During World War II, Britain sent spies into Occupied France, many of whom were women. This book tells the story of what that experience would have been like. Marian Sutro has fled to England with her parents and brother, and finds herself selected, as a French speaker, to go undercover to France to assist …
Continue reading The Girl Who Fell From The Sky – Simon Mawer
A novel in letters, the sole novel by Mary Ann Shaffer and completed and published posthumously by her relative, Annie Barrows. In tone, it’s very much like the letters between the Mitford sisters, and is by turns funny, delightful, tragic and touching. It follows protagonist Juliet, a writer, who receives a letter from a man …
Stephen King meets Terry Pratchett, this book is a bit of a doorstopper, (I read the “authors preferred text” which has some parts added back in, making it a bit longer). Following a man called Shadow, who gets out of prison to find that his wife and best friend have just died, and takes up …
After reading my first Patrick White, I reached for a book with a pretty cover and a romantic storyline. The Confectioners Tale is a sweet story of romance, cake and Paris just before the war, and a university student in England who finds a photograph in her recently deceased Grandfathers things with a note begging …
Written when the author was just 27, this book about characters in small town Australia contains elements of stream of consciousness and experimental literature that made it famous at the time, and yet White would not allow it’s reprint in his life time. An excellent first time novel, something about the story and characters feels …
Murakami's novels are kind of an acquired taste and are generally a normal story that's a bit weird. In this story, the narrator feels compelled to return to a hotel he stayed in years before, because he feels that someone is calling him back there, possibly a girl he used to be in a …
This was an unusual book, I really enjoyed the mystery of whether the boy could see demons, or only thought he could! The story is about The Troubles in Northern Ireland, and how much that has effected the mental health of the people who have lived through trauma there. Which sounds depressing, but it's actually …
Continue reading The Boy Who Could See Demons by Carolyn Jess-Cooke
A gentle mix of modern life and ancient fairy tale, this book is about memory and childhood, magic and the mundane. Opening on an adult returning to his childhood home after the death of his parents, it soon slips into the half forgotten story of the man as a young boy. Starting with the suicide …
Continue reading The Ocean At The End Of The Lane by Neil Gaiman
I'm cheekily lumping these two books in together because they're kind of short, and often come in a one volume book. I happened to buy them together too. I'm also not usually a huge proponent of chick lit, but actually, I think the covers on these novels let them down in some respects. Yes, these …
Continue reading Legally Blonde/Family Trust by Amanda Brown
I actually didn't realise that Carlos Ruiz Zafon wrote young adult fiction, but I loved The Shadow Of The Wind, and I think this book has some tonal similarities. Following the death of her father in 1937, Irene moves with her mother and younger brother to a small island where her mother can work as …
Continue reading The Watcher In The Shadows by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
CravenWild 