SOMETIMES you come across a novel which haunts you long after you have reached the final page, firmly lodged in your memory.
And memory is a key factor in this splendid offering by the renowned British author Sebastian Faulks.
The narrator is successful psychiatrist Dr Robert Hendricks who is an author and a veteran of the Anzio landings in the Second World War.
He is haunted by memories of his past experiences and Hendricks leads the reader on a moving journey through his life.
The Green Room by Anne Enright (Vintage) by Patrick O'Connor THIS is a fascinating multi-faceted look at a dysfunctional family. It focuses on the Madigans, mother Rosaleen and her children Dan, Emmet, Constance and Hanna who meet up for a Christmas gathering in the west of Ireland for the first time in many years. Different […]
Seesaw by Deborah Moggach (Vintage)
by Patrick O'Connor
DEBORAH Moggach has quite an impressive catalogue. She received a BAFTA nomination for her screenplay Pride & Prejudice and her novel These Foolish Things was made into the hit film, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
This book starts off as if it is going to be another kidnap caper but Moggach, being the talented writer that she is, serves up a much more interesting and fascinating offering.
The Innocent by Ian McEwan (Vintage)
by Patrick O'Connor
THE main protagonist in this story certainly starts off as an innocent but that can't last in 1950s Berlin.
It is the beginning of the Cold War and a joint CIA/MI6 operation builds a tunnel from the American sector to the Russian sector (an event which really happened). Leonard Marnham, is a 25 year old Englishman seconded from the Post Office to help tap the phone lines of the Russians.
First Novel by Nicholas Royle (Vintage)
by Patrick O'Connor
THE author picks an unusual protagonist in this clever, intriguing story – a creative writing lecturer at a Manchester university.
The added twist is that Royle also teaches the subject at Manchester Metropolitan University so the reader is constantly pondering over what is real and what is fantasy.
Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan (Vintage)
by Patrick O'Connor
ACCLAIMED British author Ian McEwan delves into the world of espionage with Sweet Tooth but this is not the world of James Bond but a more mundane, everyday spy story, set in 1970s England.
The central character is ex-Cambridge maths student and bishop's daughter Serena Frome, who is recruited to M15 after a relationship with her married, middle-aged lover Tony Canning, a don at the university.