Shortlisted for the 2003 Man Booker Prize Five words from the blurb: vivid, child, grief, eccentric, family Astonishing Splashes of Colour is a vivid account of the grief felt by one woman because of her inability to have children. The central character, Kitty, desperately tries to be happy but every time she sees a child she is [...]
Posts under ‘2000 – 2007’
Riding the Black Cockatoo by John Damalis
Five words from the blurb: Australia, skull, Aboriginal, return, descendants Riding the Black Cockatoo is the memoir of an Australian man whose family displayed an Aboriginal skull on their mantelpiece for 40 years. He decides to return it to its native home, discovering lots of facts about Aboriginal people along the way. This book has recently become [...]
Chang & Eng by Darin Strauss
Five words from the blurb: Siamese, twins, childhood, circus, independence Just before Christmas Siamese twins were born in Brazil. I followed a series of links and ended up reading about Siamese twins for over an hour. My random reading ended on an article about Chang and Eng and I realised that I had a book of [...]
The Shadow Speaker – Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu
Five words from the blurb: 2070, mysticism, West Africa, survival, magical Earlier this year Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu won the World Fantasy Award for her novel, Who Fears Death. It sounded really interesting, but a few people on twitter suggested that her earlier novel, The Shadow Speaker, was even better and since it was available in my local [...]
The Sinner – Petra Hammesfahr
Translated from the German by John Brownjohn Five words from the blurb: killed, man, past, childhood, horrors The Sinner was a bestseller in Germany, staying at the top of the book charts for fifteen months. I can see why it was so popular – it is well written, intelligent, and packed with unexpected twists. It is a [...]
Family Matters – Rohinton Mistry
A Fine Balance is my favourite book and so you’d have thought I’d have gone out and read all of Mistry’s books straight away. The reality is that I was too scared to read them - I knew my expectations were far too high and didn’t want to be disappointed. I eventually built up the courage [...]
