Book Review: Erased

by Jackie Law

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Erased, by Miha Mazzini (translated by Gregor Timothy Čeh), is a work of fiction based on actual events. On 26 February 1992 the recently formed Republic of Slovenia erased the personal records of 25,671 people it claimed were foreigners who had not successfully applied for citizenship, and should therefore be returned from whence they came. This included many who had been born in what back then was Yugoslavia but in the parts that would emerge as separate, neighbouring countries. Where the people had lived their lives mattered less than their surname, a marker of demonym. It didn’t matter if they had jobs, homes and established families in Slovenia, at a stroke they lost all rights and became illegal immigrants. The move was popular amongst certain Slovenes who wished to ‘cleanse’ the country of all but themselves.

The protagonist of the story is Zala who, although born in Serbia, was raised and then settled as an adult in Slovenia. Her father was Serbian, an officer proud to serve in the army and whose highest compliment to his only child was to call her Son. Zala’s mother was Slovenian. She put up with her husband’s many foibles, taking his side in arguments unless he was elsewhere.

For a decade Zala has not spoken to her father after a final argument made her break all contact. He disapproved of the man she was living with, who Zala eventually evicted from her apartment and her life when she finally saw what he was really like. Alone, she was trying to pull together the pieces of her existence – her job as a nursery school teacher and regular meetings with friends – when she realised she was pregnant.

The book opens on 30th April 1992 when Zala goes into labour and catches a taxi to the hospital. Handing over her ID and health insurance card she starts to fill in the many forms required by the highly bureaucratic system – where workers must follow procedure or lose their jobs – all the while struggling with bleeding and contractions. There is a delay as the nurse cannot find Zala on her computer system but, realising the baby is struggling to be born, admits her to the maternity ward anyway.

After the birth Zala’s problems emerge. She had no knowledge of the erasure of her rights but, classed as a foreigner, owes a great deal of money for her and her baby’s treatments. Not understanding the extent of the issues, she opts to leave the hospital to visit the town hall and sort things out there. She is not permitted to take her newborn with her despite protestations. A baby boy in Slovenia is highly prized. Thinking this matter can be resolved quickly, Zala agrees to leave him temporarily. Really, she has no choice.

What emerges isn’t just the injustice done to the erased but the nepotism at the heart of how Slovenia is governed. Important families have connections and use these to raise each other up and keep lesser beings in check. The usual outlets a citizen might turn to – town halls, the police, the press and other media – are controlled by the state. Zala must find some means to acquire leverage if she is to have her child returned, because those who have more power want him for themselves.

A game of cat and mouse ensues with Zala finding hope in a plan only to have it dashed. She has one card of value, but even that cannot be shown in the hands she plays. As an erased person she has no rights and, if discovered would face deportation – to a country where she has nothing and knows no one, that remains a tinderbox of simmering conflict.

The story was a slow burn, not least because of Zala’s volatility – I pondered if this personality trait might be a cultural thing. Nevertheless, her anger and despair were entirely understandable given that her child had been taken.

Once caught up in unfolding events, tension and pace were raised. The writing flows and I became invested in the eventual outcome, which was brilliantly rendered.

Although it took some time to get into, the story being told proved an important and yet highly satisfying read. All kudos to the author for providing a history lesson and a warning – apt for the times in which we live – within a thriller that has depth and originality.

Erased is published by Fly on the Wall Press.

Run Report: Highcliffe Beach Parkrun

by Jackie Law

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Husband has been eager to run Highcliffe Beach since he first heard it was starting so when we booked a short break in the area it had to be this parkrun on the Saturday morning. We checked out the course on a cold and blustery Friday afternoon, deciding which shoes would be best for the mixed terrain of tarmac, pressed gravel, sand and shingle. I opted for my Novablast 5 ATs and these proved suitable on the day – decent grip and good cushioning on the rougher surfaces.

We woke up to bright sunshine and a coating of ice on the car so were glad our hotel was within walking distance of the start. There is a large car park here and it was being well used (this was the last weekend it would be free until the autumn). Toilets are available by the adjacent café and there was no queue when we arrived. Having checked out the facilities we made our way down the tarmac path to the left of the car park entrance and found the start point. Volunteers were gathering just above this.

Everything seemed very well organised. I was pleased to be pointed towards some small trolleys when I asked about a bag drop. These were available for coats and bags to be deposited in and are then taken to near the finish funnel that possessions may be collected at the end – so helpful.

The course route was explained at the First Timers Briefing after which we made our way down to the start point for the Run Directors Briefing. Cones were set out along the path here and a volunteer was asking everyone to stay to the left of these and spread out across the adjacent grassy area where there was plenty of space. The paths and beach are popular with dog walkers and there were also surfers heading to and from the water so we needed to leave room for them to pass.

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After welcoming everyone, thanking the volunteers and reminding us of the safety rules it was time for 3-2-1-Go!

I had been rather looking forward to galloping downhill along the tarmac path towards the seafront but in the event there were just so many participants I was still walking when we reached the top of the beach – and for some way along this. As runners spread out a little I was able to gently jog but overtaking was difficult as many were staying side by side, happily chatting. For the first kilometre I couldn’t achieve my chosen pace. Nevertheless, on such a bright and sunny day the location could be fully appreciated at this slower speed – the blue skies, powerful waves and cliffs running down to the shingle beach where walkers were enjoying what was a glorious morning.

Eventually the pack had spread out enough that I could open up my stride, being mindful of staying left as faster runners were now passing in the opposite direction. The course is a two lapper – out along a path at the top of the beach to a turn-around point by a zigzag path, then back towards a short if sharp incline leading to a path just above. This path is followed for a short time before going back down along fairly stony ground to rejoin the beach path and on to complete the first lap close to where this starts. The second lap is the same out and back but the upper path is followed beyond the stony downhill until the finish funnel is reached. All was straightforward to navigate as I simply followed the runners in front and the directions of the encouraging marshals.

The finish funnel was a good length and the funnel manager ensured everyone stayed in order having passed the timekeepers. Tokens were handed out with friendly efficiency and then scanned and collected. The trolleys were waiting as had been promised so bags could be collected. The pop up had also been moved to this location so we took some more photos by this that captured the beach in the background.

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360 participants passed through the finish funnel this week. The pack was led by Robert Spencer in a time of 18:09. First lady was Alice Rudd who finished in 19:49, also achieving top female age grade of 76.37%

92 people achieved PBs and there were 12 first timers to parkrun.  Sarah Wilson earned the right to wear a new milestone t-shirt, completing her 100th event – congratulations to her.

Biggest thanks go to the 44 volunteers without whom this event couldn’t have happened. Do please consider stepping up from time to time into one of the many and varied roles available.

Highcliffe Beach Parkrun is in a gorgeous location, especially scenic when the weather is as good as it was this week. Although not entirely flat, undulations are mostly gentle or short – it is only the sometimes rough or soft sandy surface that must be watched out for. Although I mention the congestion at the start I clearly started too far back for my pace – my bad – and this did not spoil my enjoyment of such a stunning course.

Well worth a visit and one we may well return to if in the area. The friendly welcome and impressive organisation undoubtedly helped.

Book Review: Sweep the Cobwebs off the Sky

by Jackie Law

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“Bad people were not like animals, because animals were pure, animals were where God resided, so people should never, ever be compared to them in a negative way, because people always fell short. People were like something else, the worst possible version of themselves perhaps. Disorderly, dirty, passive and therefore wicked.”

Sweep the Cobwebs off the Sky, by Mary O’Donnell, is set in the Irish borderlands during the first Covid lockdown. It is narrated by Frankie, a successful writer of fiction who is now in her sixties. She has temporarily moved back to her childhood home, a large property surrounded by its own land, to look after her increasingly frail mother, Elma, who is in the early throes of dementia. Frankie’s husband, Christoph, has stayed at their house in Tipperary and is impatient for her return.

Kilnavarn House, the 170 year old family home, holds painful memories. Frankie’s childhood was not a happy one, although it had happy moments. Frankie was the favoured child but harbours guilt that she watched silently while her mother abused Tess, Frankie’s younger sister, adopted as a baby from the nuns who took in unwed mothers-to-be and then dealt with the offspring.

“I believe that even when the worst of people are aware of their own evil, they are not truly aware. Such people have somehow grown up devoid of a pain barometer and as such their awareness of their own evil is stunted.”

Tess now lives in New York having escaped her upbringing and made a decent life for herself abroad. She is on her way to visit but takes her time arriving. This infuriates Frankie who feels hard done by being left to cope with Elma alone.

The story takes the reader through Frankie’s days, made up as they are with caring for her incontinent mother – trying to keep her clean, dry and fed. When Elma is lucid she offers nuggets of memory that do not always match Frankie’s own. They provide insight into events from their past even when there is no acknowledgement of harms wrought.

What we have then is an exploration of shared lives viewed from very different perspectives. There is a great deal of introspection but it is measured and carefully considered.

“I am busy stealing memories and running with them, it doesn’t matter whether or not I myself have experienced them, they are the truckloads of fragmented collective knowledge passed on, then reconstructed, to be re-examined by each generation before it then attaches to consciousness where it is relived.”

When Tess eventually arrives further layers are explored – how Elma interacts with her younger daughter and how Tess feels towards her. Frankie and Tess have very different views on how they should deal with Elma’s needs. There is bad feeling between them even as they try to maintain the sisterly bond.

The writing flows beautifully with simmering resentments depicted through actions and harshly thrown words that each woman then tries to temper. Frankie’s feelings towards her mother are particularly thought provoking. She is old enough to have made her own life, to have moved on, yet is forever coloured by her childhood and the actions of her parents.

I wasn’t entirely convinced by the character created for Kilnavarn House but understand long held family homes can retain a grip on those who leave and return.

Generational differences in expectation and judgement are well presented, as is the duty felt by some offspring but not all. The cruelties of those whose minds fall victim to dementia, particularly in comments dropped on family members while a kindly decorum can be unearthed for strangers, is also impressively rendered.

A succinct and quite brilliant depiction of the complexities of family dynamics and the acts put on, even amongst familiars. A highly recommended read.

Sweep the Cobwebs off the Sky is published by époque press.

Book Review: Turn Right At The Rainbow

by Jackie Law

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This is a story for anyone who has ever moved house, is contemplating doing so, or who simply enjoys browsing Rightmove to see what is currently on the market. Although told as a story, the story is true. It is a memoir recounted by the author about the time she and her husband decided to move out of London and the home they had made their own over more than three decades. Habits had changed and they now wished to live closer to the area where they spent much of their time.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that moving house in England is a stressful experience. The chains formed by sellers and buyers are unstable, reliant as they are on the whims of those within them, and therefore easily broken. Every required step of such a move – surveys, solicitors, taxes, moving fees – are a drain on capital. And that is before the snags of a house are uncovered and costs to put right guessed at.

Roz and Dave Morris made the decision to go house hunting in the winter after Covid.

“When the lockdowns end, many people emerge with life-changing epiphanies. This is ours. Our two-part life is absurd. For the time it takes, the money, the carbon footprint and the freedom that we have learned is fragile.”

They put their house on the market. They find buyers who, amazingly, have sold their property and are willing to rent until the Morris’s find a place they are happy to move into. And yet this is where the real problems begin.

The story is one of houses and their importance in our lives. They are not just places of shelter but also custodians of personal tastes and memories. Occupants stamp their mark on a place: the colour painted on the walls; the statement fixtures and fittings; the strangely designed extensions that must have made sense to whoever originally commissioned them. Roz does not expect perfection and has money put aside for remedial work as every house will have issues. The biggest issues, however, turn out to be the sellers who tend to view their homes through a rose tinted lens despite the fact they wish to leave them.

Houses are bought and sold through intermediaries known as estate agents. They work on commission so are eager for sales to happen. This can mean they are not always open about sharing information. Offers are made only to be rejected for being too low, or because another buyer has been preferred. A short time later this buyer mysteriously vanishes and Roz is told that for just a small increase her offer would be accepted. Then the buyer changes his mind and the acceptance is withdrawn. They may come back a few weeks later and none of this is satisfactorily explained by the agent.

The book focuses on around half a dozen houses that Roz seriously considered. The reasons why each were not in the end purchased is covered with wry wit and an increasing knowledge of the games that can be played by agents in order to push through a sale. In amongst these details are memories of other houses Roz has lived in and their importance in the history she has built around her life. When a house becomes a home it wraps itself around the family who live their and the friends invited in. The older the house the more its walls, and the land it is built on, hold the shadows and history of residents who have passed through.

As time passes agents start blaming Roz and Dave for not trying hard enough, for not moving into houses that still need to be checked over to ensure they are not seriously unsound. The story offers a warning to those who may feel rushed and pressurised, ending up with a white elephant. Yet it is told with humour as well as candour. The associated anecdotes are entertaining.

The writing flows and remains always engaging, helped by the chosen structure of mostly short chapters. Readers will become invested in whether the couple can find their next home before their buyers lose patience and pull their offer. Despite the mentions of friends who managed to sell and buy within the months covered, the book may prove enough to put off any but the most determined from ever trying to move house again!

An enjoyable read with its light hearted approach to what is such a stressful experience. The denouement offers food for thought on where the grass may actually be greener and what gives a home its worth.

Turn Right At The Rainbow is published by Spark Furnace and may be purchased from Waterstones and other good bookshops.

Book Review: The Coast Road

by Jackie Law

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When the Irish Free State was established in 1922, the newly independent country embraced a strict, Catholic ‘moral code’ outlawing divorce and the use of contraceptives. Demands for change started to be heard from the 1970s despite Irish society remaining cowed by the conservatism of the church – with the complicity of the state. In 1979 contraception was made available to married couples on prescription. It took until 1985 for these to be made available without prescription and to anyone over the age of seventeen. The constitutional prohibition on divorce was not removed until 1996. In 2019 abortion was legalised with strict limitations.

The Coast Road, Alan Murrin’s debut, is mostly set in 1994, in the small Irish town of Ardglas in County Donegal. It features a number of middle aged couples – well-to-do but still unhappy with their lot. The community is close knit but not always kindly, gossip – often embellished – spreading like wildfire and judgements harsh. The focus is mostly on the women and the price they pay when marriage cannot be legally dissolved and there are children to consider.

The book opens with a short prologue in which Izzy Keaveney is being questioned by a detective following a fire in a cottage just visible from her house. This is repeated towards the end of the book when all is made clear.

The story proper begins five months earlier. Izzy is attending mass at the local church, heavily hungover after a business dinner the previous night that she was compelled to attend with her husband, James, who is a TD. She is angry with James because he has vetoed her plans to purchase a shop she had hoped to run, to give her more to do outside of looking after her home and family. The couple have regular fallings out and can go for weeks without speaking during which times Izzy will move into their spare room. Their teenage daughter, Orla, is at boarding school during the week but their eleven year old son, Niall, must live within the heavy atmosphere generated by warring parents.

At the mass that morning the congregation is scandalised and mesmerised when a passage of the bible is read out by Colette Cowley who has returned to Ardglas after leaving her husband, Shaun, and their children some months earlier to move in with a man in Dublin. Shaun has refused to let her back into their home or allow her access to the children. Colette, a published poet, believes that if she bides her time and continues to seek Shaun’s forgiveness he will relent.

The other key couple in this drama are Dolores and Donal Mullen. Donal is a bully and a serial philanderer but Dolores cannot see any option but to try to hold their unhappy marriage together, especially as she is pregnant with their fourth child. The cat is set amongst the pigeons when Colette persuades them to let her rent their holiday cottage, located on the coast and just up the hill from the Mullen’s home.

To bring in some income, Colette starts a ‘Writing Workshop’ at the town’s community centre. Izzy decides to go along. The previous winter she had attended art classes and before that a knitting circle – neither interests continued. Izzy is fascinated by Colette, not just her reputation but her personality. She had not, however, foreseen that Colette would try to befriend her in order to gain access to her youngest child who had been a friend of Niall’s.

With the scene set and characters introduced plot progression proceeds apace.

As events unfold the author builds depth to each of the key players. The portraits of each marriage being painted offer a vivid depiction of life in Ireland at the time. It is easy to sympathise but also to blame the unhappy participants for the directions their lives have taken. In Colette we have the woman who left and a portrayal of what that offered, especially as her husband seemed mostly decent. In Dolores we have the woman who stays but is treated so badly it is only the comparison with Colette that explains why her options are so limited. Izzy is angry and often depressed but her situation also represents the loneliness inherent in being a housewife with an often absent and perennially busy husband, in a community where talking to anyone about personal issues risks being gossiped about by everyone.

The writing flows beautifully, never rushed and never dragging. The story being told is immersive and, in many ways, appalling. It is a saga of families but with the grip of a thriller, offering a denouement that is satisfying despite the underlying tragedy. A carefully crafted balance is achieved between actions and consequences, between what may be desperately wanted and the reality if that is granted.

There is also much to consider around many of the sometimes contentious subjects touched upon.

Such is its hold, this is a book that could be read in a sitting, if one had time.

The Coast Road is published by Bloomsbury.

Book Review: A World Gone Mad

by Jackie Law

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“I’ve been working my way through some general history here in Forusund and it makes for dreadfully depressing reading – war and war and war and suffering for humanity. And they never learn but just carry on drenching the planet in blood, sweat and tears.”

A World Gone Mad, by Astrid Lindgren (translated by Sarah Death), is a publication of the war diaries written by the author between 1939 and 1945. It is a fascinating account, not least because of a perspective that is set down in real time and not entirely Eurocentric. Lindgren lived in Sweden which remained neutral throughout the conflict. Surrounded by countries that were being invaded by both German and Russian forces, she offers an outsider’s thoughts on the role Britain played as well as her very real and ongoing fear of Russia that had roots from well before the war.

The book opens with a Foreword written by Lindgren’s daughter, Karin, who was five years old when the hostilities began. She writes of her mother:

“Now I know that she was probably unique, a 32 year-old housewife with secretarial training but no experience of thinking in political terms, who was determined to document what was happening”

Although not yet a published author, her most famous fictional creation, Pippi Longstocking, was born from the tensions of the war years – bedtime stories to entertain Karin.

The Foreword is followed by a Translator’s Note which explains how the diaries – seventeen leather bound notebooks – remained in the family home until 2013. The originals contained many press cuttings – the main source of information at the time they were written – which in this edition are referred to but not included. This does not detract from the reader’s ability to understand each entry.

The first is dated 1 September 1939 when the German army invaded Poland leading to declarations of war from Allied governments. For a while there are daily entries that bring to the fore the initial reactions of ordinary citizens: despondency from those who still remember the First World War that was supposed to end all future wars; and stockpiling of what can still be found on already denuded shelves in shops. As a housewife this is a recurring concern for Lindgren. Sweden may have remained neutral but with transport links disrupted there was still rationing and certain other privations. Unlike in other countries, however, the family did not go hungry. Lindgren is well aware of the extreme suffering elsewhere and often writes about how grateful she is that Sweden remained neutral despite criticisms and pressures from other governments.

Family details add to the diaries’ interest. Lindgren’s daughter is often ill, including with anxiety, although when sufficiently distracted seems a happy young girl who does well at school. Her teenage brother is more of a problem. He and his mother do not always get on and he regularly fails exams. Nevertheless, he is loved and Lindgren chronicles her concerns for him.

Most entries throughout the six or so years covered mention significant battles in the war being reported, sometimes erroneously – although this published misinformation is pointed out when later uncovered. Between these, birthdays and other family events are celebrated with lists of food eaten and presents exchanged. From early on the author hopes for the war to end soon, understanding how badly those directly affected elsewhere are suffering because powerful men are looking to expand territories over which to rule.

Towards the end of the conflict, when refugees were arriving in Sweden in large numbers, there are brief mentions of how they are perceived and their apparent negativity towards the locals. So much of human nature never seems to change.

This is an original account of the war, one that is equal parts despair that it should be happening at all and a considered response to lives changed because of it. Although information available to her contains much propaganda, Lindgren does not fall prey to reporting it with undue bias. She concerns herself with the suffering of individuals who are given little choice, and with the wellbeing of her own family whose lives are affected even if not as badly as those in other countries.

I started reading this book before Trump and Netanyahu launched their worrying offensive against Iran. I can only hope that Britain does not get pulled into this escalating conflict although our leaders rarely seem to show the gumption Sweden managed last century, and always find the money for environmentally damaging military conflict. If nothing else, Lindgren’s diaries document the futility of any war, just as history has always done.

A World Gone Mad is published by Pushkin Press.

Monthly Roundup – February 2026

by Jackie Law

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The weather in February has probably been the month’s most notable feature with localised flooding on the roads and muddy trails making runs more challenging. The rare days when I could manage with fewer layers offered a welcome reminder that spring will arrive, as it always does, and these endless grey days will pass.

We started the month in Dorchester where we enjoyed a couple of nights away and took part in The Great Field parkrun. I posted about this holiday in my usual way, through the lens of my teddy bear: Edward Explores Dorchester.

Husband is not currently running as he continues to try to recover from injury. We still managed to attend a parkrun each Saturday with him volunteering as tail or park walker. All being well, he will finish February by earning his 50 volunteer milestone t-shirt. Elder son earned his 50 events completed t-shirt in late January and daughter followed suit last week. I’m pleased they have become enthused and take part with us when they are able – I suspect the post run breakfast we provide at a ‘Spoons or Lounge Cafe may be an added draw.

My little family got together around Valentine’s Day to devour the traditional banoffee pie I make for husband. Pancake Day was quieter and delayed until the Thursday due to resident younger son’s availability – we still enjoyed ourselves.

I posted reviews for 7 books in February. In amongst those read for Bookmunch and others plucked from my TBR pile were some new releases kindly sent by Salt Publishing. To read my thoughts on each of this month’s books, click the title below.

Fiction

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The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt, published by Sceptre
Elizabeth and Ruth by Livi Michael, published by Salt

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May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry, published by Granta
The Fox of Kensal Green by Richard Tyrrell, published by Salt

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Daisy Miller by Henry James, published by Penguin
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, published by Pan

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Paper Towns by John Green, published by Bloomsbury

Sourcing the books

I may not have received many books in the post this month but those that arrived delighted me.

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As ever I wish to thank all who send me their books to review – the arrival of book post remains a cheering event in my day.

My thanks also to those who share my words across their social media platforms – whichever ones you are now using – your support is always appreciated. I am no longer on Twitter but you may find me on Instagram and Threads.

And to everyone reading this, I wish you and yours good health as we look forward to the arrival of better weather. May you still find time to relax with some good books, ones that take your mind of whatever else is going on in our increasingly polarized, wider world.

Book Review: Paper Towns

by Jackie Law

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Paper Towns is John Green’s third novel for young adults. Set in Orlando, Florida – where the author was raised – it is narrated by Quenton Jacobsen, referred to as Q by his friends, and covers his final weeks of High School. Q is a rule follower and good student. He is looking forward to taking up his place at an esteemed college and gets on well with his parents. This is in stark contrast to his fellow classmate and next door neighbour, Margo Roth Spiegelman, who Q has adored since they were little children but who now mostly ignores him.

Q’s best friends are Ben and Radar, both of whom he regularly games with. They are not amongst the cool kids, and can still be the butt of some minor bullying, but are mostly left alone by the popular as well as cruel students. Prom is approaching and both Ben and Radar plan on attending, hopefully with pretty girlfriends – or honeybunnies as Ben calls them. Q, by choice, will not be joining them.

A prologue introduces Q and Margo when they were nine years old and found a dead body. The story proper then starts on what Q describes as ‘The longest day of my life’. After a normal day at school – which functions as a useful scene setter – Margo appears at his bedroom window and just about forces Q to join her on an overnight adventure. The antics they get up to – mostly imaginative acts of revenge – fill the first part of the book.

In the second part, Q is looking forward to the next school day as he figures Margo will now pay him some attention. This does not happen because she has disappeared. Her parents are more annoyed than worried as she has a history of acting out in this way. At eighteen years old she is now an adult and they seem content to reconfigure their family without her disruptive influence.

Q does not feel the same. He is worried and also believes she may have left clues to enable him to find her. Enlisting the help of Ben and Radar the trio set out to solve the puzzle of where Margo may be.

These are American high school students in a fictional scenario and the author builds the unfolding tale with a degree of licence. They have access to cars and apparently trusting parents. They are free to follow the possible leads they uncover and rarely seem to encounter situations that put them in danger. The final part of the book is a road trip undertaken in a way that must have been deeply hurtful to their parents. These adults are very much secondary characters, there to add colour, and as plot devices, but with otherwise limited input.

Although I found the main plot quite bland in many ways, with action scenes that never quite rang true, the story offers a great deal more than attempts at humour and intrigue. Q is as self-centred as any teenager but comes to realise through his search for Margo that people are more than the image he has conjured for them.

“The fundamental mistake I had always made – and that she had, in fairness, always led me to make – was this: Margo was not a miracle. She was not an adventure. She was not a fine and precious thing. She was a girl.”

Q starts to see his friends as more than just ‘his’. Radar especially calls him out on the way Q expects them to drop everything when he calls and never asks about other aspects of their lives that matter to them. While this may be a valuable lesson, it is one many adults have yet to learn.

This is, very much, a book targeted at teenagers but one that trusts them to consider more than just the adventure being related. It may not have the emotional impact of the author’s most famous work, The Fault in Our Stars, but it is still worth reading.

Paper Towns is published by Bloomsbury.

Book Review: The Nightingale

by Jackie Law

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The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah, is mostly set in occupied France during the Second World War. It tells the stories of two sisters, Vianne and Isabelle, whose upbringing was shadowed by their father’s experiences during the First World War. Now beautiful young women (aren’t they always beautiful?), but with very different personalities, they face up to the hardships that must be endured and which will change them forever.

How facile that introduction sounds. The book was a gift from my sister and not one I would have chosen for myself. So many fictional accounts of both last century’s European World Wars have been written it can now be hard to find one that truly gets across the horrors (have we become inured?) without losing some depth in the characters portrayed. And yet here the author succeeds – if that is the right word for the depiction of such drawn out and terrible cruelty and suffering meted out by fellow humans.

Her hook is that the protagonists are women, and that female ‘heroes’ are rarely focused on when the history books are written. What she manages to avoid, however, is writing from a stridently feminist slant, choosing instead one that explores her key characters’ personal traits.

The story opens in the USA in 1995, approaching 50 years since the war ended. An elderly widow is preparing to sell her family home and move into a retirement complex at the behest of her son. She will be limited in the possessions she can keep but is determined to retain a trunk containing memories from when she lived in France. This is not a part of her life she has ever talked of to her child.

“If I had told him the truth long ago, or had danced and drunk and sung more, maybe he would have seen me instead of a dependable, ordinary mother. He loves a version of me that is incomplete. I always thought it was what I wanted: to be loved and admired. Now I think perhaps I’d like to be known.”

The timeline then moves back to 1939 and we meet Vianne who is living in the tranquil Loire Valley. Married to her teenage sweetheart, Antoine Mauriac, they have a beloved daughter, eight year old Sophie, and the heartache of four previous babies who did not survive. War is on the horizon and Antoine receives word he is to be mobilized. Remembering how war changed her father, Vianne is deeply worried.

A year later we meet Vianne’s sister, Isabelle Rosignol, as she gets herself expelled from yet another finishing school. Sent to Paris, where she hopes to live with her father, he will not countenance such an arrangement. Instead, he sends her to Vianne. The unexpectedly difficult journey – surrounded by refugees from the city she must walk most of the way and suffers attacks – provides Isabelle with her first taste of the true horrors of war. These grim details are vividly rendered.

The sisters have a troubled history during the war years, made more difficult when a German soldier, Captain Beck, is billeted at their home. Isabelle dreams of being a hero, of doing something significant to help those of her compatriots who are as appalled as her that France was so quick to surrender. She makes her contempt for the Germans, including Captain Beck, and her irritation at her sister’s acceptance of the situation obvious, putting them all in danger.

The increasing deprivations the French people endured, and the depravity of so many of the German soldiers and then the French police – who would kill on a whim – are depicted clearly and in detail. Yet it is the ways in which Vianne and Isabelle cope that comes to the fore. Isabelle gets her wish and joins the resistance. In doing so she risks not just her own life but also those of her family. Vianne struggles to see her sister as anything other than the selfish and impulsive young girl she still feels guilty for abandoning when overcome by grief. Isabelle harbours much anger from this time, a part of what drives her forward in the difficulties and dangers she undertakes.

As the war years pass the German soldiers grow ever more angry and sadistic, knowing now about the French resistance and the increasingly successful Allied offensives. All of this makes life for Vianne even harder, and increases the risks Isabelle continues to face. These later chapters were hard to read – not just the killings and disappearances but the torture and treatment of innocents. We have long known such atrocities happened but having them laid bare in this way brings into focus the realities of war for everyone.

The denouement is not so grim – a decision by the author that somehow took something away from what may linger from the long build-up (and that lingering matters given wars are still waged). Not everyone dies, and there is a final – unexpected if explained – heartbreak that Vianne must deal with. We also finally learn which of the sisters the elderly woman in the USA is.

Still though, the final pages almost moved me to tears so the author has that skill. And it was a worthwhile read – a little different to other war stories but one that made brutally clear why we should learn and never go down that road again.

Always a shame that too many powerful men do not seem to have grasped such a clearly presented and repeated lesson.

The Nightingale is published by Pan Books.

Book Review: Daisy Miller

by Jackie Law

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Daisy Miller, by Henry James, is one of a large stack of classic literature that I inherited from my late father. It is a novella telling the tale of the titular American young lady who, on a tour of Europe accompanied by her negligent mother and precocious younger brother, makes a name for herself as a flirt who will not abide by the rules dictated by wealthy society abroad. Narrated by a young man referred to as Winterbourne, an American living in Geneva but spending time with an elderly aunt in first Vevey and then Rome, the book offers a picture of the tourists who travel but rarely integrate. Some may admire the art and architecture but they live amongst their own, feeling superior in manners and decorum.

Winterbourne first meets Daisy in the garden of the hotel his aunt is staying in. He finds the young woman exceedingly pretty and is intrigued by her gaiety and openness. His aunt, who is aware of Daisy’s growing reputation, refuses to be introduced to her lest it be thought they are acquaintances. Nevertheless, Winterbourne agrees to accompany Daisy on a trip to a local tourist attraction, despite it becoming clear that they will be travelling without a chaperone.

Winterbourne must then return to Geneva, much to Daisy’s chagrin, but he meets her again when he stays with his aunt in Rome a few months later. Here he observes the young lady in her element, being entertained by a handsome Italian and much discussed by the ladies who had at first accepted her into their social circles.

“I was sure we should be going round all the time with one of those dreadful old men that explain about the pictures and things. But we only had about a week of that, and now I’m enjoying myself. I know ever so many people, and they are all so charming. The society’s extremely select.”

Winterbourne tries to warn Daisy that such select society will not long abide her immodest behaviour but she gives him short shrift.

“I have never allowed a gentleman to dictate to me, or to interfere with anything I do.”

The author portrays well the clash between American manners and those of the travelling Europeans. Daisy’s imprudent desire to have fun and enjoy the attentions of young men will only be tolerated for so long, however pretty and well dressed she may be. Eventually Winterbourne comes to realise that her lack of respect for the expected etiquette also shows a lack of intellect and depth of character.

“Winterbourne wondered how she felt about all the cold shoulders that were turned towards her, and sometimes it annoyed him to suspect that she did not feel at all.”

Although an easy enough short read, the tale being told lacks sufficient depth and subtlety, especially the ending. Winterbourne’s character offers some food for thought – how he contemplates a young woman who would be unlikely to challenge him through feelings such as jealousy – but his interest appears depressingly superficial.

I did not consider Daisy a ‘delightful heroine’. She comes across as shallow rather than innocent. It is understandable that a fortune hunter may prey on her, but that wealthy men are drawn to her says more about them and their preferences when it comes to potential wife material.

Daisy Miller is published by Penguin.