Independent Foreign Fiction Prize winner
The 2012 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize has been awarded to Israeli author Aharon Appelfeld for Blooms of Darkness.
The story is told from the perspective of 11-year-old Hugo, who is taken in by Mariana, a prostitute, to keep him safe as Jewish people are sent to concentration camps.
The novel is based on Appelfeld’s experiences during the Holocaust. Now aged 80, he was deported to a labour camp when he was 12.
Accepting the award, Appelfeld said, “I wanted to explore the darkest places of human behaviour and to show that even there, generosity and love can survive; that humanity and love can overcome cruelty and brutality.”
Reserve a copy of Blooms of Darkness online, and collect from your nearest library.
Author Event – Crime on Tour
The Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival is coming to Leeds!
Leeds Central Library, 29th May, 6.30pm
Tickets £5. Call 0113 247 6016 to reserve a place (pay on door)
“To celebrate our first 10 years, the internationally renowned Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival is taking to the road with Crime on Tour to bring a taste of the festival to new venues across the North of England. Discover the names of tomorrow before anyone else and get a taste of the biggest Crime Writing Festival in Europe.”
Host Steve Mosby, author of 6 novels including The Cutting Crew and Black Flowers, will introduce two up and coming young crime writers, David Mark and Danielle Ramsay.
David’s debut novel, Dark Winter, the first in a series featuring DS Aector McAvoy, was published in March.
Danielle was shortlisted for the 2009 CWA Debut Dagger Award for her novel Paterfamilias. Her latest, Vanishing Point, made the ebook top 20 in The Bookseller.
Book Launch – Green Economics and the Citizens Income
Clive Lord, founder member of the Green party, will be doing 3 book signings in Leeds to launch
Green Economics and the Citizens Income
Central Library, The Headrow. 22nd May 10am-12 noon & 2pm-4pm
Headingley Library, North Lane Headingley. 23rd May 7pm-9pm
Chapel Allerton Library, 106 Harrogate Road, Chapel Allerton. 24th May 7pm-9pm
Green Economics and the Citizens Income
A collection of essays, speeches & articles which introduces Green Economics and the Citizens Income to the general reader!
Edited by Clive Lord, Miriam Kennet and Judith Felton and published by the Green Economics Institute
“This fresh perspective on the theme of how to stop mankind over-exploiting the Earth challenges reassurances that scientific warnings are unduly pessimistic. The fate of Easter Island offers new insights into the dynamics driving economic expansion, and why the major players can never know how or when to stop. Lord outlines how a so-called ‘primitive’ tribe solved the problem which devastated Easter Island, and which now confronts us globally, by a cultural shift based on a strategy of sharing necessities unconditionally, allowing other rules for everything else.
Lord explains why such a strategy is an essential precondition for a sustainable world, and how it can be adopted nationally and internationally. Practical measures, however vital once such a shift has taken place, will do more harm than good if used instead to prop up the existing growth oriented mind-set.”
Book Review – The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up this book but I am so pleased to have read it. I loved it and was totally transported by it.
The book begins in Chicago with the 28 year old Hadley Richardson meeting a struggling writer called Ernest Hemingway. From this point onwards we are enveloped in life in 1920s – the age of jazz. The story moves to bohemian Paris where Hadley and Ernest mix with the Scott-Fitzgeralds, James Joyce, Ford Maddox Ford, Ezra Pound and other literary figures who make up “The Lost Generation”.
The story is told from the perspective of Hadley and is in the form of a memoir documenting her romance and marriage with Ernest and eventual separation and divorce. Hemingway is portrayed as a man still suffering from the effects of the war; a man of excesses with an obsession with death but also a man of great talent. It is Hadley who supports and encourages his writing and you feel that without her, he may not have achieved his full potential.
Hadley is very annoying at times, particularly when she passively accepts Hemingway’s behaviour. How many other wives would accept another woman slipping into the marital bed? However, her heartbreak at the way Hemingway unpicks their marriage is almost tangible.
It is unclear as to what percentage of the book is fact and what percentage is fiction. However, I am not sure it really matters. It is an absorbing story and has been thoroughly researched. The writing style is fluent and evocative of the era.
Leeds Libraries borrower
Reserve a copy of The Paris Wife online, and collect from your nearest library.
Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2012
The longlist for the eighth Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award has been published, and it features an interesting and diverse range of titles.
More traditional crime novels such as Val McDermid’s The Retribution and The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin feature alongside the psychological thriller Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson and Ben Aaronovitch’s fantasy crime novel Rivers of London.
The longlist in full:
- Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
- Darkside by Belinda Bauer
- Now You See Me by S J Bolton
- Where the Bodies Are Buried by Chris Brookmyre
- The Burning Soul by John Connolly
- The Calling by Neil Cross
- The Hanging Shed by Gordon Ferris
- Bryant and May and the Memory of Blood by Christopher Fowler
- Blue Monday by Nicci French
- The Fear Index by Robert Harris
- The Retribution by Val McDermid
- The End of the Wasp Season by Denise Mina
- Black Flowers by Steve Mosby
- Collusion by Stuart Neville
- The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin
- Mice by Gordon Reece
- Agent 6 by Tom Rob Smith
- Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson
The shortlist will be published on 5th July, and the winner announced on 19th July at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate.
Radio 2 Book Club – Snake Ropes by Jess Richards
The next book to be discussed on the Radio 2 Book Club will be Snake Ropes, a debut novel by Jess Richards.
Snake Ropes is set on a remote island which has little contact with the mainland, and is described by The Independent as a magical fable “where ghosts walk, keys speak and shadows occasionally split away from their owners.” Intrigued? You can find out more about the book, and download an extract, from the Book Club website.
You can catch the book club on Monday 28th May from 18.00, as part of Simon Mayo’s 17.00 – 19.00 Drivetime show. If you missed previous shows, including discussion of Mark Haddon’s The Red House, and Bitter Water by Gordon Ferris, you can catch up via the website.
Author Event – Freya North
GARFORTH LIBRARY
Wednesday 27th June, 7.15pm
Join us for an evening with best-selling author Freya North, who will be talking about her new book, Rumours.
Tickets are £5, available from Baraka Cafes (Garforth High Street and Library).
Your ticket will entitle you to a hot drink and a slice of cake, as well as £5 discount off any book purchased.
Please call 0113 224 3291 for more information.
