelists. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times and was recently elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, she was educated at Mount Holyoke College and Harvard University, and now lives in London, where she is on the board of ROLI, a music tech company founded by her husband.

Strange Tricks (Audio Book) by Syd Moore

 

Strange Tricks (Audio Book) by Syd Moore.

Released on 3rd June by Isis Audio.

Narrated by Julia Barrie.

From the cover:

Rosie Strange is back in the latest of the fabulously creepy Essex Witch Museum Mysteries.

Secretly Rosie Strange has always thought herself a little bit more interesting than most people – the legacy her family has bequeathed her is definitely so, she’s long believed. But then life takes a peculiar turn when the Strange legacy turns out not just to be the Essex Witch Museum, but perhaps some otherworldly gifts that Rosie finds difficult to fathom. 

Meanwhile Sam Stone, Rosie’s curator, is oddly distracted as breadcrumb clues into what happened to his missing younger brother and other abducted boys from the past are poised to lead him and Rosie deep into a dark wood where there lurks something far scarier than Hansel and Gretel’s witch…

**********************

Meet Rosie Strange, owner of the Essex Witch Museum. Rosie may not seem you usual proprietor of such a tourist attraction, and she would probably have agreed with you before it came her way as a surprising bequest - bringing with it lots of details about her birth family that have been quite an eyeopener - but she is now proud to call it her home and has even come to terms with the fact that she may have hidden supernatural talents of her own as the result of her witchy bloodline.

Rosie and Sam, her curator, potential love interest and authority on the occult, not only run the museum, but also undertake investigations into spooky goings on at the behest of a shady government department. So, when they are asked by their contact to investigate a woman with 'near death syndrome', who may have information relating to missing boys, they set off on a new adventure. What Rosie and Sam do not know is that this woman has information that will take them down a dark and dangerous path - a path that could help Sam solve a family mystery of his own.

Part of the Essex Witch Museum Mysteries, this is a story full of great characters, all voiced beautifully by Julia Barrie, that hooks you from the very start and takes you to some very unexpected places. At the outset, this seems like a very light-hearted story, and indeed it is full of humour, mostly resulting from Rosie's observations on life, the universe and everything, but at the heart of this story there is a hard-core case of a serial killer that is extremely gritty - and before then end of the tale, you will be in no doubt that Syd Moore has some decent crime writing credentials along with her ability to sprinkle more playful elements into the mix.

We see everything through the eyes of the delightful Rosie, my favourite character, with her feisty, feminist personality, sharp wit, fierce loyalty to her friends and family, and staunch defence of the much maligned females of Essex county. However, beneath that modern and forthright, tough exterior, she has vulnerabilities too and these really endeared her to me - I found myself wanting to give her a big hug and tell her that everything would be alright at many times during this story. 

As to be expected, there are some threads here that run through the series as a whole, mostly around Rosie's search for the truth about her past and what happened to her mother, but Moore drops in enough details to keep you afloat of these underlying currents, while working considerable magic with the classy crime and spooky supernatural elements of the plot of this stand-alone mystery. I thoroughly enjoyed this audio book and was quite sad to reach the end, as Rosie and Sam had become firm friends. Many of the references to previous cases have me keen to go back and explore some of Rosie and Sam's previous adventures, and the nice little hook into the next book has me intrigued too!

Strange Tricks is out on 3rd June on Audible and other trade download platforms, the Isis Audio digital library platform ulibrary, and on physical CD and MP3 both in libraries and from their website The Reading House. https://thereadinghouse.co.uk/ .

About the author:

Before embarking on a career in education, Syd worked extensively in the publishing industry, fronting Channel 4's book programme, Pulp. She was the founding editor of Level 4, an arts and culture magazine, and is co-creator of Super Strumps, the game that reclaims female stereotypes. Syd has also been a go-go dancer, backing singer, subbuteo maker, children's entertainer and performance poet, She now works for Metal Culture, an arts organisation, promoting arts and cultural events and developing literature programmes. Syd is an out and proud Essex Girl and is lucky enough to live in that county where she spends her free time excavating old myths and listening out for things that go bump in the night.

About the narrator:

After graduating from Bristol University and joining The Bristol Old Vic Julia Barrie has worked extensively in Theatre; in rep, touring both nationally and internationally, as a member of the RSC, at the Old Vic and Royal Court and in the West End at The Duke of York’s and the Theatre Royal Haymarket. For BBC Radio she recorded Anthony Shaffer’s Widow’s Weeds and her TV and film credits include Prisoners’ Wives, The Commander, Doctors, Close Relations, Our Friends in the North, Out of Bounds, Ghost in the Machine and Five Greedy Bankers.

 May 2021 Reading Round-Up

May was an excellent month on the reading front - definitely a few of my favourite books so far this year here!

Whatever You Are Is Beautiful by Richard Blandford

The Wolves Of Leninsky Prospekt by Sarah Armstrong

The Starlings Of Bucharest by Sarah Armstrong

The Bone Code by Kathy Reichs

The Ladies' Midnight Swimming Club by Faith Hogan

The Glorious Guinness Girls by Emily Hourican

Mrs Narwhal's Diary by SJ Norbury

The Killings At Kingfisher Hill by Sophie Hannah

Pathfinders by Cecil Lewis

Absorbed by Kylie Whitehead

Aiden Shaw's Penis And Other Stories

Sword Of Bone by Anthony Rhodes

The Labours Of Hercules by Agatha Christie

Screams From The Void by Anne Tibbets

The Baby Is Mine by Oyinkan Braithwaite

The Wolf Mile by CF Barrington

Shadows Over The Spanish Sun by Caroline Montague

More great books next month!

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@brownflopsy for more!

The Anointed by Michael Arditti.

 Spotlight on

The Anointed

By Michael Arditti

Published 20th May by Arcadia.

On the final day of the the blog tour for the new book from the prize winning author Michael Arditti, I am pleased to bring you a spotlight on this detailed retelling of the biblical story of King David, capturing the essence of Ancient Israel and the compelling display of male ruthlessness and female resistance.

From the cover of the book:

Michal is a princess, Abigail a wealthy widow, and Bathsheba a soldier’s bride, but as women in Ancient Israel their destiny is the same: to obey their fathers, serve their husbands and raise their children.

Marriage to King David seems to offer them an escape, but behind the trappings of power they discover a deeply conflicted man. The legendary hero who slew Goliath, founded Jerusalem and saved Israel is also a vicious despot who murders his rivals, massacres his captives and menaces his harem.

Michael Arditti’s masterly new novel centres on three fascinating, formidable women, whose voices have hitherto been silenced. As they tell of love and betrayal, rape and revenge, motherhood and childlessness, they not only present the time-honoured story in a compelling new light but expose a conflict between male ruthlessness and female resistance, which remains strikingly pertinent today.

Praise for The Anointed:

A wonderfully rich novel. Arditti brings Ancient Israel to life. --Allan Massie, The Scotsman

[A] fierce, sinewy novel It is not the new beginning but the preceding dynastic carnage that's gripping - the blood-strewn road to spirituality and wisdom, through murder, sensuality and betrayal, as described by three women, wives of King David, who travel it in exhilaration and terror. --Howard Jacobson

Beautiful, bold and imaginative --Massimo Gava, Dante Magazine

It is with great joy that the reader will fall upon Michael Arditti's latest novel --Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith, Catholic Herald

In bringing the neglected figures of Michal, Abigail and Bathsheba to powerful life, Michael Arditti also paints a lethally honest portrait of an Old Testament hero. It is a novel that makes one think again and is absolutely fascinating. --Elizabeth Buchan, author of The Museum of Broken Promises

Arditti has an unusual voice and perspective that deserve a larger audience. ... Rich in history, The Anointed highlights the lost role of women in the foundation stories of the great faiths, and suggests the hidden homoeroticism (between David and Michal's big brother Jonathan, described in the Old Testament as 'becoming one in spirit') lurking in otherwise emotionally inexplicable passages in our holy books. Most of all, Arditti asks profound questions about those who feel themselves called to lead - whether they be great kings, godlike figures or today's statesmen and women. What is the human cost incurred when their self-belief slides into self-delusion - for them and for those around them? --Peter Stanford, Spectator

The Anointed is available to buy now from your favourite book retailer. Thank you to Amber Choudhary of Midas Public Relations for sending me a copy of this book and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Michael Arditti is the prize-winning author of ten works of fiction and one collection of short stories, including The Celibate, Of Men and Angels, The Breath of Night, The Enemy of the Good and Easter, the latter of which won the first Waterstone’s Mardi Gras award. Born in Cheshire, Michael read English at Jesus College, Cambridge, writing for the student newspaper and directing plays such as The Taming of the Shrew.

Post-university, Michael embarked on a career in arts journalism, working for five years at the Evening Standard, and then writing theatre criticism for The Times, Sunday Times, Daily Mail and Sunday Express. Four of his plays have broadcast on BBC Radio 4: Something To Scare Off The Birds, The Morning Room, The Chatelaine and The Family Hotel. Michael was awarded the Honorary DLitt by the University of Chester in March 2013 and was appointed a Visiting Professor at King’s College, London, in February 2018.

Find out more about Michael Arditti at http://www.michaelarditti.com/.