ISTANBUL PASSAGE by Joseph Kanon

Turkey, that mercurial country that bisects Western Europe from Asia, for centuries a crucial player in world history, constantly aligning and realigning its allegiances, loyalties, friends and enemies. A hot bed of political intrigue throughout its history. Thanks to some great diplomacy Turkey remained neutral during WWII, but this in turn made it honey pot for all manner of war flotsam and jetsam after the war - ex Nazis fleeing, Russians on the prowl, Jewish looking to escape to Palestine, Americans re-establishing trade and diplomatic networks, spies everywhere facilitating information and money exchanges between all these parties, Turkish police and secret service trying to protect their own interests amongst all this. A breeding ground for intrigue, secret meetings and liaisons, espionage, treason, against the exotic, sensuous backdrop of this ancient city.  The cover is fantastic, evoking superbly the atmosphere of the narrative.

In this murky, post apocalyptic world lives Leon Bauer, an American expat who works as a tobacco rep. He has lived in Istanbul for quite some time, knows the city inside and out, speaks Turkish, and has been doing his patriotic duty in a casual haphazard manner for his pals in the US Embassy - envelope drops and pick ups and the like. A spy, but not a spy. And on a more personal note helping out with refugees Jews getting to Palestine. He is married to Anna, a German Jew herself who managed to escape Germany during the war, but is now lying in a hospital bed, in a coma like state due to her involvement with refugees in a ship that sank. In Leon's daily life, where you never who know can be trusted, who is a spy, who wants something from you, who in actual fact you really are yourself, his devotion to his wife is the only constant in his life, and which he hangs onto desperately.

As a final favour to one of his old friends at the US Embassy, he reluctantly agrees to help smuggle out of Istanbul a Romanian on the run from the Russians, who has a bunch of secrets to share with the Americans in return for his escape. Everything goes spectacularly pear shaped, leaving Leon with the sole responsibility to determine what to do with this man, who like everyone  else is not what he claims to be, how to get him out, and eventually to save himself.  This is classic spy thriller stuff, almost up there, for me, with John Le Carre, but not quite....! The twists and turns are very impressive, there are plenty of moral and ethical dilemmas, Leon out does himself as a man alone, in fact completely wasted as a tobacco rep. Surely the author has lived in this city, he knows and describes it so intimately and lushly, The city is actually the true star of the book. I just want to get on a plane and go. I really liked this, my only criticism being that it was a bit long, especially in the long meandering conversations that take place. I don't think the book would have suffered at all being 100 pages shorter. 

THE VIRTUES OF THE TABLE: HOW TO EAT AND THINK by Julian Baggini

For us humans, eating is not simply about feeding - life giving, sustenance, nutrition, energy and survival. Sure this is part of the package, but what sets us apart from the animal world is that we enjoy our food, we take pleasure in what we choose to eat, we savour taste, texture, smell. Unlike any other creature, we cook food, we transform it from a base state into something else, combining it in various ways with other base ingredients to produce an almost infinite variety of eating experiences.

You would have to live under a rock to not have some awareness of many modern food related issues that blight our newspapers, magazines, television and saturate our social media networks. It can be intensely overwhelming, especially when you are being made to question daily the food choices that you make - organic food sources, GM, Fair Trade, the ethics or morality behind eating animals, obesity, fasting, food as a social lubricant, food as art.

Julian Baggini, is a philosopher and writes about issues such as food and our relationship to it,  in such a way as to appeal to the very general audience that most of us are part of. Very few of us being professional philosophers! So he is well placed to dissect the thinking behind how we eat, why we eat, and our own peculiar relationship that each of us has with food. He wants us to look critically at how we eat, where our food comes from, to question, but to not necessarily feel guilty or judged for coming to a decision that may not be the mainstream or the mantra of the moment. If we consider carefully and thoughtfully what we are eating, how it gets to our table, and how we taste and enjoy what we eat, then we are actually doing ok. At times the author is a bit of a pointy head, wearing his academic philosophy hat a little to tightly, but he quickly brings his theories back to the reality of our daily dining experiences. I particularly enjoyed his chapter on food as art, or food vs art as you will. He writes about restaurants such as Noma and El Bulli which take dining to a whole new level, fast food chains such as MacDonalds winning awards for its of sourcing of non battery farmed eggs, the significance of saying a grace before starting to eat, sharing food with strangers, foods that are protected by the 'protected designation of origin' established by the EU, is there such a thing as locally sourced fruit and vegetables - for example tomatoes in winter. And so on.

Despite at times his logic and rationales making me a little cross eyed, this book really has made me think about how we eat, appreciate the food around us and what we do with it. And if you want more of Julian Baggini, he has written at least 17 other books, pontificating important subjects, and has also given a TED talk about is there really a real you. Watching this TED talk will give you an idea of how he writes, because reading him is exactly like listening to him - entertaining, wide ranging, confusing, moving backwards and forwards within the topic, and quite compelling.

https://www.ted.com/talks/julian_baggini_is_there_a_real_you?language=en

THE DEVILS OF CARDONA by Matthew Carr

Spain has always been the ultimate in melting pots, providing history with some of the most spectacular clashes between the Christians, Jews and Muslims. The Spanish Inquisition began in the late 15th century, and it was still going strong one hundred years later, the idea being to purge Spain of Muslims and Jews. It must have been an almost impossible task for the Inquisition in all its horror and brutality to still be going one hundred years later, which is when this murder mystery thriller is set.

1584, in the Aragon region, close to the Pyrenees and the border with France, a priest is brutally murdered, the church defaced, and a threatening letter sent to the local Inquisitor. No need to ask what his job is. This threat to the might of the Catholic monarchy is taken very seriously, resulting in a highly regarded and respected criminal judge, Licenciado ­Bernardo Mendoza being appointed to investigate and bring the perpetrator to justice. He takes a small team with him and makes the journey to the small area where the murder took place. 

It becomes very clear that he has ridden into something much more serious than just this one murder. Like much of Spain at this time, the region is very fragmented,  made up of old Christians and new Christians being ex-Muslims. Many of the new Christians still practise their Muslim faith in private. There are also divisions between the villagers and small town dwellers, and the people of the mountains and hills - shepherds, farmers and mountain dwellers. Fear and suspicion abound, the Inquisition is remorseless in its tracking down and treatment of those who don't tow the line. Mendoza must navigate all this in order to get to the bottom of what is going on. And it becomes very clear early on that there is much more at stake than Catholic versus Muslim. As an outsider, with his battle hardened team, he quickly learns he has to tread very carefully amongst the different groups in the region, being blindsided more times than you shake a torture rack at, trying to stay one step ahead of the enemy he does not know, dealing with unexplained acts of violence, and inconsistencies.

This is a great historical thriller, plenty of suspense and tension, tightly held plot, well developed and diverse characters, so much historical detail, very vivid and intelligent writing. I really liked this, really enjoyed reading it. This is the first novel from this non-fiction writer who has an interest in this theme, having written a book on purging Spain of those following the Muslim faith. As we all know, this subject is still just as relevant today as it was five hundred years ago, regardless of the religions or cultures involved. 

AN ALMOND FOR A PARROT by Wray Delaney

I loved this, a wonderfully sensual, erotic and sumptuous fairy tale novel of a young woman who, against all the odds, is a survivor. The gorgeous cover illustrates perfectly the colour, imagination, distortion, magic, luxury and decadence of the world of the courtesan in the mid-1700s, when apparently one in five women in London worked as a prostitute. 

Tully Truegood is the narrator of this story, it is her story she is telling. It opens with her in Newgate Prison, awaiting trial and probably the death penalty for murder. She is writing her story in the form of a letter to an ex lover, knowing that it is unlikely to ever be read, detailing how her life brought her to such a catastrophic end. And what a tale it is. 

Her mother dying in childbirth, her father a no-good drunk gambler, she lives in London, looked after by Cook. For reasons not disclosed till later in the book, Tully is married off at the age of 12 to a young man whom she does not know. This is the defining event in her life, which is what ultimately leads to her being in Newgate. But her life also takes another path when her father marries Queenie Biggs, bringing into the house not only order, clean clothing, good food, an education  but also love, care and companionship for Tully in the form of two young women, Hope and Mercy.

Queenie is actually a brothel owner, of the Fairy House, a high class and popular house in London. She has a number of courtesans under her care/control, of which Hope and Mercy are part of, and in due course Tully also. Tully is not only gifted in the art of lovemaking, she also has the gift of magic, expressed in many and various ways, which is recognised by the magician Mr Crease. Over the course of the next few years, Tully rises through the courtesan ranks, falling in love and out of love, her supernatural powers beguiling and terrifying those around her, her notoriety following her far and wide, famous for her many talents. 

The great thing about Tully is that she never gives up. This is a society and time where if you were female, it didn't matter a jot if you were born into wealth or poverty, you were simply a commodity to be traded, used and discarded at will by men. Tully always believes in love, she believes in her self worth. She knows she is clever, she knows her beauty and desirability  is not just in her looks, she uses her magic gift carefully, she is loyal and determined to break out of the courtesan life, becoming self sufficient and independent in her own right. 

Like any good fairy tale, wickedness and malevolence are never far away, and Tully has to use all her powers to outwit and destroy the evil that continually threatens to destroy her and those she loves. This is all told in the most wonderful writing, sensuous, descriptive and so vivid. Some of the writing is graphic, erotic, but it is never inappropriate, the sexual awakening of a young woman delightfully, deliciously and outrageously told. You will never look at a maypole the same way again. 

This is the first adult novel for this writer who has written it under a pseudonym. She is actually Sally Gardner, a children's writer and illustrator who has won many awards for her books. A quick bit of Google research reveals that many of her children's books also have magic and fantasy in them, and here she has brought this magic realism to an adult novel, managing to make it believable and entertaining, a joy to read. 

THE WORLD AT NIGHT by Alan Furst

Having recently read and reviewed the thirteenth out of fourteen novels in the Night Soldiers series which I enjoyed enormously, I thought I would try one earlier in the series, randomly picking number four, published way back in 1996. Not quite as good in plot and character development, but superlative in describing and evoking what occupied Paris and France may have been like in 1940 after the Germans waltzed in. A frightening and confusing place - who can be trusted, who is watching you, keeping your head down, queuing up for bread, sorting ration cards, what you are willing to do to get food, petrol, out of Paris, out of France, citizens now refugees leaving the city with nowhere to go or means of getting there.

Jean Casson is a film producer, lives a good life, divorced, more women than he knows what to do with. When the Germans arrive, and the French government gives in without a fight, it sets something off in Casson. He realises he is still crazy in love with the beautiful Citrine, an actress who has fled to the south of France. Jean himself is asked to produce a movie which may or may not be Nazi propaganda, and may or may not be run by a bunch of allied spies or Nazi spies, and in the process, somehow, gets involved with a group of money smugglers. His first trip is to Spain where things don't go entirely to plan, bringing him to the attention of the German occupiers. And then his problems really start, always trying to stay just one step ahead of the SS. So pretty good plot line really, but it is all sort of disconnected, things happen and you can't quite recollect how the happening happened. Despite going back through the pages looking for the connection.

I expect living in France during this time was quite surreal and disorienting.  This certainly comes through in the writing, a frightening and horrible time. So maybe the loosely held threads are supposed to be like that. But there is no getting away from the vivid descriptions of Paris and France, the fear of the population, the brutality of the Germans, and the looking away of many of the locals. Suspicion and betrayal saturating the air. It's not a bad read, but could be better. 

THE BOOK OF MEMORY by Petina Gappah

This is such a wonderful book, so beautifully written, heart breaking and uplifting all at the same time. It is story of a life that has been sentenced to death, a mystery surrounding another death, how the memories of a child are often distorted from the reality. 

Memory, or Mnemosyne in Zimbabwean, is languishing in the Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare for the murder of the man, Lloyd Hendricks, to whom she was sold as a child. She denies the murder, and although there is much mystery about her relationship with Lloyd through most of the book, it is fairly clear she did not murder him. 

She is however,  a woman of two different worlds. For Lloyd was white, a university professor, who lived in an affluent part of town. She comes from an impoverished, traditional village life  background, and flourishes in her new white world. Just as unusual is that Memory is a black albino, so finds that she is neither white nor black, a creature of oddness in both the black community and in the white community. Suspicion and mutterings follow Memory everywhere, and when Lloyd is found dead, Memory is the one charged, found guilty and sentenced to death. In an attempt to make sense of her life and how she has ended up in prison, she is writing a memoir that may also help her appeal to find her innocent. 

The story moves effortlessly from the day to day tedium and anxiety of daily prison life, to Memory's childhood, her parents and siblings. As a child, she has some unanswered questions such as why there were never any grandparents or aunts, uncles and cousins in their lives as all the other children had. Two of her siblings are  dead, was this why her mother was such a troubled soul? There comes the day when Memory, at age eight, is sold to Lloyd, and the next phase of her life begins, so leading up to the time she is charged with the murder. .  This is all set against the backdrop of political unrest and fight for independence that dominated Rhodesia/Zimbabwe in the 1970s-1980s, as well as the seizures of white farmers' land and often their murders in retribution. 

By the end of the book, Memory has dissected her memories sufficiently, and with some unexpected knowledge from a surprising source, she finally finds the answers that make sense of the confusing childhood and family life she had.  

I loved the way how the characters are so carefully developed and revealed through the course of the book - her parents and other adults of her village, her fellow prisoners and prison guards, Lloyd. It is almost as if we are part of Memory's own remembering of her life, this is our journey as much as hers. At the end, as with much of Memory's life to date, she is neither a free woman, nor an imprisoned woman. But a type of peace is reached. 

THE LAST TIME WE SPOKE by Fiona Sussman

Copy of book for review provided by the author.

Two boys, born two years apart in Auckland. One, Jack Reid, born to white middle class parents, Carla and Keith, teacher and farmer respectively.  A much longed-for only child, born when his parents had long given up hope of ever becoming parents. Now 18 years old, Jack works in a bank in the city, has a girlfriend and has come home for the night to help his parents celebrate their 27th wedding anniversary plus to break the dreaded news that he doesn't want to be a farmer like his dad.

Not too far away geographically, but very far away in every other respect, lives Ben Toroa, 16 years old, survivor of an abortion attempt, living in poverty and chaos with his younger siblings, under the care of his mother who is a punching bag for her latest partner. Unlike Jack, for Ben there is no hope, little education or skill set for adult life, no order or structure, no love. Belonging to a gang, and proving yourself to that gang are the major sources of self-esteem, belonging and making it in this world.

 It is on the night of Carla and Keith's wedding anniversary dinner that these two widely opposing   worlds collide in the most brutal of circumstances leaving one person dead, and another who may as well be. Carla is faced with her world, everything she has known, loved, and given herself to completely destroyed; Ben is facing a life in prison.  What follows unfolds over eight or nine years, as both Carla and Ben deal with the enormous fall out of this arbitrary act of violence. The process, as you can imagine, is fraught. For both of them. Carla is overwhelmed by grief, anger, hopelessness, fear, loss. Ben, only 16 we must remember, is also overwhelmed by the violence in his prison world, the impact on his mental health, the hopelessness of his situation. The one thing, however, deep inside his memory that might, just might offer the slenderest of hopes for him, is that he does remember a mother who once loved him, when he was very small, before the endless cycle of pregnancy, poverty and punching bag took over.

And yet, in small baby steps, some forward and some back, both Carla and Ben rediscover life, a purpose for living, make connections, and begin to find a way forward. One would think this would be easier for Carla living outside the physical confines of a prison, but it is actually Ben who grows the most, finding within the close confines of the prison system the basic human needs of love, respect and in turn self respect that enable him to create a life of value and meaning.

This novel has been some years in the making. A number of rural home invasions in New Zealand in the 1990s were the catalyst for Fiona Sussman's immersion into the violent world of youth offending, gang initiations, prison life, childhoods of deprivation, violence and dysfunction. She spent time visiting prisons, meeting with prisoners, speaking with police, victim impact organisations,  It must have been very confronting for her to spend time in the underbelly of our society, an underbelly that the vast majority of us do not want to know about or ever had any exposure to. It is easy for most of those who read this novel to identify with Carla and her grief, but not so easy to begin to have any understanding of the world that Ben comes from. Once Were Warriors by Alan Duff was very confrontational for many people, lifting a veil from what most of us either chose not to see, or simply did not think existed. This novel takes us deeper into the violent and despairing life of many Maori in this country, essentially a result of colonisation by the British in the 1800s, forfeiture of land, and breakdown of traditional mores, cultural and family bonds.  It is not a novel written in anger, but there is a certain despair and powerlessness that has allowed such a deprived strata of society to develop. Fiona Sussman digs deep into the essence of the wounded and damaged themselves, in this case Carla and Ben.  Time may not heal, but it certainly dulls and softens the pain, suffering and despair, our natural healing processes allowing for hope and optimism to enter and begin to work their magic.

This really is a remarkable book, I cannot praise it enough. It touched something deep inside me. As a 6th generation NZer, who has had a very comfortable and easy ride in this country, I am ashamed that at the same time my predecessors have done well in this country, there are many who have not. The author is a new citizen of this country, and yet she has such insight and compassion into such a big issue. New Zealand is of course not the only British colony to have its indigenous population decimated, the author's own country of South Africa with its more turbulent and disturbing history. But New Zealand is her country now too, and she has done what good writers do  - educate and inform, open our eyes, show us a different way of looking at things and ourselves. Transport us. Read this, be humbled and see how we can all make a difference.