WHEN HOOPOES GO TO HEAVEN by Gaile Parkin

WHEN HOOPOES GO TO HEAVEN by Gaile Parkin

In the midst of the appalling tragedy that is HIV/AIDs in the African continent, ten year old Benedict is getting on with his life as ten year old boys the world over do. Both his parents are 'late', and with his two siblings and two cousins, who also have 'late' parents, he has been taken under the wing of his grandparents. The family has just moved from Tanzania to Swaziland for his Baba's work. Mama, or Angel as she is also known, is desperately trying to get her cake baking business going, which is not easy while attempting to settle into a new place.

Benedict is the type of child who will find something good or positive in any situation, and for him, his new home is a paradise. A beautiful garden rich with lizards, birds and butterflies, and with the recent tragedies in his young life, it doesn't take much for him to escape into his own special world. As an outsider at school, a kwerekwere, he finds solace in the garden, in reading King Solomon's Mines to improve his language knowledge and generally getting to know his new environment. Which includes the search for the buried treasure in aforementioned book Benedict is convinced is buried nearby. Being an inquisitive boy, determined to be good for his grandparents, and where death from HIV/AIDS is an everyday occurrence, he very quickly endears himself to the local funeral directors. Lots of doors open to Benedict and his family as a result of his charm, and with his open mind and his open heart, yet little or no understanding of the adult world around him, he is a happy little lad.

Despite the vast majority of the book being narrated through Benedict's eyes, the reader gets a very keen sense of the world the adults are living and surviving in  - Benedict's grandparents with the responsibility of five grandchildren, the neighbours with their family, Mavis who works for Baba and Mama and has her own grief to deal with, the young man who looks after the animals, as well as a girl at his school.. Not a great deal happens in this book, and even though I kept waiting for some plot development, it didn't matter that it didn't. This is a story about people looking for the good and the happy in the lives they are leading and finding it. It is colourful, lively, warm and charming, and beautifully depicted in the cover.   

THE SHADOW YEAR by Hannah Richell

THE SHADOW YEAR by Hannah Richell

An abandoned derelict cottage on the shores of a lake deep in the Peak District.  Five university flatmates, at a loose end now that their course of study is finished, footloose and fancy free, still too young to become grown ups with jobs, marriages, babies, mortgages. Summer time....so the five - Kat, Mac, Ben, Carla and Simon make a pact that they will drop out of society for a year, and live in the cottage, feeding themselves from the lake, and from the land. What could be more perfect. Until autumn starts to bite, and an unexpected visitor turns up.  1980, the year that began so promisingly gradually spirals out of the control of the six young people and a tragedy is in the making. 

Thirty years later, Lila and her husband Tom are living in London. Lila has tragically lost her unborn child due to a fall that she can't remember. Both the accident and her memory lapse weigh heavily on her heart and soul and it is seriously affecting her marriage. Out of the blue she receives an envelope with a silver key and some documents bequeathing to her a cottage. Not hard to guess which cottage....  So seeking a break from the sadness around her, and her deteriorating marriage she takes off to the cottage - which has again become derelict and abandoned. As she begins to live in the cottage, to paint and repair it, to get to know the locals, so her healing begins.

Narrated in turn by Kat and by Lila, slowly the story of what happened during the time Kat and her friends lived in the cottage is unfolded, and in turn how Lila came to be given the cottage.  There are many twists and turns in this 'mesmerising story of tragedy, lies and betrayal', which all add up to a great read, especially for a wet weekend because it is very hard to put down. I guessed fairly early on the connections between Lila and those who lived in the cottage thirty years prior, but it in no way at all detracts from the suspense and unfolding of the story.

What holds the story together is primarily the relationship between Kat and Simon, and Simon's role as the natural leader of the group. He is a very charismatic character, and seems to have some sort of power of the will of the others in the group. Kat is passionately and dangerously in love with him which leads to some very dodgy decision making, and the conflicts that arise in the group due to his narcissistic personality ultimately lead to the downfall of the year long experiment. Simon as a character and his powerful hold over the whole group was the one thing that really bothered me about the book. I find it difficult to understand how four university educated young people could allow themselves to be so easily taken in by him. But small quibble really, because this is a good and satisfying read.

ME AND YOU by Niccolo Ammaniti

ME AND YOU by Niccolo Ammaniti

Yet another small novel - 150 pages - of exquisite writing and heartbreak that says so much more than something twice its length. This is a love story, yes, but not your typical love story. This is a story of a 14 year old boy, Lorenzo Cuni, only child of parents who need to be seen to be fitting in and going to the right places. Like many 14 year olds, he feels disconnected from those around him - his peers and his parents, and really just wants to be left alone. To escape he tells his parents he is going on a week long ski trip with the popular kids from school, but in reality he sneaks away into the basement of the apartment building he lives in, relishing a week of peace and quiet and no expectations. His paradise is suddenly shattered when his 24 year old troubled drug user drop out half sister, Olivia, turns up. Neither wants the other one there - Olivia is estranged from her father, and Lorenzo has grown up only hearing bad things about his sister. But over the few days left of Lorenzo's 'ski trip', they slowly stop circling each other, realise they have much more in common than they thought, and ultimately find the acceptance and belonging neither had ever really had from their family.

The character of Lorenzo captures perfectly the angst - justified or not - that most young teens feel. He is caught between wanting to be his own person, but not really knowing what that is, and like most children, wanting to please his parents and keep on their good side. Like many teens he is ingenious in his thinking to cover his murky tracks and I enjoyed very much the flawed young man I was reading about. Olivia is a tragic figure, not much has gone right for her in her young life, but in meeting Lorenzo, her little brother, she finds a softness and warmth that she had long forgotten about.

Of course the escape has to come to an end, and Lorenzo returns from his ski trip happier and more at peace with himself, and Olivia too leaves and gets on with her life. I almost can't believe so much can be said in such a small book. Stunning.

THE DINNER by Herman Koch

THE DINNER by Herman Koch

There is a certain unspoken level of etiquette that takes place when partaking of a meal in a high class dining establishment. Basically, everyone behaves themselves. I am forever reminded of the scene that takes place in such a dining room, in the movie The Blues Brothers, where Jake and Elwood do their darnedest to create a scene and show no etiquette whatsoever. Fantastic stuff only because it is so unexpected, but also secretly how we would actually like to behave in such a high end place! But as we also know, the surface veneer of a posh place often hides some not so pleasant undercurrents, and it is certainly the case in this gripping and compelling novel, written by an acclaimed Dutch writer, and now translated into English.

A quite innocuous beginning - narrator Paul Lohman and his wife Claire, are meeting Paul's brother Serge and his wife Babette for dinner. Paul loathes Serge and everything he stands for. He and Claire are united on this, and also feel very sorry for the long suffering Babette. Serge is fairly famous - he is the opposition candidate in the upcoming national elections, and if all goes well, likely to be the country's next prime minister. Paul cannot think of a more inappropriate individual to be in charge of anything. So far nothing too much to worry about, shaping up to be an interesting evening with some underlying conflict.

It didn't take very long, however, for me to feel like I was reading one of the masterful Ian McEwan novels - Black Dogs, Enduring Love or Amsterdam.  Oh my goodness, the parallels are uncanny - secrets slowly being disclosed, disturbing events, relationships not quite as you expect them to be, people who are a little more alarming and scary than you expect, relationships presented from different points of view,  - it is very, very good. I can't give anymore of the plot away, except to say that the other main characters in the story are the sons of Paul and Serge, and Serge and Babette's adopted son. And the lengths a parent will go to protect his or her child.

At the centre of the whole book is Paul, who has plenty of secrets of his own, and what a complicated human being he is!  Structured around a five course meal - aperitif, appetiser, main course, dessert and digestif, the descriptions of the food being served are sublime, complicated and delicious. And prove a wonderful distraction to the action taking place at the table. I loved this, gosh it was a good read! And leaves you with a chill at the end .

GOLD by Chris Cleave

GOLD by Chris Cleave

Set against the backdrop of the Olympic Games of 2004 (Athens), 2008 (Beijing) and the not-yet-happened-when-book-written 2012 games in London, the author has, once again, taken extraordinary circumstances and created a novel where the characters are facing  huge ethical and moral dilemmas. His two previous novels, 'Incendiary' and 'Little Bee' tackle the subjects of terrorism and illegal refugees respectively. The subject matter in 'Gold' is nowhere near as political - top level cycling and cancer in children - but does provoke the same extreme levels of emotion reaction.

Kate and Zoe are the Olympic cyclists, both British, both world champions, both fiercely competitive. Kate is the all-English girl - everyone's best friend, generous to a fault, the media darling, married to Jack, the British male cycling champ.  Zoe is the polar opposite - a loner, permanently verging on self-combustion, unable to be happy, Kate being her only friend in the world. Kate missed out on the 2004 and 2008 Olympics due to her having a new baby, Sophie,  to care for in 2004, and in 2008 having to withdraw from the team due to Sophie suffering from leukemia. Finally in 2012, her chance to be the Olympic champion, to make it hers, has arrived. But a relapse in Sophie's health threatens this golden opportunity. As one reviewer put it, and I can't remember who(!), the phrase Sophie's Choice takes on its own meaning in this story.

Does all this sound  a bit too chick flick-ky for you?  Despite the plot line probably being implausible, the story as a whole is actually very good.  I knew absolutely nothing at all about top level track cycling. It certainly is amazing to watch on TV, but the work, dedication, psychology, mind games, intense focus that goes on to get those competitors on the track is quite astounding. And what goes on in those incredibly short races, physically and mentally, inside the cyclists - nothing short of awesome! These would be the sections of the book I most enjoyed reading, mainly because I learnt so much! And I will now watch track cycling with a new degree of awe and admiration for the limits these people push their minds and bodies to.

Young Sophie's illness could have been milked and milked and drip fed to the reader in the most heart wrenching agony, and I probably learnt more about pediatric cancer than I really wanted to know, but as much of it was told from Sophie's point of view, in her parallel Star Wars universe, it didn't feel as much like a soap opera as it could have done. Sophie is one plucky wee girl, but with parents who are Olympic cyclists it is hardly surprising she has inherited their toughness and their strength.

It's a good read, but I still think 'Little Bee' is the best of the three books he has written.