Vanishing by Gerard Woodward (Picador)
by Patrick O'Connor
YOU certainly can't accuse author Gerard Woodward of producing a light-weight book.
Packed into the 500 pages of Vanishing are several different tales from several different eras.
It's a first person narration by Kenneth Brill, who when we first meet him, is in a British prison sometime in the latter stages of the Second World War.
Besotted by Joe Treasure (Picador)
by Patrick O'Connor
TWIN brothers Michael and Kieran, live in Cheltenham, but at the beginning of this book they are visiting their grandparents in County Cork in Ireland in 1982.
Like so many people (myself included) of Irish descent, they sometimes struggled to know whether to call themselves English or Irish.
Afterlife by Sean O'Brien (Picador)
by Patrick O'Connor
THE organisers of a poetry festival in the fictious town of Divott near the Welsh border want to reintern the body of celebrated poet Jane Jarmain, a move that forces her one-time friend Martin Stone to look back on events in a sultry summer in the 70s.
Stone was obsessed by poet Thomas Exton and back in the 70s felt that his own troubled, drug-fuelled lifestyle shared parallels with the 17th century scribe.
One Moment, One Morning, Sarah Rayner, (Picador)
by Patrick O'Connor
COMMUTERS on the 07.44 train from Brighton to London usually keep themselves to themselves, buried in their books, newspapers or whatever gadget floats their boat.
But in One Moment, One Morning, everything changes for three women when a man collapses and dies from a heart attack. They are forced to confront major changes in their lives.