BOOKS | Reviews
FICTION KATE MOSSE The Taxidermist’s Daughter (Orion) ●●●●●
The sodden marshes and thunderous skies of the small village of Fishbourne near Chichester – Kate Mosse’s home – provide a suitably gloomy setting for the Labyrinth author’s new Gothic tale of murder and mystery. Mosse pulls that landscape in and manipulates it bit by bit, to create a novel that is subtle and seductive.
On the Eve of St Mark, Connie Gifford (the titular taxidermist’s daughter) watches a group of men gather in the local churchyard. By midnight, a woman is dead, silently killed by an unknown assassin. Little does Connie know that this marks the start of a chain of grisly murders that will draw her into a haunting tale of betrayal and revenge.
Mosse is fondly known for the historical epics that make
up the Languedoc Trilogy: Labyrinth, Sepulchre and Citadel. But The Taxidermist’s Daughter couldn’t be further from those sun-streaked adventures. Laden with life, death and destruction, this novel oozes with a character that shows Mosse’s passion for the place in which she grew up. She excels at horror, using language and imagery to create
a truly original page-turner and is at her best when creating character. Connie is a flighty, bird-like creature with an ardent desire to preserve life and the beauty in it; her companion Harry is an accidental hero, but also an artist and observer, and both negotiate the paths between art, life and death. Nestled among the feathers and flesh is a dark and mysterious tale that is also touching and passionate. Mosse strikes a fine balance between character and concept, creating a thriller so unique that her talent is indisputable. (Jen Bowden) ■ Out now.
FICTION SAMANTHA HARVEY Dear Thief (Jonathan Cape) ●●●●● FICTION EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL Station Eleven (Picador) ●●●●●
When the Georgia Flu hits, the age of electricity comes to an abrupt end. 99% of the world’s population die, taking with them the knowledge mankind used to create everything from aeroplanes to running water. The survivors, have to succumb to a new existence – but what happens when survival is not enough?
CHILDREN'S FICTION KATE SAUNDERS Five Children on the Western Front (Faber and Faber) ●●●●● Five Children and It is the first of a much-loved trilogy from writer E Nesbit about five children and the Psammead (sand fairy) who grants wishes. It has since been adapted for TV and film and has inspired various takes on the story including books by Jacqueline Wilson and Helen Creswell.
The art of letter writing is almost lost, but it’s used by Dear Thief’s narrator as some form of catharsis. ‘In answer to a question you asked a long time ago,’ she begins, moving off on a journey through friendship, love and betrayal.
The letter, written over months, is to Nina, nicknamed Butterfly, a sporadic friend over the years who had an affair with the narrator’s husband before disappearing for good. She doesn’t know if Nina’s alive or dead.
The novel builds the atmosphere
around the whole progression of the affair, before and after, and scrutinises a tarnished friendship. It’s tinged with nostalgia – remembering the good times, unable to forget the bad, even hypothesising the narrator’s own theories on the events, or detailing irrelevant daily titbits. While it’s a letter that traverses the
whole spectrum of emotions from rage to love, and it can tug at the heartstrings, it lacks a strong plot. There is definitely a power to the exquisite writing and the poignant story, but Dear Thief fails to be truly exciting. (Heather McDaid) ■ Out Thu 25 Sep. 46 THE LIST 18 Sep–16 Oct 2014
The basis of Emily St. John Mandel’s This latest version is set during World
fourth novel is relatively familiar: a dystopian future where a major event causes the essence of normality to shift. However, Mandel’s strong storytelling ability sets Station Eleven apart. The central characters are all linked
to film star Arthur Leander, who dies of a heart attack early on. Mandel fluidly switches between characters and time periods, telling two tales at once; that of Arthur’s life in the old world, and the survivors’ life in the new one. The result is a provocative tale of societal apocalypse that convincingly creates a disorientated reality, where humanity moves into an uncertain future on a planet littered with reminders of an imperfect past. (Rebecca Monks) ■ Out now.
War I when most of the children are adults. The core of the novel is the gradual reveal of the Psammead’s mysterious past and the parallels with the war. To take these beloved characters
and examine the impact of adulthood and the devastating experience of war has the potential to be a fascinating and emotional journey. Unfortunately, Saunders doesn’t quite manage to retain the childlike sense of wonder, mischief and warmth of the original while exploring these subjects. The Nesbit novels are wonderful, immersive and humorous pieces of storytelling; if this leads readers to her work, that can only be a very good thing. (Ever Dundas ) ■ Out Thu 2 Oct.
SCIENCE FICTION ADAM ROBERTS Bete (Gollancz) ●●●●●
Imagine if your food could talk back to you: that’s the extremely high-concept idea much-decorated sci-fi author and academic Adam Roberts plays with in his latest novel. It opens with a bizarre but starkly amusing sequence in which a cow tries to reason with the farmer who’s about to fire a bolt into its head. By page three, he’s already quoting the Smiths’ ‘Meat is Murder’ to him, and the farmer’s almost spurred to fire just for that.
The conceit in this instance is that many of the world’s animals have been ‘chipped’ in order to allow them to speak as normal humans do. Roberts’ prose is intricate and rich in scientific language and explanation, but it’s also dryly funny and on-the-nose when it wants to be, making this book about so much more than a quirky sci-fi concept.
Like the best speculative work, it unpeels greater themes, from the morality of artificial intelligence to humanity’s relationship with its food sources, and also what the very act of possessing language and expression does to our minds. (David Pollock) ■ Out Thu 25 Sep.