MY NAME IS NOBODY by Matthew Richardson

My favourite type of book - Spies! Espionage! Double Agents! Red Herrings! This has it all. I read a review that this is a cross between a Robert Ludlum and John Le Carre and would easily agree with that summary. Not as sophisticated, intricate as Le Carre, but every bit as thrilling as a Ludlum, this is a great book. We are beyond the Cold War days so beloved by writers of this genre, the more modern theme of Islamic terrorism central to this story. Solomon Vine is the MI5 operative who has found himself suspended after a shooting that takes place while he is interviewing a suspect in Istanbul. Not long after the head of the Istanbul post, old friend and rival Gabriel Wilde, goes missing. Solomon is called in by his old boss to unravel the puzzle.

And what a puzzle it is. Cryptic clues are everywhere, beginning with a copy of Ulysses' The Odyssey, translated by Gabriel into English, and delivered to Solomon after the former's disappearance. It is in this translation that Solomon eventually finds the phrase 'My Name is Nobody'.  What follows is an endlessly twisting path, both physically and metaphorically as Solomon, a mathematical genius by the way, looks to connect the dots between the shot suspect in Istanbul, Gabriel's disappearance, and whoever 'nobody' may be, doors firmly shut in his face at every turn. To complicate matters further, Solomon's ex fiancee, now wife to Gabriel, makes a reappearance, desperately trying to find her husband. Murky, tricky, smoke and mirrors, who can Solomon trust, are his instincts as good as they used to be when he himself was in the field. The ending is both surprising and not, as there are clues planted in the novel that if you are smart will lead you to the 'nobody'. Just remember a perceived red herring is not always a red herring.

Terrific stuff. What is also very refreshing is that the spy work is good old fashioned surveillance, walking or running the streets, decoding messages, listening, reading body language, looking for the nuances in language, and behaviour. A very modern old fashioned spy novel, if you see what I mean. 

PACHINKO by Min Jin Lee

The cover and the title provide no clue at all as to what this novel is about, so in opening it and beginning to read you are in completely uncharted territory. Taken out of the comfort zone of the expected - judging the book by its cover, not possible with this novel. There is lots to learn in this novel.

Set against the historical context of twentieth century Japan-Korea relations, this novel tells the story of a Korean family living in exile in Japan. In the early 20th century, Korea was 'conquered' by Japan, becoming a colony of Japan, which resulted in considerable hardship for the Korean population.

The story begins in 1932 with Sunja, a teenage girl living with her widowed mother, helping her in her running of a boarding house in Korea.  She becomes pregnant to a wealthy Korean man, Hansu, who seems to have made a successful life for himself in Osaka. But of course is married. Sunja is 'rescued' by a young Korean Christian missionary, who promises to raise  the baby as his own. They migrate to Osaka, to the impoverished and squalid part of the city where the Korean population lives, and like millions of migrants before them all over the world, begin the long hard slog to making a better life for themselves and their children. At all times, often unwanted, but always doing his best, is Hansu who still loves Sunja and her son, but can never know who his real father is.

The story chronicles the family - Sunju, her husband Isak, her in-laws, children Noa and Mozasu, their children, partners over the years from 1932 to 1989. It is wonderful, deeply engrossing and affecting. A lot of history is woven into the narrative, which provides the backdrop to the despair of the Koreans and the appalling discrimination by the Japanese toward them. I had no idea at all about any of this. I loved the characters, the love and compassion they show each other, the smallest of gestures and kindnesses making life worth living. Every day they get up, bravely facing another day of hard work, little money, doing their best for their families. It is inspiring and beautiful, lives and people lovingly written and described. This is a time and place in history I know nothing about- I learnt a lot. 

PERSONAL HISTORY by Katharine Graham

The movie 'The Post' with Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks depicted how The Washington Post newspaper won the right of free speech competition with Richard Nixon's government of the early 1970s. This set the scene the scene for arguably the Post's most successful coup ever, the uncovering of the Watergate scandal which resulted in the impeachment of Nixon, retold in the movie 'All the President's Men'.

At the helm of the paper during these turbulent times was Katharine Graham, there really only by virtue of being the daughter of the man who bought the paper way back in 1933, and the wife of the man, Phil Graham,  who took over from his father-in-law. The reins were  inherited by Katharine on her husband's suicide in 1963. She stood down as publisher in 1979, her son, then great niece in charge until 2014 when it was was sold to Jeff Bezos of Amazon fame.

There was really nothing remarkable about Katharine, a very privileged, well educated young woman, who had been brought up to believe that a woman's place was in the home, tending to her husband and children, putting her own needs and thoughts etc second to those around her. From time to time she had dabbled in a bit of journalism, writing the odd column for the paper, but certainly no positions of management, leadership or decision making. Being thrust into the top dog role in 1963 at the age of 46, recently widowed in horrible circumstances, four children, was more than a baptism by fire. She had plenty of help of course: this book is riddled with Post staff at all levels of the organisation whose advice, guidance, and decision making probably contributed more to the survival and success of the paper than her own management did, but flourish indeed it did.

This is her story, all 700 pages of it, published in 1997 when she was 80 years old. And what a story it is. It is incredibly long; there are way too many names - harsher critics than me call it name dropping, they also call her a spoiled ineffective figurehead; I skim read much of the management stuff of the paper, her conflicts with editors, managers, labour issues. But as a story of the transformation a woman of her time made from being a wife/mother to being a person of influence and opinion in a very male-dominated world is marvellous, and what's more at a time when the feminist movement was beginning to hit its stride. Yes, there were set backs; yes, she was regularly vilified, parodied and insulted; yes, there were times she wanted to throw it all away. But she didn't and in her quiet, dignified and polite way (as she tells it), she ends up being a stayer. The paper won 10 of its 47 Pulitzer Prizes on her watch.

Much of this book is outdated now, but not only does it tell Mrs Graham's own personal story, it also chronicles much of America's social, economic and political history during the middle section of the last century. Well worth a read, and ties in very nicely with  the two movies 'The Post', and 'All the President's Men'.