Critics' Choice

Critics’ Choice

Mitcham Library Service Collection Guide Life after life by Kate Atkinson

May we be forgiven by AM Homes

Kate Atkinson is a writer at the top of her game in 'Life after life'. The colossal research that must have been undertaken to write this novel hums in the background and helps to build many riffs upon the 'what if' scenarios played out by Ursula Todd and all who knew her. Although complex, the novel is never confusing. The scenes set during The Blitz are intense and moving. Atkinson's descriptions of family life are marvellous, poignant and full of sardonic humour (an agreeable feature of all of her books). Highly recommended.

AM Homes explores the fallout of a single, momentous event. Harry, bitter and jealous after seeing his younger brother George acquire the trappings of wealth in his successful TV career, goads George into losing control of his murderous temper. As a result, he needs to look after George’s kids and navigate the pitfalls of modern life with a very modern family.

Where’d you go, Bernadette by Maria Semple This is one of the most unique, funny and perceptive novels of the past year. The story is told almost entirely through the use of journal messages, emails, clippings and diary entries and focuses on Bernadette Fox and her relationship with the people around her. To the private school mothers at the school gate, she’s a terror. To her husband, she’s his volatile, fearless and yet agoraphobic wife. And to her daughter Bee, she’s her inspiring role model and best friend. After a series of misunderstandings and in tragic circumstances, Bernadette disappears. To find her mother, Bee compiles a list of her mother’s correspondence and in the process discovers a lot about a person she thought she knew best.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn Just how well can you ever know the person you love? This is the question that Nick Dunne must confront on his wedding anniversary, when wife Amy suddenly disappears from their house on the river. The police immediately suspect Nick, the town’s golden boy— her friends and her diary reveal their marriage was quite different to what it looked like on the outside; his phone and internet records are definitely dodgy. But as Nick battles changing town attitudes and a hostile media, the question remains: what happened to Amy? Tightly written, Flynn has a talent for exposing a character’s thoughts and motivations. We need new names by NoViolet Bulawayo The powerful story of a young girl’s journey from Mugabe’s Zimbabwe to the United States. Ten-year-old Darling and her friends Stina, Chipo, Godknows, Sbho and Bastardused to have proper houses, before they were destroyed by a paramilitary, but now

Mitcham Library Service Collection Guide 2013

Critics’ choice they all live in a shanty called Paradise. They spend their days stealing stealing food, playing games and wondering how to get a child out of their friend’s belly. Although dreaming of escape, will their future be any more secure in America? The narration is compelling. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton Although set in the 19th century with a writing style not dissimilar to Victorian era writers, Catton’s prose or plot are anything but boring. When a man arrives in a remote New Zealand town, founded only two years earlier but increasingly prominent and populous due to a gold rush, he witnesses a group of 12 men worried about the spate of unsolved crimes in the areas. Together they want to work out who has perpetrated the crimes and with parts told from a different character’s perspective, the ending is both thrilling and interesting. The Testament of Mary by Colm Toíbín The Testament of Mary tells the story of Jesus’s life through the voice of his grieving mother. For Mary, living in exile and in fear of her own life, she struggles to piece together the memories of the events that led to her son's brutal murder. In her effort to tell the truth in all its gnarled complexity, she slowly emerges as a figure of immense moral stature as well as a woman from history rendered now as fully human. Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson

16 year old Marina longs to escape from her Hungarian family in West London, ashamed of the way they cling to their immigrant background and refusal to conform to anything English. She gets her chance by managing to get a place at Combe Abbey, a traditional English girls’ boarding school. But when she’s there, she realises she’s made a bad mistake – here her differences are always starker: as a foreign girl, unused to wealth. A book about the importance of identity. Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw Phoebe came to China with hope in her heart but the job she was promised never existed. Gary is a famous pop star, but his fans desert him after he is captured on camera in a drunken brawl. Yinghui is now a very rich businesswoman – a stark transformation from the social activist she once was. Justin works hard in the family business but is starting to suspect his efforts are going unrecognised and most definitely unrewarded. Finally, there is the Five Star Billionaire himself, who toys with each of the four in turn. All bring their dreams and hopes to Shanghai, the shining symbol of New China, which, like the novel's characters, is constantly in flux and which plays its own fateful role in the lives of its inhabitants.

A selection of books longlisted for this year’s Man Booker Prize and the Women’s Prize for Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize) that definitely deserve to be on your reading list these holidays

Mitcham Library Service Collection Guide 2013