THE PULL OF THE STARS by Emma Donoghue

 Emma Donoghue showed in Room how much story could be told in a tiny physical space, a truly memorable reading experience of how a life can be made in a single room. The room in this novel is not much bigger - containing 3 beds for pregnant women very closely set together, a small clearly overloaded table/sink/shelf unit for towels, cleaning, hygiene products. paper work, medicines. Plus two nurses. As if that is not bad enough, it is 1918, in Dublin, bang in the middle of the world wide influenza pandemic. Did you know the word 'influenza' is part of a longer phrase, from Italian in the 15th century,  meaning influence of the stars? No one knew where flu came from, so it had to be from the stars/heavens/God. 

Julia Power is a midwife. Because she has had the flu and recovered, she is one of a handful of nursing staff able to care for patients with flu. Flu-ridden pregnant women are in a ward of their own - this tiny 3 bed space. Medical care and supplies are pretty rudimentary in early 20th century Dublin, so Julia has to do a lot with very little. Plus being a nurse, she is not allowed to make important care decisions such as pain relief without a doctor being present. Few and far between during a pandemic. The one doctor who does do her best is a woman also - most unusual for these times. She has been involved in the revolution of a few years before, and is still a wanted woman by the authorities. Assisting Julia is a young orphan girl, Bridie, who has her own sad story that gradually emerges in the pressure cooker room. 

The novel covers  a period of maybe 2 days. During this time, these women work frenetically to keep their patients alive, to deal with births of babies, the inevitable deaths, the complications of pregnancy and birth while suffering from a deadly flu. It is edge of the seat stuff. The author has thoroughly researched the period and place, her writing so vivid and clear you can almost smell the disinfectant, sweat, pain and fatigue of the make shift delivery room. The lives of these women is also carefully told - the appalling living conditions most families had to contend with, the insane number of babies these women gave birth to under the ridiculous pretext that you haven't made it as a mother/woman/wife until you have given birth 12 times. There are also some interesting male characters, all of whom have returned from the war damaged in some way.

Such a beautifully told story of finding meaning in life, and finding love in the most dreadful circumstances. My favourite Emma book so far. 

THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB by Richard Osman

 There I was thinking this was going to be another feel good novel about elderly isolated people - widowed, living away from families, newly arrived in a retirement home, who through friendship and kindness find themselves and a life with meaning. A gentle, well-meaning aww sort of story. Well yes, there is some of all this, but it is so much more, putting the novel in quite a different category from those others. 

The elderly characters are elderly in age alone in this novel. Together, Elizabeth who probably worked for MI5 or 6 or similar,  ex-psychologist Ibrahim, ex-nurse Joyce, and ex-trade union leader/political agitator Ron, are super sleuths who spend their time solving cold cases that their leader - ex high ranking detective Penny - now in a coma in the hospital part of the retirement complex - wants to see solved. These elderlies are all fantastic characters. Complex, intelligent, incisive, very different from each other, they meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to solve crimes. 

There is also a new detective on the block at the local police station. She becomes involved in the Thursday Murder Club when a local developer is found murdered with a mysterious photo by his side featuring three men. One of the men is the owner of the retirement complex they all live in, another of the men is Ron's son. Suddenly the club is working on its first live case! 

This story walks a finely balanced line between the sweet-oldies-in-the-retirement-home and a full on murder inquiry with plenty of twists, some danger, red herrings, excellent detective work and problem solving. There is never a dull moment in the writing - lots of humour, wry chuckling, a little subversive. I loved it especially because the characters - all of them - are just so well drawn and life like, and such great back stories that make these characters so real and endearing. It's a marvellous book, I hope there is a sequel. I would love to know more about what Elizabeth did in her professional life as a spy! 

STALIN'S WINE CELLAR by John Baker

If you like books with any or all of the following - history, travel, deception, politics, lost treasure, secrecy, and of course wine but not necessarily essential, then you will love this. John Baker is a wine expert of, it would seem, some repute in his native Australia and elsewhere who also happens to be an excellent raconteur of his adventures in the underground wine world. Specialising mainly in top end, rare and antiquarian wines, when this book opens in the 1990s,  he is the owner/operator of a wine shop in the wealthy area of Double Bay in Sydney. With his trusty side kick Kevin they make a great team in finding and investigating the provenance of wines, getting themselves into possibly shady business dealings with high flyers, with nothing more really than their gut feelings and extraordinary knowledge to keep their reputations and wallets intact.

One day John and Kevin find themselves sitting at the top of a Sydney high rise being told a crazy story about a wine cellar in Tbilisi, Georgia formerly part of the USSR, that used to belong to Josef Stalin. A very large part of these thousands and thousands of bottles apparently belonged to Tsar Nicholas II and dated as far back as the 1860s. All untouched since the 1950s at the very latest when Stalin died. This is like the Holy Grail of wine. Now the owners of the winery in Tbilisi want to sell the stash, and somehow John and Kevin have become the experts to do it. Do they want the job or not.? Is this a silly question or not?

What follows is truly outstanding. Not just in the facts of what happens over the next few years as the saga of the cellar slowly and tediously drags on, with the surprising twists in it, but in the way John Baker tells the story. Like a wide eyed child, he and Kevin have no idea what they are in for when they board that plane in Sydney airport whisking them to the other side of the world. To describe Tbilisi as the wild west is a hilarious understatement and the reader is just as mesmerised by it all as the Australians. We meet George - mysterious and unpredictable lead negotiator, a number of gun carrying hench men, or are they really something else? John and Kevin are captivated by the landscape of the city, the beautiful rundown old buildings, the spirit of the people. And of course the wine cellar - what a totally bewildering and mystical place that turns out to be, requiring our two heroes to draw on all their knowledge, gut instinct and subterfuge skills to find out what is really there. 

This had me gripped from the first page, had me laughing and smiling at the antics of many of the players, plenty of photos to look at and enjoy. From Sydney to Russia, to London to France. It is a ride and a half, and I fully expect the highlight of the careers of these two characters. 

THE LAST REUNION by Kayte Nunn

 Lots and lots of novels set in Europe, the UK about ordinary people during and after WWII. But very few, in comparison, set in Japan, China or what was then Burma, now Myanmar. The cruelty and ruthlessness of the Japanese armed forces to prisoners and civilians is very well documented, but there hasn't been the same tsunami of fiction coming out of this history. This one is all about a group that you have probably never heard of - the Wasbies - the Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma) which ran mobile canteens for the Allied soldiers involved in the Burma campaign - British, Australian, NZers, Canadians, Americans who made up the 14th Army. The Wasbies were mainly young women  - early 20s - looking for some excitement as well as wanting to make a contribution to the war effort. Having lived parts of their lives in British colonies such as Singapore, India, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, they were well suited to the climate and living conditions. But things were still very primitive, basic, at times dangerous but almost always exciting. Much of the detail in the story comes from the diary of one of the surviving Wasbies who wrote about her experiences in India and Burma with the 14th Army. Across thousands of miles of inhospitable jungle, mosquitoes, often in difficult conditions, and from time to time within the sound of the front line, these young women ran char and wads - tea and buns - mobile and static canteens providing the troops with a constant and reliable source of food and drink- all the things they were missing from home. 

Joining the Wasbies in the 1940s are Bea, Plum, Bubbles, Joy and Lucy. Very different personalities and life stories, they are thrown together, depending on each other for companionship, a shoulder to cry on, assistance in times of danger, sharing secrets, coping together. Not only do they have to cope with their living and sanitation conditions but also the amorous attentions from the soldiers - young and pretty women being very few and far between. The story is narrated from Bea's point of view - smart, hard working, a real asset to the team and to the Wasbies. 

In later years, 1974, Bea finds herself responsible for the disappearance of a rare piece of Japanese miniature wooden sculpture a netsuke. This special item becomes a key feature in the story, and in the relationships amongst the other characters, but it remains out of sight for many years.  In 1999 Bea finds that her home is beginning to fall apart around her, forcing her to bring the netsuke out for auctioning. But first provenance - that the netsuke is hers - has to be proved. How did she come to have this rare and expensive treasure? Into the picture comes Olivia, a young Australian woman who is an expert in Asian and oriental art. She is in living in London on her OE working for a ghastly woman, who despatches her to Bea's place to check out these items Bea wants to auction off. Things happen, resulting in Olivia and Bea striking up a friendship. Bea is an elderly woman by now, but has lost none of her feistiness. 

The reunion in the title refers to a New Year's party taking place in Galway at the end of 1999 at the home of fellow Wasbie Plum. Bea doesn't want to go, but to sort the provenance of the netsuke she has to, so she asks Olivia to go with her. 

Moving seamlessly between the two time periods, this is a really good story.  Great characters - the women are fearless, brave, terrified, funny, smart, positive, defiant. Olivia is a great character too, trying to find her feet in London, living the classic OE on rubbish pay, grotty flat, struggling to make friends. The Burmese jungle is a frightening and unknown place, the Japanese soldiers a constant threat and fear to everyone, Wasbies and soldiers alike. Yet somehow in all this chaos, danger, death, primitive living, they find love, friendship, dancing, laughter. Very uplifting, the power of friendship and shared experiences surviving 50 years. 

JUST IGNORE HIM by Alan Davies

 

If you do a bit of googling on tragedy/pain and comedians you will find lots of quotes about the relationship between the two. It is certainly most apt for this memoir from well known comedian and actor Alan Davies - out of the distress of his early years, a successful and it would seem well-adjusted man has emerged.  Such a sad story: a little boy bereft at the death of his mother from leukaemia, left in the care of his father who it transpires is a sexual deviant. What a legacy of pain, confusion, anger, loneliness Alan  has had to deal with. The book opens with Alan driving around the country side with a parcel of pornography portraying young boys that his stepmother has given him to hopefully get rid of. The power this man has had over Alan, his siblings, his stepmother, other family, friends and neighbours is extraordinary, his ability to manipulate any situation to suit himself frightening. And yet he is Alan's father - half of him comes from his father - the bond, blood or otherwise is never really completely broken. 

Alan Davies has written of a childhood that really was not happy, although he didn't really have anything to compare it with. His father started abusing him not long after his mother died, and continued till he was about 13 when he was finally was able to stand up for himself. Meantime he still had go to school, find friends, learn, pass exams, navigate the school yard social zoo. A bright, friendly popular boy who could so easily have turned into a delinquent, but didn't, learning the hard way that you can't buy friendship. Fortunately for Alan, he discovers drama and performing where he can channel his childhood trauma. Plus he left home. 

It seems this book has been written as he has come out the other side - full of reflection, of his early life and of himself, moving between his childhood and now as he navigates what to do with this bundle of pornography. There is a slight sense of him writing about a child that once was, almost as if he is looking down on his younger self, now in full understanding as to why he is the man he is now. It has humour, wonderful moments of memory of his short time with his mother, and yet the thread of betrayal and loss of his family runs throughout the entire story. Beautiful, sad, uplifting, and hopeful. 

THE FOUR WINDS by Kristin Hannah

 

What a gift this woman has for writing and how prolific. She is not bound by any particular geographical setting, or historical time frame, somehow able to make a memorable and gripping story out of anything. Maybe her next novel will be set in space! At the core of her novels are one or two strong, determined, intelligent and resourceful female characters, faced with circumstances that require them to dig very deep to overcome. This novel was finished during the first half of 2020, many people having enormous challenges to overcome. Reading this, or any Kristin Hannah novel, will, I am sure and hope, be hugely relatable to readers.

Elsa lives with her parents in a small town in Texas. It is early 1930s. Elsa is the ugly duckling in her family and treated as such. Despite being intelligent and self aware, she sees little future for herself in this town, dreaming of being able to leave and make something of herself. But she has spirit, and in a rare show of defiance she meets a local boy, the inevitable happens, and before she knows it she is Elsa Martinelli, banished by her family, and now living on a farm with her in laws. Not a good start you might think and what else can go wrong. Drought is what goes wrong, then the Great Depression. There is plenty of information on line about this time in US history, the dust storms, the havoc wrecked on the rural economies, the lack of help from federal agencies, and the mass migrations from these devastated and destroyed rural areas westwards to California. Life is no picnic when these refugees finally make it to the promised land with nowhere to live, no jobs, enormous prejudice, predatory employers - the complete powerlessness and hopelessness that these hardworking people find themselves in.

Elsa makes the monumental decision to follow others to California, taking her children, leaving her in-laws. The journey itself is hazardous, but nothing compared to what awaits them when they finally arrive in California. Elsa is an amazing woman, the safety and future of her children her driving force in all decisions and actions she takes. That defiance and burst of character in her teens explodes out of her as she tries to make a better life for her small family. 

This is gripping stuff, not only for the story line, but also for the author's vividness of writing - the lives of the farmers, how the dust storms and drought devastate the farms and crops, how starvation affects the body and the mind. And yet that instinct for survival just keeps on driving. Her imagery of the camps that the migrants find themselves living in, the pathetic and hopeless search for jobs, food, medical care. The lack of kindness, care and humanity from the people of California to their fellow Americans is pretty appalling.  Many parallels are drawn between what happened then and what has been happening in the US over the last few years, the author alluding to this in her comments at the end. A very powerful and engrossing novel. 

EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL by Eleanor Ray

 

A wonderful feel good story about a woman who has been let down by life, finally finds a way to cope, and suddenly finds herself challenged again by a little bit of serendipity. Amy Ashton is 39 years old, she lives in London, commutes daily to and from her admin job where she has been for the last 20 years or so. She lives alone, in the house she lived in all those years ago, before her boyfriend, the love of her life, and her best friend, just one day disappeared. No warning, no suspicious behaviour from either of them, no bodies ever found, no bank accounts ever touched. Poof. Just gone. The obvious conclusion is that they had run away together, and even the police investigation came to the same conclusion. 

For Amy, the betrayal of her lover and friend totally devastates her. She finds comfort and security in things, everyday objects that held meaning for her in happier times. Over the years she becomes a mega hoarder, her house quite uninhabitable, and Amy living a tiny life between her work place and the security of grossly overcrowded house. Then one day, a family with two small boys moves in next door. Children being children, they explore their neighbourhood, one property being Amy's. The resulting destruction of a collection of garden pots in the back yard begins the long, difficult and emotional climb for Amy out of her safe and secure existence. Can she find it in herself to start again, to slowly turn back the pages of the last years and find out what really happened to Tim and Chantelle, plus rediscover herself in all of this. Does she have the courage to do so? How many little steps forward and backward will it take for her to see that life really can get better?

So heart warming, and lovely to read in these times when we are being kinder to each other, reconnecting with neighbours, friends. Checking on each other. There is a little bit of Amy in all of us, which makes her so relatable, likeable, and so frustrating as she dilly dallys around, unsure about what to do as she is faced with different problems and decisions.