STORIES OF HOPE: FINDING INSPIRATION IN EVERDAY LIVES by Heather Morris

 The Tattooist of Auschswitz and Cilka's Journey have had  powerful impacts on everyone I know who has read them and all the millions of others out there around the world. The Tattooist in particular has run riot through shop tills, book clubs, families and friends, long library waiting lists. It has resonated so strongly because it is true, told straight from the horse's mouth, hours of interviews, talking, meeting, carefully peeling back the layers of Lale and Gita's lives. And with a love story at the centre of it, the book was guaranteed to be a winner. Cilka followed much the same formula but for me it did lack that authenticity and edge of the Tattooist, I suspect because there was no real personal contact with Cilka, much of the story based on research and anecdotal evidence. Despite this, what has been so compelling about these two books is that they are essentially true, and for many many people given them an outstanding insight into the appalling things that humans do to others, and yet somehow the will to survive, to do good to others, to hope, to just get through all this horror is what is so inspiring.  

So Heather Morris writing a book about hope, how we can find inspiration in the lives of those around us, about how she came to meet Lale - on the surface an ordinary elderly man recently widowed,  how she gradually eked out his story, her research into Lale and Gita's lives, the concentration camps and the lives of those in them, and yet still seem to have the power to forgive was definitely a book I was interested in reading. 

But... oh dear. It wasn't really about all that at all. Sure, there was quite a bit about Lale, Gita, Cilka, and three Jewish sisters who also survived the camps and who are the subject of her next book. But much of this information, aside from the three sisters, is actually at the back of each of the Tattooist and  Cilka. There is some new information, but not enough to justify a whole new book. What's more, much of all this is repeated several times in this book of 178 pages, almost as if she wrote one chapter without referring at all to the other chapters. Where was the editing? But it was written during covid lockdown, so maybe there was no one around to edit?

More frustrating and irrelevant were chapters on how to talk to and with elderly people, how to listen rather than hear, and how to communicate with children so that they feel valued and heard. It seems to me that those who have read one or both of the Tattooist or  Cilka are well on the way to being emotionally intelligent without the patronising tones of someone who has successfully managed to publish her ability to tell a story. Thirdly this book becomes, with its regular repetition of the three sisters who survive the camps, a relentless publicity drive for that next book. 

I found this such a disappointing book to read. There were some sections which were very very good, insightful, and interesting. But the overall tone was one of spin, regurgitating already published material and considerable self promotion. She is much better at telling other people's stories rather than her own. 

STATE HIGHWAY ONE by Sam Coley

 

A road trip! Who in New Zealand does not love that idea, especially now when we can't go anywhere else. Explore your own landscape, and with state highway running from the tip of the North Island at Cape Reinga to the bottom of the South Island at Bluff, and then taking in Stewart Island, why would you not?

Unless you are in a deep state of grief, trauma and despair. Which Alex and his twin sister Amy are, having lost their parents in a terrible road accident. The twins are young, about twenty, but already have complicated lives. Alex has lived in Dubai for the past two or three years, having fled NZ after a personal crisis which is carefully disclosed as the novel goes on. He works in a very high pressure role for an advertising/media sort of business. Lucky he is young in body and soul to cope with the stress and lifestyle. Amy meanwhile has been pretty directionless in her life, going to university, drifting. They grew up with what we would call an entitled existence - their parents very successful film producers, so away from home a lot, leaving the twins - what we call benign neglect parenting. Hardly surprising that Amy and Alex have a difficult relationship.

As expected the mode of travel is a pretty clapped out car that struggles with the distances and the roadways that the two of them take. Plus no money. Amy is the navigator, Alex the driver, the ultimate goal being the far side of Stewart Island, and only 3 weeks to do it in, as Alex has to be back in Dubai.  So much happens on this trip, so many sibling dramas  and wounds opened up. There is a near death crash, drugs, a typically ghastly Cook Strait ferry crossing, grim accommodations, but they make it. And Dubai? Well, that would be telling if Alex makes it back there. 

This is such a surprising novel, perhaps a little long, but there is lot of ground to cover. Like  most fiction set in New Zealand, the landscape, the sea, the mountains and hills are all heavily featured, characters in themselves, contributing to the mood of the twins, reflecting their inner turmoils and special sibling relationship. Revealing, intimate, insightful moving towards an unexpected and satisfying conclusion. More from this writer please. 

THE SINGLE LADIES OF THE JACARANDA RETIREMENT VILLAGE by Joanna Nell

Who wouldn't want to channel Helen Mirren at any age, let alone at 79 years old. Poor old  Peggy Smart is a million miles away from channeling anyone as half as amazing as Dame Helen, living in the Jacaranda Retirement Village, widowed, increasingly isolated from her grandchildren thanks to her ungrateful daughter in law. She has a massive crush on hottie Brian, somewhere in his eighties. And so do a number of other residents - competition.  But overall life in the village is pretty dull, every day the same as the other, her fellow residents equally uninspiring and dull, petty, and probably just as fed up with their lives as Peggy is.  Is this all there is?

And then one day a new arrival! Peggy's old school friend, her closest friend all those years ago, the glamorous, beautiful, stylish, fun-loving adventurous Angelina moves in. And Peggy is in her sights to give a new lease of life to. Peggy has mixed reactions to the Cinderella-fairy godmother scenario unfolding in front of her, but is very quickly under the spell of her exciting and lively friend, taking her back to a happier time. Oh the fun they have! It wouldn't be a good story if a few problems and conflicts didn't crop up along the way, bringing up old conflicts and pettiness from their younger days. 

This is funny, engaging, and a joy to read, making you feel good inside. No murders, no violence, no nastiness, blood, law breaking. It's a great story, with adorable characters, trying to live the best lives they can in their twilight years. Something we can all aim for, and perfect reading for these times when we really need to be connecting with others as much as we can. 

THE TALLY STICK by Carl Nixon

 It is 1978. A family - Mum, Dad, four children ranging in age from 13 to just a few months old - recently migrated to New Zealand from the UK, on a road trip prior to taking up a new job opportunity in Christchurch. Only problem is they never arrive in Christchurch to their new home, to the new job. Instead, like many visitors and new arrivals to NZ, the parents - more specifically the dad - has little appreciation for the tricky NZ climate or the even trickier NZ roads. There is an accident, because no one knows where they were, no one knows to look for them. Only a few family back in the UK to mourn. But four years later the body of one of the children is found, somewhere on the west coast of NZ, with his father's watch and a wooden stick with grooves notched in it - a tally stick.   So where was the boy all this time, and did any of the other family members survive? 

Back in England, the family left behind endeavour to pick up the pieces. An aunt makes regular trips to over the decades to New Zealand doing her own detective work. She almost gets there, almost, but for a fraction of a moment in time, she turns away never learning the complete truth. 

This sounds a pretty gruesome plot line, set against the wild and treacherous west coast region of NZ. And just like many NZ novels it is replete with violence, dark sinister overtones of the isolated rural life, maltreatment of children. But I have every faith in Carl Nixon as an author, having adored The Virgin and the Whale and read good reviews of some of his other books. And yes it is very very good. Excellent story line, great level of tension held throughout, very real characters, who evolve and change through time. Unexpected outcomes. Read it and support NZ writers.

HOME STRETCH by Graham Norton

 This man just keeps getting better in his story telling. Not only a wonderful interviewer and TV entertainer, but a terrific story teller. His careful drawing of his characters, his sympathy and love for their complexities and weaknesses set against the small town Irishness of it all. Such a wonderful treat to read and enjoy. Like his two previous novels, the plot moves between the past and present as the tragedies of life unfold, the mistakes and secrets of the past continuing to impact the lives of the present. 

This story begins in 1987 on the eve of the wedding of a young local couple. The whole town is excited about the wedding, new clothes bought, nails done, everything in readiness. Until a terrible car accident takes the lives of three young people, leaves a fourth in a wheelchair for life, and the lives of two others, Martin and Connor,  changed forever. The grief is palpable, the author having such a delicate touch as the tragedy of the accident flows through the community. 

As the driver of the car, Connor cannot live with the guilt and the finger pointing, so one day he simply disappears, putting his pub owning parents and sister Ellen through a different type of grief. Martin, the doctor's son, marries Ellen, sweeping her off her feet, and then it is as if his guilt becomes too much for him to deal with as the years of their marriage unfold. 

Meantime Connor makes his own life, but always carrying the burden of that terrible day. Until one day, some twenty years later, the past jumps out in front of him, forcing him to face up to what really went on that summer's day in 1987. 

Many cans of worms are opened, family secrets spilt out, people having to build some bridges and burn a few so as to rearrange the universe and allow forgiveness of the self and of each other. You can tell the author loves people, loves their differences, their faults, their quirks - the whole human being-ness of who we are. Placing his stories in small, almost insular communities allows all those human failings and foibles  to show, be magnified. But it is not too much that we can't see ourselves in these small town prejudices, ways of doing things, controls and unspoken rules. We have all been subject to these at some stage in our lives, and the freedom that comes from letting those rules be softened, bent or broken makes for a much better community and world for us to be in. 

HERMIT by S.R. White

How does one live as a hermit in an urbanised world,  CCTV cameras everywhere, social media connectedness? In this novel, another excellent Australian whodunnit, Nathan Whittler is the hermit. He has lived off grid, in a secretive location somewhere in the wild bushlands of Australia for fifteen years, disappearing from his family home. What is the story behind Nathan's unusual life,  and how is that he is found by the police leaning over the stabbed body of a grocery store owner? And how did he manage to live off grid all those years? 

Dana Russo is the lead detective in the case, and she also has her own demons that she is dealing with. We never learn the true nature of her trauma, although towards the end there are some revelations, setting the author up to write a second novel featuring this astute, sensitive and highly intelligent woman. 

Once Nathan is arrested, Dana has only 24 hours in which to get a confession out of him. She is not convinced that he is the murderer, and neither is the reader really, but it is her job to get Nathan on her side so as to peel back the story of what happened in the grocery store that night. The psychological interplay between Dana and Nathan, as she sits in the interview  room with him, acutely aware that she cannot push him too hard, is so well done, so carefully and strategically played out that the tension oozes out of the page. 

The supporting characters - the other detectives, the widow, the lawyer are also outstanding, with such diverse personalities, secrets to hide, secrets that are uncovered. It is a slow moving whodunnit, which takes a bit of getting used to in this fast paced novel world we live in. But it is never boring, and I found it very rewarding. I like the idea of there possibly being another Dana Russo novel sometime soon. 

REDHEAD BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD by Anne Tyler

I am not a prolific reader of Anne Tyler, but she always makes her way into the book club I belong to, so I feel bound to read when they turn up, just so I know what others like about her books. Without a doubt they are charming, joyful, meaningful small novels about very ordinary people in ordinary lives going through a crisis of sorts. Nothing monumental - tragic accidents, major illnesses, life crises. Just the types of situations that create bits of upset, make things a little off-kilter, then come out for the better. Her characters would never be in the cool kids group at school, never be social media influencers, never be the leaders or bosses in our world, They are quirky, often alone or lonely, vulnerable, then find out new things about themselves as a result of the challenges they are facing. 

In this latest Anne Tyler offering, which has now become one of my favourites, we meet Micah Mortimer, a man in his mid forties. He lives alone in a small flat in the basement of an apartment building, operating as a mobile tech repairer calling himself Tech Hermit. Despite his high geekness-factor, he is actually very sociable, likeable, personable. He has got used to living on his own, become somewhat OCD in the process with his tidiness/cleanliness habits, his pride in his excellent driving practices, his pleasure in his relationship with school teacher Cassie. And he has a supportive family - four sisters who lovingly tease him, but who also give him family to belong to. Everything is just peachy.

Until... Cassie has a housing crisis that Micah seems to be deaf to resulting in her breaking up with him and thus throwing his life into some disarray. Around the same time, a young man turns up on his doorstep claiming to be his son from a college fling some 18 years earlier. Two spanners thrown into the the tidy tool box of Micah's life. Being forced to rethink your life in your mid forties is just the tiniest bit challenging. 

It's not hard to be on team Micah. Despite his quirks, his minor eccentricities, he is very likeable, quite engaging, and just a nice decent normal sort of bloke. All the other characters are just as pleasant, ordinary too, dealing with various levels of conflict clashes with each other. I loved this, it's an adorable story, with satisfying outcomes. Micah finds hidden depths within himself, leading to vast improvements in his relationships, his living environment, even his driving is affected. It just shows that we all have it within us to be open to changes that could lead to improvements within ourselves. 

MISS BENSON'S BEETLE by Rachael Joyce

 

Pure reading pleasure. What a delightful and surprising story that left me with a satisfying internal glow and feeling... happy. So happy, it was a magic read. And that cover - so lifelike with its shiny and glossy golden beetles. 

You may recall that Rachael Joyce wrote The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, an outstanding story of an elderly man walking from the south of England to the north to visit his friend Queenie. Such a journey of perseverance, determination and steady as she goes. This novel is in exactly the same vein - an unlikely heroine, Margery Benson,  undertaking the most extraordinary journey from England to New Caledonia of all places in the years after WWII. And why? Looking for a golden beetle that Margery first learnt about from her father when she was a little girl. This novel is every bit as good as, if not better than Harold - I loved Margery, her pluck, her single-mindedness, her self belief. 

When the story begins, Margery is a spinster school teacher, stuck at a girl's school, down trodden, teased mercilessly by those awful girls. Life has not been good to Margery, losing her father and brothers in the wars. One day at school, things go terribly awry and she quite literally, runs away.  But what to do now? That golden beetle of her childhood looms enticingly, and in a fateful decision her life takes a dramatic turn. Nothing is going to get in her way, but she can't do it all on her own! In a hilarious situations vacant process she ends up with Miss Enid Pretty as her assistant. Enid is the complete opposite of Margery, a most unlikely companion for such an intrepid journey, plus she has her own secretive past which adds juicily to the plot. Their journey to New Caledonia is fantastic, as is their journey into the highlands of the island to hunt out the elusive beetle. 

Along the way a number of other characters and situations threaten to upset everything, but Margery marches doggedly on, nothing getting in her way. She and Enid are outstanding characters - as the reader you are constantly encouraging them, egging them on - you go girls. They are both shining examples of what can be done when you put your mind onto something, and especially at a time when women had set roles in society. It is just a fabulous book, such a great story, I loved it. One of my favourites of 2020. 

HUMAN KIND: A HOPEFUL HISTORY by Rutger Bregman

 

What a time in our history to be reading a book like this - an optimistic, positive and almost joyful look at how us, homo sapiens, are actually a pretty decent bunch of animals after all. In an airplane disaster we are much more likely to help those around us get out regardless of our own personal risk, rather than clamber out, trampling the elderly and small children in our haste to get to safety. Or how about a complete reality check on that book we all did at school, Lord of the Flies, our impressionable young minds tortured with how we are essentially brutal savages when left lawless. In this book, we read the true story of a small group of young Tongan school boys who took an afternoon off school to go fishing, ended up on a desert island, lost to the world for some years. An incredible story of survival, cooperation, and growing successfully from boys to young men. 

It is pretty clear that the author is a glass half full person, which makes this book such a treat to read. His research is extensive - some 50 pages of  notes, 8 pages of index. He analyses, dissects, discusses and provides a different viewpoint on a number of famous experiments. He takes umbrage with the flaws that were carefully hidden so as not to break the illusion perpetrated for centuries that us humans are barbaric, cruel, selfish, etc etc. He also looks at the surprising reports and anecdotal evidence that has emerged from WWI/WWII battlefields and destruction about how difficult it is for one human to actually bayonet or shoot another human to death because their bosses say so. Or how much civilian bombings by the Germans and the British actually increased levels of cooperation and solidarity amongst people. He tells a great story about twin brothers in South Africa who overcame their differences to ensure that Nelson Mandela did become president of South Africa, thus averting a civil war. 

What is also clear from this book, is how we are manipulated by publicity machines, propaganda experts, researchers who have to justify their experiments and funding by only telling part of the truth, glossing over important details.  It is an extremely revelatory book, written with enthusiasm and energy, and you can't help but get caught up in his positivity. What a way to be! It may all be idealistic, and he does address the issue more than once that there really are some very bad people out there, but their effect would be greatly reduced or nullified if we did have the courage to stand up and embrace our innate goodness - the more we cooperate, the better our society operates. Very worthwhile reading with chapters short enough that you cn read one a day, ponder on it, read another the next day. 

THE SURVIVORS by Jane Harper

 

Oooh Jane Harper, another brilliant and tricky whodunnit from this prolific Australian writer. She proved with her previous novel The Lost Man that she doesn't need the likes of someone like Federal police agent Aaron Falk to be the primary crime solver. But like her previous novels the nature and the unrelenting strength of the Australian landscape, plus the small and closed community setting are dominant and to the fore in this novel too. We have had the farming community in the middle of a drought, the team of work colleagues lost in the bush, the cattle ranch in outback Queensland. She likes to move us around - now we are in a beach community on Tasmania, the wild coast close by, with the Survivors - a group of dramatic rock formations - standing guard over the beach and caves nearby. 

Kieran Elliott has returned to the community he grew up in with his wife Mia, also a local, and their baby Audrey. Kieran's parents still live here, his father increasingly demented, putting huge strain on his mother. He has returned to help his mother at this difficult time. The return dredges up a terrible time some 15 years prior when Kieran was in his late teens, Mia mid teens. Kieran makes a dreadful mistake that results in the death of two men  - his older brother Finn, and the father of his best friend, the Survivors being the only witnesses to what really happened. He has never got over the guilt of this tragedy, feeling 100% responsible for the deaths. Also going missing at the same time was a teenage girl,  Gabby, who was Mia's best friend.  The couple's return, predictably, causes waves in the town, many still holding Kieran responsible for the deaths, and with the disappearance of Gabby never being fully explained, feelings are running a little hot. 

Then the body of another young woman, Bronte, who lives in the town, washes up on the beach. It's a small community, someone must know something, and everyone is either under suspicion or is equally suspicious of everyone else. It doesn't help that Bronte was sharing a house with the girlfriend of Kieran's best friend, his father was seen talking to Bronte, his mother seems to be hiding something, Gabby's still grieving mother behaving most peculiarly, and so on.  Naturally what happened years before is dredged up, the local and out of town police involved. It is the caves and the Survivors that are central to the story. Their dangerous and ominous present never far away. Even the walk down a perilous set of steps to the beach conjures fear and danger, this combined with the dangers of an incoming tide to cave explorers never far from the reader's mind. 

It is a great read, never a dull moment. As in her other books, Jane Harper knows how to turn the tension handle, the secrets as they are exposed surprising, alarming, and as we know, with tragic outcomes. Kieran, as the prodigal guilt ridden son, is very credible, as are his parents, his old school friends Ash and Sean who never left the town. The 'living in a goldfish bowl' mentality of small town life is so well drawn, everyone knowing the other's business, the reader feels the claustrophobia, how hard it would be to escape all of this. I still think The Dry is the best of her  novels, but this one is certainly up there with a great story line, tension, and characters. 

THE GIRL IN THE MIRROR by Rose Carlyle

 So scary reading stories about sisters. Such an emotionally drenched relationship on a standard day, let alone when things go spectacularly off the footpath. I thought The Good Sister was spine tingling and mind blowing, but this one blew all that away with the intense co-dependent and intimate relationship between identical twin sisters at its center.  It's a complete cracker of a novel with every page having you almost breathless as the story unfolds, the twists, shifts, deceptions and lengths people go to. So good.

At it's heart is the impossible for us non-twin folks to understand bond between twins. Identical twins is the apex of the intimacy of sibling relationships - the secret language, means of communicating, swapping roles, It is almost freaky and of course lends itself perfectly for sinister doings. In this story the twins are Summer and Iris. They are very rare identical twins in that they are mirror images of each other. Summer has her organs on the usual side of the body - heart on the left, liver on the right, kidneys on the left and so on. Iris has hers the other way round. This would seem to be the only way of identifying one from the other. Even their mother and brother cannot tell them apart. 

The narration is from Iris' point of view. She has a serious inferiority complex over her relationship with her sister, although to the reader Iris appears to be ever bit as beautiful, smart and likeable as her sister.  She loves her sister dearly, but does not feel that she can ever be as fabulous and adored as Summer. Unlike Summer however, she has a deep love for the sea, and is also an extremely good sailor, a talent and passion that she inherited from her father. 

There are however some weird family issues going on. Their father left the family some years ago, remarried and had a second family. By chance Iris found out after the father's death that his $100 million fortune would only go to the first of his children to have a child. So the race is on, and with the oldest child in the second family now in her mid teens, pressure is mounting on Iris and Summer to marry and breed. Not so easy for Iris whose own marriage has recently ended -naturally she sees this failure as her own fault - so she is doing all she can to help Summer. 

But nothing is easy or straightforward in this murky world of blended families and twin hood. I can't say anymore or too much will be revealed! This novel is so tightly woven, with very well drawn and developed characters, red herrings and clues so discreetly planted that you wonder how on earth did you miss that. And I bet you look sidewise at every set of twins you meet from now on.