Blogs in May 2020

The Fires 17th May 2020

Finely-honed portraits of hope and change, these two novellas are linked so skillfully that they achieve the intensity of a single novel in which some characters succeed and others fail on separate but equally compelling quests. In “The Fires,” Gina Morgan makes a pilgrimage to Uzbekistan...

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The Mountains Sing 17th May 2020

An intimate, stirring portrait of a country at war and a family’s battle to survive With the epic sweep of Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko and the lyrical beauty of Vaddey Ratner’s In the Shadow of the Banyan, The Mountains...

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The Killing of Butterfly Joe 17th May 2020

‘I killed Joe once, in a manner of speaking. But not twice. Not in the way you mean.’ Llew Jones wanted to see the States and write about the experience. Then he met Joe Bosco, a butterfly salesman as...

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The Secret Messenger 17th May 2020

Venice, 1943 The world is at war, and Stella Jilani is leading a double life. By day she works in the lion’s den as a typist for the Reich; by night, she risks her life as a messenger for...

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The Hidden 17th May 2020

Dora Simon and Joe O Cleary live in separate countries, accepting of their twilight years. But their monochrome worlds are abruptly upended by the arrival of Barbara Hummel, who is determined to identify the mysterious woman whose photograph she...

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