This debut novel won the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize for its Canadian author, Riel Nason. In writing it she pays tribute to the area where she grew up, along the St. John River in New Brunswick. The submerged old bridge of her childhood memories inspired this telling of the flooding of a town in the name of progress. The events are seen through the eyes of 14-year-old Ruby Carson, who is a real character. She winds us into her world and forces us to contemplate the fall-out from a whole town going under. Well worth reading!- Review by Sue.
Last Friends by Jane Gardam $29.99 pb ** BiP Price $26.95
Last Friends is the last book in the Old Filth trilogy. Central to the book is the story of the very unusual early life of Sir Terence Veneering, Sir Edward Feather’s arch rival. Veneering was the son of a Russian acrobat and a young English girl. Marooned in north-east England, he escaped the war to emerge in the Far East as a man of panache, success and fame, yet at the stuffy English Bar he was always regarded with suspicion: where did this louche, brilliant Slav come from? Jane Gardam’s wonderful, witty turn of phrase will engage readers of Old Filth and The Man in the Wooden Hat.- Review by Leonie.
And the Mountains Echoed by Khalded Hosseini $32.99 pb ** BiP Price $27.95
May 21st will see the publication of the new novel by Khaled Hosseini. And the Mountains Echoed is a novel which spans generations and continents in a series of interconnected stories which move from Kabul, to Paris, to San Francisco, to the Greek island of Tinos, Khaled Hosseini writes about the bonds that define us and shape our lives, and how the choices we make resonate through history.
Afghanistan, 1952. Abdullah and his sister Pari live in the small village of Shadbagh. To Abdullah, Pari, as beautiful and sweet-natured as the fairy for which she was named, is everything. More like a parent than a brother, Abdullah will do anything for her, even trading his only pair of shoes for a feather for her treasured collection. Each night they sleep together in their cot, their skulls touching, their limbs tangled. One day the siblings journey across the desert to Kabul with their father. Pari and Abdullah have no sense of the fate that awaits them there, for the event which unfolds will tear their lives apart; sometimes a finger must be cut to save the hand.
