Review: The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods

The Lost Bookshop by Irish author Evie Woods is historical fiction meets magical realism with lashings of romance. Published in 2023 to great acclaim, the novel unfolds in alternating chapters and features three main characters.

In 1921, Opaline has run away to France to avoid an arranged marriage at the hands of her brother and finds a job working for Shakespeare and Company bookshop. With an eye for buying and selling antiquarian books her overbearing brother is hot on her trail, sending her to an asylum when he catches up with her in Dublin and finds her pregnant out of wedlock.

The contemporary narrative is set in Dublin where Martha escapes an abusive relationship and takes a job working as a housekeeper for the eccentric Mrs Bowden. Henry is a PhD student searching for a rare manuscript and a bookshop he walked into but can never find again when he meets Martha.

All three narratives were first person perspectives and there were many literary references and bookish quotes to keep book lovers turning the pages. I particularly enjoyed this one concerning the motivations of a rare book dealer:

"Never trust a book dealer who lets sentimentality get in the way. I had to own it because there is only one of it in the world - that's all there is to it. If I own it, then no one else can. I have known men to hazard their fortunes, go long journeys halfway about the world, forget friendships, even lie, cheat, and steal, all for the gain of a book." Page 169

The author does an excellent job creating a bookish atmosphere and I longed to browse the aisles of the Shakespeare and Company bookshop in addition to the mysterious shelves of the lost bookshop of the title.

However, there were romantic relationships in all three narratives that quickly grew tiresome. All too often, romance bogs down a far more interesting plot and this was the case for me here. I also found it difficult to accept that both Opaline and Martha would be ready for romance without more breathing time after their respective prior experiences.

There are some significant elements of magical realism in the story - largely focussed around Martha for some inexplicable reason - and most of these were creative and absorbing, but never adequately explained.

At the end there were a number of loose narrative threads that were left unresolved and too many unanswered questions about the true identity of Mrs Bowden when I wanted needed answers.

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods will appeal to book lovers who enjoy historical fiction, magical realism and romance and who don't mind finding the meaning between the lines.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas is now the longest book I've ever read, coming in at 1,276 pages. It was definitely the most intimidating book on my TBR and I feel a huge sense of accomplishment having finished it. What can I say about this classic? Well, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

Many of you will know the basic outline of the book, Edmond Dantès is falsely imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. Envious of his success, a number of people collaborate to conspire against him for their own personal gain and when Dantès learns the identity and motivations of his conspirators, he sets out to destroy them.

In order of severity, our conspirators are:

Caderousse - envious neighbour wracked with guilt over the fact he didn't stop the plot
Fernand - in love with Dantès' fiancé Mercédès and guilty of delivering the letter
Danglars - ship's purser and colleague envious of Dantès' recent promotion to ship's captain and responsible for writing the letter accusing him of treason
Villefort - Deputy Crown Prosecutor, sends Dantès to prison without release in order to protect the identity of his Bonapartist father

Later escaping the prison after 14 years and finding a hidden treasure on the island of Monte Cristo thanks to a touching relationship with a fellow prisoner, Dantès completely re-invents himself and becomes an entirely different man. After purchasing the island and founding a chivalric commandership, he leaves his old identity behind and re-enters society as the Count of Monte Cristo.

The descriptions of Dantès' incarceration and meeting with his fellow prisoner Abbé Faria were some of my favourite chapters. Abbé becomes a cherished companion and father figure and eagerly shares his extensive knowledge of languages, science, philosophy, history and politics with Dantès who is transformed by the wisdom generously shared.

During this time we're given access to Dantès thoughts and feelings but after his escape, the reader is no longer privy to his plotting and planning to bring down his enemies. Regrettably we only see the effects of his master plan by joining a range of individual characters including the conspirators and those in their immediate orbit as events transpire.

Here's an example of Villefort reflecting on the fact that he is sacrificing Dantès to his own ambition in order to protect his father:

"Now, in the depths of that sick heart the first seeds of a mortal abscess began to spread." Page 86

Suggesting Villefort will carry remorse in his soul until death is heavy indeed, although later in the book when Dantès catches up with Villefort, he's thriving and far from suffering. In fact, all but Caderousse have succeeded in the time Dantès was imprisoned.

Largely told in a third-person omniscient point of view, when Dantès re-enters society he finds his conspirators much changed:

Caderousse - has lost his livelihood as a tailor and is living in poverty
Fernand - has married Mercédès and is now the Comte de Morcerf after a distinguished service in the military
Danglars - has married into a noble family and is now Baron Danglars, an influential banker in Paris
Villefort - is now Chief Crown Prosecutor, however he's hiding the secret of an illegitimate child

There's a lot of detail and many characters to keep track of. The section in Rome with the bandits went for way too long and really only served to give Dantès an introduction to Parisian society. Sometimes it felt as though we were glimpsing the society goings on purely for the author's entertainment. I did enjoy the witty dialogue between Danglars and Villefort in Paris, but I found myself hoping it was all leading somewhere and part of the bigger plan.

Believing he's God's instrument, Dantès sets out to bring them down one by one:

Caderousse - Dantès gives him a second chance but eventually his greed gets him killed
Fernand (Comte de Morcerf) - Dantès proves Fernand committed treason and he is subsequently disgraced. His wife (Mercédès) and son leave him and he commits suicide from the shame.
Danglars - Dantès manipulates the stockmarket, bankrupting and disgracing Danglars. Fleeing his home in Paris, he steals money to establish a new life in Rome. Kidnapped by bandits (friends of Dantès from earlier in the book), he's imprisoned and starved, forced to buy food and water until he has little money left and is a broken man.
Villefort - Dantès manipulates Villefort's wife (a poisoner) and she poisons several members of Villefort's household. Dantès then exposes Villefort's secret of an illegitimate child in court and Villefort realises his wife is the poisoner. After forcing her to kill herself he suffers a mental breakdown.

Dantès' thirst for revenge seems to wane as the book goes on and there are many insights I enjoyed like this one:

"Truly generous men are always ready to feel compassion when their enemy's misfortune exceeds the bounds of their hatred." Page 953

The author breaks the fourth wall occasionally with phrases like "as we mentioned earlier" or "we owe it to our readers" or "in the previous chapter". And I was surprised when the author referred to himself in Chapter 36: "The author of this story, who lived for five or six years in Italy..." I wasn't expecting to be addressed directly by the author in this manner but readily enjoyed it.

I'll admit Dantès' relationship with the slave girl completely creeped me out. She saw him both as a father figure and a lover - blurgh - so when he ended the novel with her I screwed up my face in distaste. It was fitting that his relationship with Mercédès was beyond repair but what's wrong with sailing into the sunset alone?

Published in 1844, I read the Penguin Classics hardback edition translated by Robin Buss, and when compared to the ebook edition available on Libby, it was a very readable translation. Originally published as a weekly serial in a French newspaper, Dumas was paid by the word (or the line) and the book is understandably quite long as a result.

Enriching this month long reading experience (it took me 33 days, reading 3% each day) was reading The Count of Monte Cristo with fellow book blogger Suzie Eisfelder. Discussing it as we went along, Suzie recorded her thoughts on our buddy read on her YouTube channel where she says: "I thank Tracey for making it possible for me to actually finish this book." You're very welcome Suzie and thanks for sticking with it!

Immediately after finishing, I thought The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas was going to be a five star read. But in the considerable time it's taken for me to write this review - and include all of the character arcs for my own future reference - I'm reconsidering. I'm now able to separate the detailed narrative from the sense of achievement and satisfaction having conquered this sizeable classic and I'm going to settle on 4 stars.

Overall, a very enjoyable buddy read of this classic which I followed up by watching the 1975 version of The Count of Monte Cristo starring Richard Chamberlain.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: The Mad Women's Ball by Victoria Mas

The Mad Women's Ball by Victoria Mas is set in 1885 at the Salpêtrière Asylum in Paris. At the time, women who were homeless, practising prostitution or suffering from a mental illness or neurological disorder found themselves committed to the asylum. A woman who publicly criticised her husband's infidelity could be locked away. If a woman didn't want to marry and was discovered to prefer same sex relationships, she was locked up. A middle aged woman flaunting herself on the arm of a much younger man could be incarcerated for debauchery, while today we'd call her a cougar.

According to the author, women of loose virtue, the dotards and the violent, the hysterics and the simpletons, the fantasists and the fabulists were all admitted. Basically, the Salpêtrière took in women Paris didn't know how to deal with.

A diagnosis of hysteria was easily made and I knew I'd find it frustrating at just how easy it was to pack a woman off to an insane asylum in this period of history.

"The Salpêtrière is a dumping ground for women who disturb the peace. An asylum for those whose sensitivities do not tally with what is expected of them. A prison for women guilty of possessing an opinion." Page 27

Primarily a dual narrative, Geneviève is the Matron of the Asylum and a stern mother figure to the nurses. Eugénie is from a well to-do family and finds herself sent to the Salpêtrière Asylum after confiding in her grandmother that she can see ghosts. Geneviève has devoted her life to the Asylum looking after the inmates, but things begin to change for her when Eugénie arrives.

Inspired by history and including the work of Jean-Martin Charcot - renowned for founding modern neurology as we know it - the title was drawn from the fact that a ball was held at the Salpêtrière Asylum every year. Patients were dressed in elaborate gowns and members of high society attended the ball to observe the madwomen from a safe distance and watch them dance. In the novel, the majority of patients look forward to the ball and the opportunity to dress up, be seen by the public and maybe meet a man while the spectacle and behaviour of Paris' elite left a lot to be desired.

A relatively short novel with a satisfying conclusion, I was hoping for a greater focus on Eugénie's ability and would happily follow her into a second novel to see what becomes of her.

Published in 2019 and translated from French, The Mad Women's Ball by Victoria Mas is about agency and the suppression of female autonomy in 19th century France and in 2021 it was also made into a movie in France.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: All Buttons Great and Small by Lucy Godoroja

All Buttons Great and Small - A Compelling History of the Button, From the Stone Age to Today by Lucy Godoroja was a dry yet interesting read. The Australian author owns her own button shop in Newtown, Sydney and her shop is called All Buttons Great and Small, inspiring the name of this book.

I'd love to visit her button shop one day, but Godoroja is clear from the start that she's not a collector:

"I am not a collector of buttons. I have always, however, been enthralled by them, and over the past 35 years millions of buttons have passed through my hands." Page 1

Over the course of the book, I began to appreciate the author's interests seem to reside in the creation and design of buttons and their materials across time and cultures. However, I did learn some interesting button facts along the way.

Buttons were worn as an adornment, but I didn't know they once served as a portable means of value for the wearer, as it enabled a person to carry their investment with them in the case of an emergency.

Venetian glassmaking is internationally renowned, but I didn't know the establishment of Murano was an inspired government decision:

"With the burgeoning trade in Venice, in 1291 the government of the day made the decision to relocate the glass industry to the island of Murano, for fear of fires from the furnaces breaking out and spreading to the city centre, but particularly, with the added benefit of being able to shield industrial secrets from prying eyes." Page 66

Buttons could be an expression of wealth and King Louis XIV of France shockingly spent more than $5M on buttons during his reign and once commissioned a set of at least 100 diamond buttons. 

I learned that during the 1790s, the Parramatta Justice Precinct was home to the second convict hospital and evidence has been found of colonial bone button manufacturing on this site. It's assumed the many sew-through buttons discovered by archaeologists were made by hand by the convicts recuperating in the hospital or living in the huts on site.

I learned the difference between pottery and porcelain:

"Clay is the basic material of all types of pottery, but while porcelain is a type of pottery, not all pottery is porcelain. True porcelain is known as 'hard paste' as it requires hard firing at very high temperatures, after which it becomes extraordinarily dense." Page 104

More interesting though was reading the brief section about koumpounophobia, the fear of buttons. Steve Jobs openly admitted suffering from this phobia, hence his preference for wearing skivvies or polo necked tops rather than shirts.

Those few highlights aside, there was way too much information provided on scientific developments and inventions of particular materials used to produce buttons for my liking. I didn't find it interesting at all to read about the evolution of various button making materials, and the chapter entitled The Plastics Evolution - comprising the invention and use of shellac, rubber, semi-synthetics, synthetics, bakelite, amino plastics, acrylic, plexiglass, perspex, lucite, acrylite - nearly sent me to sleep.

Borrowed from the library, button lovers and crafters won't find any button inspired artwork here. There's no chapter about button collections around the world - or within Australia - or research around the discovery and value of rare and precious buttons. High-end fashion designers and their use of buttons was included, but this wasn't of interest to me. There were some stunning colour photographs of buttons throughout this beautifully produced hardback, but ironically the captions didn't contain enough detail. There is an impressive bibliography and index, but no button trading or shopping references in the index or websites to visit.

All Buttons Great and Small - A Compelling History of the Button, From the Stone Age to Today by Lucy Godoroja is an academic button book for serious collectors, sellers or historians interested in the materials used to make buttons from ivory, wood and tortoiseshell right through to metals, alloys and plastics. I have a moderate interest in buttons but unfortunately it didn't extend this far.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: This is My World by Lonely Planet Kids

This is My World by Lonely Planet Kids was a delightful reading experience as 84 children from around the world tell us about their family, where they live, their hobbies and more. Each child enjoys a double page spread, and the eye-catching layouts include photos, flags, maps, fast facts and three adjectives they use to describe themselves.

Cleverly organised alphabetically by first name provides a stimulating criss-crossing of the globe instead of a dull trip alphabetically country by country. This also prevents readers from flipping pages to search for specific countries, although there is a handy index in the back.

Some of the entries are clearly written by the children while some have been helped by their parents, but all were informative, interesting and engaging. I loved learning new things along the way, for instance Noa (aged 10) lives in Japan and she says:

"I like this house because our living room is huge. There is a fireplace and horigotatsu (table-based heater) as well." Page 129

I didn't know what a horigotatsu was so put the book aside to find out and went down a lovely Japanese rabbit hole. They look super cosy and I really hope I get the chance to try one some day.

I was able to identify some similarities between the entries in that a lot of children fight with their siblings (who knew?), many have never seen snow and rabbits are a favourite animal for kids around the world.

According to the Foreward:

"To create this book, we reached out to cattle ranchers in the Australian outback, inhabitants of a fishing capital in Greenland, city dwellers living among skyscrapers in Nigeria and many more families!"

Sounds great but I'd really like to know exactly how they did that. How many children submitted a response and how were these 84 profiles chosen? Some of the children stated their parents were teachers and I found myself wondering if Lonely Planet reached out to schools as part of this project. Not that it's important, I'm just curious.

This is My World by Lonely Planet Kids is a great book suitable for readers young and old and I can highly recommend it.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: Theft by Finding Diaries 1977-2002 by David Sedaris

Books by David Sedaris have been a somewhat regular feature here on Carpe Librum since 2021, and this offering marks my 7th review of his work. I have tickets to see David Sedaris live when he comes to Melbourne next year and thought I'd tackle the first volume of his diaries after they were recommended by an author whose recommendations I trust.

Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002 by David Sedaris covers a huge chunk of his life, although Sedaris is clear at the outset that the diary entries selected for this collection are a mere drop in the ocean.

"It's worth mentioning that this is my edit. Of the roughly 8 million words handwritten or typed into my diary since September 5 1977, I'm including only a small fraction. An entirely different book from the same source material could make me appear nothing but evil, selfish, generous or even - dare I say - sensitive. On any given day I am all these things and more: stupid, cheerful, misanthropic, cruel, narrow minded, open, petty, the list goes on and on. A different edit, no doubt a more precise one would have involved handing my diary over to someone else, but that is something I cannot imagine doing, unless perhaps, that person is a journalist. They never get beyond the third page, which they usually call the middle, as in 'I'd hoped to finish this before our interview but am only in the middle'." Chapter 1

Beginning in 1977, the diary entries provide a wonderful snapshot of life at the time, reflecting the attitudes and social norms of those around him. Sedaris is a master of observation and conversation with people and he shares multiple snapshots into lives that merely intersected his for moments, days or weeks.

Living in poor neighbourhoods and taking odd jobs to pay the rent, Sedaris seemed to be surrounded by a lot of domestic conflict often leading to outright domestic violence. The author also shares multiple accounts of bullying and harassment while walking on the street, riding his bike and generally out in public, most of which he tries not to engage with.

The rise of AIDS is barely touched on although Sedaris often mentions he's mistaken for a woman on the phone and is called a fag by strangers when he won't give them cigarettes or money etc. There's no inner reflection or deep interrogation of his thoughts and feelings on these topics and I'm not sure whether he chose not to record them at the time or merely decided not to include them in this collection. Sedaris does mention he regrets not recording word-for-word conversations with family members in his diary as some of them have since died and he'd like to re-read them.

I've mentioned Sedaris' drug taking in the past and I really didn't enjoy the amount of air time given to his recreational drug use. He doesn't share any real reason for his drug taking or discuss any mental struggle related to the activity, perhaps preferring to keep it private. He does mention giving up alcohol and staying sober, but it's not a big focus and there wasn't any of the expected deep inner reflection.

Meeting his partner Hugh in 1990 was a highlight and I enjoyed tracking his early involvement in stage plays and the joy at his rising success via reviews and interviews, and later his early books. But again, my favourite sections were the entries written when he was taking a course to learn French. His sense of humour and love of word play definitely shone through, and I admired his effort to embrace the language. One favourite entry involved Hugh cutting his finger with a knife, and Sedaris racing down to the store not knowing the word for bandaid, and saying:

"My friend cut his finger and I am looking for a morsel of rubber." Chapter 23

Hugh later points out that the correct phrasing is 'cut of himself the finger' and Sedaris finds himself hoping Hugh will injure himself again so that he can return to the store with both the reflexive verb to 'cut of oneself' and the proper word for bandaid. Love it!

The advantage of a diary format is that the entries are relatively short in length, however the inevitable payoff is that the format can become a little repetitive after a while. Sometimes an engaging entry was included without a follow up that left me hanging (did his cat recover?) or wondering what happened only for the next entry to pick up weeks later.

This audiobook comes in at just under 14 hours and is therefore quite the commitment. Volume 2 A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries 2003-2020 comes in at a whopping 17+ hours so I don't imagine I'll be getting to that any time soon. If anything, I may listen to The Best of Me by David Sedaris before I see his show in February 2025 as I've had quite enough of the diary format for now.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: The President's Hat by Antoine Laurain

I wanted to read a French translation novel during the 2024 Olympics in Paris and The President's Hat by Antoine Laurain was given to me by a friend who loves France so it was the perfect choice.

Published in 2012 and set in 1980s Paris, the author offers us a simple enough premise, a hat is lost and found by a number of characters in succession who find their individual circumstances beginning to change when they start wearing the hat. One character observes:

"Wearing a hat gives you a feeling of authority over someone who isn't, he thought to himself." Page 35

I was so invested in the first character to find the hat that I was annoyed when it left his possession, almost to the point of wanting to put the book down permanently. However, once my irritation subsided I was able to continue the story with renewed interest.

I enjoyed seeing how the individual wearers of the hat began to prosper and make changes to improve their lives, leaving the reader to wonder if there was any power in the hat or if each of the characters brought about their own changes in fortune.

I wasn't familiar with the politics of France in the 1980s - and I'm still not - however the content of this slim volume does include a lot of political commentary from various characters. Thankfully this didn't overpower the narrative and I appreciated the 1980s references. I particularly delighted in this unexpected reference to an awesome song from the '80s:

"In the marble hallway, they handed their coats to some girls with incredible legs and followed the music: rock, or maybe it was pop, the words spoken off-beat in German with a chorus that went 'Rock me Amadeus', as far as Bernard could tell." Page 155

I love that song! Also unexpected was an epilogue at the end that neatly filled in some of the character arcs for the reader, but also raised a question or two that niggled.

The President's Hat by Antoine Laurain is a short, feel good novel that asks the reader to question whether they could transcend the lucky hat idea and make wholesale changes to their own lives themselves. Having just read 12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson, I know the answer is a resounding yes, however Laurain leaves it to the reader to arrive at their own conclusion.

As I do with all physical books after I've read them, I produced a Bookmark Monday post for this title over on Instagram and let my inner Francophile run free. The fact that the author noticed and thanked me was a nice memory to accompany the reading of this book.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: A Short Walk Through a Wide World by Douglas Westerbeke

* Copy courtesy of Penguin Random House *

I'm calling it early, but there's a very good chance A Short Walk Through a Wide World by Douglas Westerbeke is going to make My Top 5 Books of 2024 list. Where to begin?

It's 1885 in Paris and our protagonist Aubry Tourvel is a precocious young girl of just nine years of age when she falls inexplicably ill. Suffering excruciating pain and bleeding from the nose and mouth, the only thing that soothes her seems to be movement.

In the first few pages the author convinces the reader of the seriousness of Aubry's condition with powerful descriptive writing that I'm not likely to forget. Here's a taste:

"And then the pain strikes - a terrible, venomous pain - a weeping pain, like an ice pick through a rotten tooth. It drives straight down her spine, from the base of her skull to the small of her back. She shudders as if electrified, then stiffens up, crushing all the slack out of her body. The old man stops his chattering, watches her face turn cold and pale, watches her lips form soundless words." Page 5

Forced to travel to keep her illness at bay from that point on, days and weeks pass but the narrative doesn't unfold in a strictly chronological sense. Given her circumstances change every 3-4 days, it would be impossible to include her journey and experiences throughout the course of her entire lifetime. Instead the reader experiences her travels in flashbacks and when sharing her encounters with people she meets along the way.

One such person is an old man in Chile who engages Aubry in conversation and explains why he detests travel. He tells Aubry he once fancied a trip to Santiago to see what the fuss was about but it didn't exactly go to plan.

"After an uncomfortable carriage ride to the station, where he discovered his train was running three hours late, he became hungry and ordered sweet potato empanadas. To his horror, he discovered these empanadas were not to his taste at all, far too sweet, and the cafe did not carry his favourite tea - in fact, no tea at all. He was forced to try a sweetened tonic water imported from America, which he'd heard of but never pursued. It was a disastrous meal. He thought if a mere trip to the train station had caused him so much unpleasantness, what horrors might a trip to Santiago inflict? He threw his ticket away and headed straight back home." Page 74

Perhaps you can relate to this sentiment, or - like others she meets on her travels - imagine Aubry's life of continual travel to be adventurous, spiritual or romantic. The old man continues to chat with Aubry, asking:

"And really, was there anything in Santiago or Havana or Madrid - any artwork or museum or towering mountain - he could not simply read about in a book?"

The author's vocation as a librarian in Ohio shines through this book in a huge way. I can only imagine the plethora of books which have inspired his writing style and fuelled his imagination because his own work was perfection on the page.

As well as containing engaging travel adventures that are often dangerous, sometimes desperate and occasionally warm and emotional, Westerbeke also manages to write some entertaining dialogue, particularly when it involves children or a language barrier.

Stories and doorways are important within the narrative and reading A Short Walk Through a Wide World by Douglas Westerbeke reminded me of The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow meets The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab. It also reminded me of my idealised version of One Thousand and One Nights; idealised because I've never read them but this is how I imagine them to be, only in more detail.

For example, Aubry tells a woman from Heshou that she has "crewed with the cinnamon traders from Seychelles", "built a house in the Hawizeh marshes" and "slaughtered whales in the Faroe Islands." (Page 245)

A Short Walk Through a Wide World by Douglas Westerbeke could be categorised multiple ways, it's a travel story, historical fiction, action adventure, science fiction and urban fantasy. It contains a mystery puzzle ball and a secret library, I mean what more could you want? If anyone possessed the talent to bring Aubry's story to the big screen it would be epic.

Highly recommended!

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden

* Copy courtesy of Penguin Random House *

Intro

You're not seeing things, what follows is a review of an historical fiction novel set during WWI. I know I've said here on Carpe Librum that I'm - mostly - on a break from WWI and WWII historical fiction, however such is the power of Katherine Arden that I made an exception.

Last year I reviewed The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden and fell in love with the writing style of this YA urban fantasy / historical fiction series. The Bear and the Nightingale earned a glowing 5 star review and I'm still looking forward to reading the next book in the Winternight trilogy The Girl In The Tower. Therefore I was surprised to see the author pop up in a publisher's catalogue with an adult title The Warm Hands of Ghosts. Seeing it was an historical fiction novel set in WWI, I was keen to see how - or if - the author would bring her love of Russian myths and legends and sense of 'other' to a bloody war and now I have my answer.

Review

I shared this back story because I didn't know what to expect - other than great writing - reading The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden. It's quite possible that if I'd known just how dark the book was going to be, I might not have requested it for review. Having said that, going in blind was the best approach for me and I'm glad I read it.

Laura Iven is a Canadian nurse providing medical care to the soldiers on the Western Front during WWI when she is injured during the bombing of a hospital, discharged and sent back home to Halifax in Canada to recover.

The snappy writing and depth of character was immediately present in the author's writing. Here's one of my favourite observations by Laura:

"Laura tried not to look cynical. Pim appeared simultaneously flattered, delighted to make his acquaintance, and innocently unavailable. She'd probably practiced that expression in a mirror." Page 91

Laura's brother Wilfred (Freddie) is a soldier serving in Belgium and after receiving contradictory news and fearing he might be missing, she risks another deployment and travels back to Belgium in search of him. Volunteering at a private hospital in Flanders, Laura and her colleagues struggle to stay on their feet working for days without rest in the gruelling conditions. Laura speaks to the men as she tends to their wounds and starts to hear strange stories about the Fiddler.

The novel is set in alternate chapters with Laura in present day January 1918 and Freddie's point of view from several months earlier enabling the reader to discover what happens to him. Incorporating elements of the Halifax Harbour explosion from history was a refreshing angle I hadn't come across in WWI literature and it was interesting to learn more about this disaster from the character's perspective.

Laura's brother was named Wilfred in the novel and every time I saw his name on the page I reacted with 'oh, I thought that was going to read Wilfred Owen.' I studied the works of WWI poets Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves in a War Literature course at University so I felt rewarded when I noted the following in the Afterword:

"Her brother's name, Wilfred, is a hat-tip both to Ivanhoe and to Wilfred Owen, whose poem "Strange Meeting" was the starting point for Freddie's story." Afterword, Page 378

What a terrific tribute to the poet and for those interested, you can read Wilfred's short poem Strange Meeting in full on the Poetry Foundation website.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden is difficult to read at times. It's brutal and graphic yet also tender and achingly beautiful while accurately conveying the destruction and hopelessness of war without flinching away from the horror. Reading this in the lead up to ANZAC Day enhanced my sense of gravitas while reading but the kiss at the end was one step too far for me.

Highly recommended for experienced readers of WWI historical fiction with a strong stomach looking for a new story that stands apart from the rest. Not sure? Read a free EXTRACT.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★