Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #62
by muffy
In Summer People, Nathan, a midwestern college dropout/aspiring graphic novelist, is hired as a "caretaker" for Ellen Broderick who summers at Brightonfield Cove, an exclusive coastal community in Maine.
Not everyone in town is civil, let alone welcoming to Nathan except for Edwin Lowell, an Episcopalian pastor and his feisty, dark-eyed beauty of a nanny, Leah, who quickly peeks Nathan’s interest.
Apart from the rounds of evening cocktails, tennis matches at the Golf and Tennis Club, and midnight picnics with Leah, Nathan finds his caretaker’s responsibilities increasingly demanding and Ellen’s behavior unnerving. Ellen's colorful past, and the secrets of this insular town might just be more than Nathan could do to keep them both safe.
A promising debut for Brian Groh and a solid good read.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #61
by muffy
Winner of the prestigious Rómulo Gallegos Prize in 1999, Los detectives salvajes is the first of the author's large body of works to be translated into English as the The Savage Detectives*. (Also in our collection, his short stories Last Evenings on Earth).
This major work by Chilan born Roberto Bolano recounts 17 year-old Juan García Madero's initiation into the militant literary movement started by young poets Arturo Belano (Bolaño's alter ego) and Ulises Lima in the 1970s in Mexico City. The three, with a fugitive prostitute in tow, set out in quest of Mexican poet Cesárea Tinajero, who apparently disappeared in the Sonoran Desert in the 1920s. This road trip spanned a decade, took the travelers to Guatemala, Barcelona, Paris, Israel, Congo, Liberia, and the U.S., and in large part, being told through voices of the people they met along the way.
Humorous and tragic, "Bolano fashions an engrossing lost world of youth and utopian ambition, as particular and vivid as it is sad and uncontainable”. ~ Publishers Weekly . Roberto Bolano died of liver failure at the age of 50 in 2003. Obituary
* = Starred Reviews
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #60
by muffy
For a Few Demons More by Kim Harrison, the 5th in her paranormal mystery Hollows series just made it onto the Publishers Weekly Bestsellers. A hardback debut, it features a Rambo-esque Rachel Morgan - witch and bounty hunter who is assigned to protect an ancient artifact from demons and from Piscary, the vampire master.
With a serial killer on the loose and her werewolf pal being the prime suspect, growing tension at home with vampire roommate and boyfriend Kisten, Rachel’s high-octane supernatural adventures will leave you spellbound and breathless.
This series with a sexy, urban, kick-ass tough female protagonist will appeal to fans of Laurell K. Hamilton's erotic Anita Blake (federal marshal, vampire executioner, raiser of the dead) series. and L.A. Banks’ Vampire Huntress Legend series with African-American runaway Damali Richards and her eclectic band of guardian protectors/evil vampire fighters. Erotic, pop-fiction gritty and action-packed.
Another first - many authors and publishers are making a splash in the internet. Check out Kim’s spot on MySpace.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #59
by muffy
Set in a poor and crime infested housing estate in Nottingham, England, The Killing Jar* by first-time novelist Nicola Monaghan is a compelling read and recipient of several literary awards.
Young Kerrie-Ann Hill was abandoned (by a drugged-out prostitute mother), abused (by a teacher), coerced into running drugs at nine, and graduated to violent crimes as a sly and ruthless teenager.
Amidst the ugliness were moments of joy like an old neighbor who taught her about butterflies (and the killing jar), caring for her younger brother, and first loves.
Unapologetically realistic and bleak, the portrayal of the drug culture in urban England is spot on, while feisty Kerrie-Ann as the flawed heroine will earn your respect and sympathy.
Nicola Monaghan grew up at Broxtowe, the same council estate she set The Killing Jar. She is the first person in her family to go to university, and is currently at work on her second novel Starfishin, about a woman working hard to fit into the edgy London lifestyle.
* = Starred Reviews
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #58
by muffy
Michael Wallner’s, debut novel April in Paris*, is a thrilling read.
The story begins in the summer of 1943, in German occupied Paris. Roth, a 22 year-old German corporal, fluent in French, is newly assigned to the SS headquarters to translate the confessions of the local Resistance fighters caught and tortured. In the evenings, he takes to wandering the city disguised as “Monsieur Antoine” a Frenchman, and meets up with Chantal, a bookseller's daughter who is connected to the Resistance.
When a bomb at a club kills several high-ranking German officers, Chantal disappears, leaving Roth as suspect in the hands of the SS, and his future very grim.
Realistic and suspenseful, with authentic period details of war-torn Paris, this love story of two decent individuals finding each other in the wrong place and at a difficult time will move you and keep you hoping for a happy ending.
Michael Wallner is an actor and screenwriter. He divides his time between Berlin and the Black Forest. The book is translated from the German by John Cullen.
* = Starred Review
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #57
by muffy
Portrait of an Unknown Woman* by Vanora Bennett, a British journalist trying her hand at fiction for the first time.
Set in Henry VIII’s England, Meg Giggs, the heroine of this historical, is a budding herbalist and a ward of Lord Chancellor Sir Thomas More, the defender of the Catholic faith under threats of the Protestant heretics.
John Clements, a young physician is more than he appears. His courtship and marriage to Meg would be sorely tested by the secrets he keeps. On the other hand, Meg’s loyalty to More will also be called into question when religious and political conflicts roil at court.
“An engrossing, quietly impassioned historical”, no less for the added delicious details of the famous German painter Hans Holbein the Younger, commissioned to paint what will be his famous portraits of More and that of his family. For more information on the paintings and the time period, the author has created a website.
* = Starred Review
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #56
by muffy
This almost slipped by me…
Ice by Vladimir Sorokin came out quietly without much media fanfare.
In this, his first English-language debut, postmodernist (and often controversial) Sorokin gives us a frighteningly engaging page-turner. Critics are calling it “ a gritty dispatch from the front lines of the contemporary world, a gnostic fairy tale, a hard-boiled parable, a New Age parody, a bitingly funny fantasy in the great Russian tradition…”
Blond, blue-eyed contemporary Muscovites are being kidnapped, driven to remote areas and bashed in the chest with hammers made of ice. It appears the victims are being "cracked" by their assailants, who want to free their hearts to "speak”.
Suspense builds with the incrementally telling of the story from the perspectives of three "heart-speakers” and Khram, their spiritual leader who was herself "hammered" by a German S.S. officer in a slave labor camp during WWII.
Ice ”…succeeds brilliantly as both a thriller and a cautionary tale about totalitarianism, bigotry, elitism, and fundamentalism". (Library Journal).
Click here for a NYRB review of Ice, and a biography on Sorokin.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #55
by muffy
Finn* by first-time novelist Jon Clinch, is an imaginative reconstruction of the life and death of Finn, Huck's father, "Pap.".
In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck and Jim find Pap Finn's body in a house floating down the Mississippi River, among such oddities as women’s underclothes, a wooden leg and two black cloth masks, and the walls covered with “the ignorantest” kind of scrawling.
Shunned by his father, Adams County Judge James Manchester Finn and his successful brother Will, Finn is a violent, bigoted, ne’r-do well drunk, and often in trouble with the law. He blames his black sheep status on his on-again, off-again relationship with his black mistress, the mother of his pale mulatto child, also named Huck.
Working from a few tantalizing hints in Mark Twain's text, Clinch not only fleshes out the shadowy figure of Huckleberry Finn's father but creates clever and plausible backstories for the likes of Widow Douglas and the Thatcher family, and all the while, following Twain’s lead – allows the Mississippi to play a prominent role in the unfolding tale. Highly recommended.
* = Starred Review
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #53
by muffy
Jude Coyne is a jaded rock star. But unlike others who collect vintage cars and McMansions, he is a collector of the bizarre and grotesque: like a stiff and worn hangman’s noose and a snuff movie. He latest prize is a ghost purchased in an auction online and delivered to his doorstep in a black Heart-Shaped Box*. The dogs were the first to go crazy, even before the UPS guy has a chance to unload the box....
Inside, is a man’s suit but before long, its previous owner is everywhere in Joe’s life – swinging a razor blade on a chain.
Joe Hill, the two-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award and the Ray Bradbury Fellowship for short fiction will grab you with this terrifying and relentless supernatural thriller. For Edgar Allen Poe fans. Film rights sold to Warner Brothers. Joe Hill is the pen name for Joe King (son of Stephen).
* = Starred Reviews
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #52
by muffy
Did you see the review in the New York Times? Apparently many of you did, judging from the hold list. But if you did not, don’t let this one slip by.
Still Life with Husband by first-time novelist Lauren Fox.
It’s a familiar dilemma - Girl (Emily, 30, freelance writer, likes cake for breakfast) meets boy (Kevin, sweet, stable, with a passion for small appliances). Girl marries boy (and live in Milwaukee). Then girl meets dark, handsome and sexy stranger at Starbucks (Oops! 9 years too late). Girl gives in to the itch (rather too easily) and suffers the guilt.
Sure. It has been done before, a la Tom Perrotta in Little Children (2004) and Lolly Winston in Happiness Sold Separately (2006). Nevertheless, “In this generous, heartfelt, and often hilarious novel of marriage and friendship, Lauren Fox explores the baffling human heart and the dangers of getting what you wish for”. Worth a look.