 The second novel in Ukrainian novelist Andrey Kurkov’s Kyiv Mysteries series.
It’s 1919, Ukraine. There is much upheaval in the capital city, Kyiv, as the political fallout from World War I is felt. Most notably, the Russian secret police, or Cheka, wields its arbitrary yet terrifying power. Employed as a policeman by the Workers’ and Peasants’ Militia, Samson Kolechko has been assigned a peculiar case. He must investigate the slaughter of a pig and the selling of its parts as meat. Apparently, and no one seems to know this, the selling of meat is now deemed illegal. Higher up bureaucrats call it “speculating”, a nefarious capitalist practice. Samson’s investigations lead him into all sorts of strange encounters in Kyiv’s back alleys and underground markets. While these Byzantine inquiries are going on, Samson, who is a young man, is trying to get on with his personal life. He intends to marry his fiancee, Nadezhda, who has troubles of her own working as a census taker. Andrey Kurkov is considered one of Ukraine’s finest contemporary writers, and it’s not difficult to see why, going by this second installment of the author’s “Kyiv Mysteries” series. The novel is permeated with a wonderfully earthy tone, full of detailed descriptions of Ukrainian life in 1919. There are many memorable scenes: Red Army soldiers that mysteriously vanish at a sauna, an eccentric atheistic wedding and buffoonish interrogation lessons, where students are told how to blow smoke in a subject's face. The Stolen Heart has a rich vein of humour that runs through it, as we follow the naive Samson’s bungling in his strenuous attempts to keep his superiors happy. But beneath this comic surface there lies the grinding, tectonic plates of state, a bloodthirsty and mindless government bureaucracy inexorably taking its victims. The final scenes of the novel are shocking, where Samson is forced to make a terrible decision. It’s hard to imagine you’ll read a better novel this year. A richly absorbing tale of the absurdity and terror that is totalitarian government. The Stolen Heart, by Andrey Kurkov. Published by MacLehose Press. $34.99 Review by Chris Saliba  A middle-aged woman experiences her daughter’s wedding as an emotional roller coaster
Sixty-something Gail Baines has a lot going on in her life. Instead of being in line for a promotion as school principal, she’s been sidelined by a complete stranger. In fact, she’s been asked to quit her position as deputy altogether. Rubbing salt into the wound, her boss has told her she has poor people skills. This discombobulating news comes the day before her daughter Debbie’s wedding. Her ex-husband, Max, has arrived, armed with a stray cat that needs looking after. Then there is news - gossip, really - that makes Gail wonder if Debbie’s betrothed, Kenneth, is such a good match after all. With so much going on over three days - dealing with in laws, an ex-boyfriend that turns up at the wedding and a pushy cat that is making itself at home - it’s no wonder that life seems to have been turned upside down. Three Days in June makes for an easy to read social comedy about middle-class life. Anne Tyler’s peerless gift for realistic dialogue and situations is everywhere evident. Indeed, often it feels like you’ve been invited to listen in and comment on intimate family discussions. The narrator, Gail, is often unconsciously funny, knocking back social invitations because she’s simply not interested and sometimes finding that the world’s image of her doesn’t match her own. But she plods on, like we all do, and finds life’s not as bad as all that, even surprisingly good at times. An enjoyable, light read from the master of the craft. Three Days in June, by Anne Tyler. Published by Chatto & Windus. $32.99 Review by Chris Saliba  An eighty year old with a dark, wartime past goes on a quirky road trip with her son.
In this work of autofiction, narrator Christian Kracht, famous for his novel Faserland as well as other works, reunites with his octogenarian mother on a road trip of sorts through the Swiss Alps. Middle-aged Christian’s mother - we don’t learn her name - has invested heavily in the arms industry and reaped a whirlwind. Taking her medication with good swigs of vodka, and sporting a colostomy bag that needs frequent changing, she has withdrawn tens of thousands from her bank account and stuffed the cash in cheap plastic bags, determined to indiscriminately give it away. As the two take taxi rides around the Swiss Alps, they go over their past together, trudging through a murky and shameful family history. Christian’s grandfather - his mother’s father - was a member of the Nazi’s SS. Eurotrash is a dark, rancid comedy about wealth and privilege. Kracht provides a razor sharp skewering of decadent, self-regarding elites, whose money has come from a long line of misery. There is a sense of ennui and terribly bad taste that goes hand in hand with this ruling class, who don’t do introspection. Rather they live gaudy lives of depressing excess. Worse still, when their pasts are excavated the skeletons of fascism and dirty capitalism are found. Christian Kracht is a Swiss writer. Eurotrash was first published in 2021 and now gets an English translation by Daniel Bowles. A novel that is short and acerbic, with a powerful underlying morality. Eurotrash, by Christian Kracht. Translated by Daniel Bowles. Published by Serpent's Tail. $26.99 Review by Chris Saliba  Three office workers find themselves caught in some weird office politics.
Ashikawa is a sweet natured young woman who likes to bake treats for her co-workers, sickly sweet cakes and tarts with intricate icing work and dainty decorations. Her arrival at her office job with these elaborate confections are almost mini-events. Co-workers gather around and await specially cut slices and must then ooh and ahh at every mouthful. Nitani is in a half-hearted relationship with Ashikawa. He likes to eat instant noodles, almost as a staple. He hates to fuss with food and prefers the quickest route to a full stomach. Despite his relationship status with Ashikawa, he finds her annoying. Worse still, he secretly doesn’t like her sweet treats she bakes for the office. Oshio, another workmate, often hangs out with Nitani for beers and is the complete opposite of Ashikawa. In fact, she can’t stand Ashikawa. The truth is, Ashikawa is high maintenance, and she is coddled by her co-workers, receiving special treatment. She regularly goes home early, or has sick days, due to recurring headaches or simple bouts of fatigue. Co-workers hover around her, asking that she’s alright, even suggesting she go home. The irony is, Ashikawa is portrayed as the weak one, yet she somehow, innocently enough, manages to manipulate those around her. Junko Takase is an award winning Japanese novelist. May You Have Delicious Meals, as the title suggests, is a quirky, out-of-the box look at office work and the interpersonal politics it spurs. This is a not too happy crew of workers, grudgingly attending ‘fun’ office lunches and other get-togethers, but not unhappy enough to seek work elsewhere or make serious career changes. They are trapped in comfortable but uninspiring, unambitious lives. This may sound bland enough, but Takase lifts the subject matter with brilliant comic touches and a careful anatomising of modern workplace culture and manners. A strange, oddball little novel for readers of Convenience Store Woman and There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job. May You Have Delicious Meals, by Junko Takase. Translated by Morgan Giles. Published by Hutchinson Heinemann. $34.99 Review by Chris Saliba  A frustrated minor official finds he is not as perfect as he thought he was
In the District of Zlotogrod, during the last years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Anselm Eibenschütz is appointed the inspector of weights and measures. His job is to make sure traders are dealing fairly with the public and not short changing or acting otherwise fraudulently. Eibenschütz is not a particularly happy man. He has left the regimented life of the army, which he found quite to his liking, as it took away the need for him to really make choices in life, and now finds himself dealing with petty, small town problems. Everyone, it seems, is an adversary. His wife doesn’t help matters, as she is mostly indifferent to Eibenschütz's plight. She makes things even worse when she embarks upon an affair and becomes pregnant to another man. Meanwhile, in the village of Szwaby, Eibenschütz comes across tavern owner Leibusch Jadlowker as a part of his travels. Jadlowker is a dark, shadowy figure with a dodgy past and another dangerous adversary to deal with. A complicating factor to this animosity is Jadlowker’s mistress, Euphemia Nikitsch. Despite Eibenschütz’s high moral standing, he starts up an affair with Euphemia and soon becomes obsessed, causing him to pursue a path that is hypocritical and possibly compromising. Joseph Roth (1894 - 1939) was an Austrian-Jewish journalist and novelist famous for his novel The Radetzky March. Weights and Measures is a later novel by Roth, now re-published by Pushkin Press from a 1982 translation by David Le Vay. Despite the novel’s cast of rogues and chancers, cretins and fraudsters, Weights and Measures is a slyly humorous look at the depravity of human nature, written in a crisp, simple prose. The book is set out in a series of episodic misadventures, with short chapters, and the action keeps at a pleasant clip, never boring the reader for a minute. The upstanding Eibenschütz, his constant frustrations and self-deceits, acts as a mirror for the reader, making us confront our own ambitions and unpalatable secret desires. A clever and concise study of life’s darker undercurrents. Weights and Measures, by Joseph Roth. Published by Pushkin. $24.99 Review by Chris Saliba  A collection of interwoven stories describes the Palestinian-American experience in humbling detail.
Susan Muaddi Darraj is a Palestinian-American writer and professor of English Literature. Her novel, Behind You is the Sea, began life as a series of previously published short stories. She has here expanded that into a full length work. The novel follows the interconnected fortunes of three Palestinian-American families, the Baladis, the Salamehs, and the Ammars. One of the main themes is the intergenerational difficulties caused by trying to integrate into American society. Parents cling to the old ways, and are often haunted by traumas from the past, while the younger generation are stuck in between, wholly at home in American society, but trying to honor and understand their parents history and culture. Sometimes this leads to outright conflict, when marriages are disapproved of, or Palestinian-Americans find themselves misrepresented or misunderstood by their fellow citizens. There’s also a strong focus on the experiences of women, who are often asked to conform to unrealistic cultural expectations. Behind You is the Sea doesn’t work as a plotted story, but rather follows a broad cast, young, old and in between, in a series of connected short stories. While there are many characters to keep up with, the book is easy to follow, with compelling individual storylines. What do we learn? That many families - no matter the religious or cultural background - are basically pretty similar, experiencing the same struggles. We also learn of more particular challenges, for example when a son takes his father back to Palestine to be buried, only to be put through insensitive bureaucratic red tape by the occupying authorities. An absorbing look into the struggles and complicated family dynamics of the Palestinian diaspora. Behind You Is The Sea, by Susan Muaddi Darraj. Published by Swift Press. $32.99 Review by Chris Saliba  Two brothers must confront their troubled past when their father dies.
Peter and Ivan are two brothers. Ivan is in his early twenties, a chess ace who is still coming out of his adolescence. Peter is the older brother by a decade. He works as a lawyer and has a complicated love life with two women. Recently the brothers' father has died from cancer, and unresolved emotional conflicts are still bubbling below the surface. When competing in a chess tournament, younger brother Ivan meets a woman fourteen years his senior. The two tentatively embark on an affair, weary of how friends and family will take their budding romance. When Peter does find out, he is immediately critical and dismissive, infuriating Ivan. Soon their hidden grievances and long simmering animosities burst out into the open. Can the steadying influence of the women in their lives heal these deep wounds and create harmony? Acclaimed and best-selling author Sally Rooney does it again with a compelling page turner that anatomises a close but fraught relationship between two brothers. The novel is drenched in detail, fleshing out character and place. While the story is as slow moving and introspective as a Bergman film, it has an uncannily addictive quality. It is probably the unflinching intimacy and vulnerability exhibited in Intermezzo that makes it so appealing. Sally Rooney fans will no doubt flock to Intermezzo, which heralds a more mature phase in her writing. New fans are sure to get on board too. Intermezzo, by Sally Rooney. Published by Faber. $34.99 Review by Chris Saliba  A bumper book of witty and entertaining stories for adults from the famous children’s author.
A.A. Milne (1882 - 1956) is best known for his children’s books Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner. The success of these books and poetry collections such as Now We Are Six greatly overshadowed his other literary work. He was a writer who worked in many genres: adult fiction, non-fiction, journalism, memoir, poetry, plays and screenplays. Farrago books has issued a first complete collection of A.A. Milne’s short stories, with the inclusion of a few that have never been published before. The stories cover the period from 1918-1958, with most written between 1948-1950. The stories cover a wide variety of styles, with a constant theme being Milne’s playful, vivacious sense of humour. They are frothy and fun, often very inventive, much in line with other contemporaries such as P.G. Wodehouse and Nancy Mitford. While there is a lightness of touch, and an almost frivolous attitude, Milne’s shorter fiction is brilliantly organised, with many pleasingly unexpected twists and turns. For the most part, the stories deal with middle class relationships, men and women, desire and domesticity, in post war Britain. A favorite story details the comic drama caused when a difficult friend asks for a book that he has lent to a couple be returned. The couple don’t know what they’ve done with the book, and while they continue to get passive-aggressive letters from the disgruntled friend, they bide their time until they can buy a new copy and pass it off as the original. Another story, highlighting Milne’s playfulness, is set in the Biblical time of Noah and spoofs his family organising an ark to save themselves, while musing what they should tell the neighbors. Milne also had a great fondness for detective fiction, and several murder mysteries are included in this collection. The author of Winnie-the-Pooh will no doubt never shake off his reputation as a children’s author. Intrepid readers who can look past the famous bear will find much to delight and amuse in this little known collection. The Complete Stories of A.A. Milne, by A.A. Milne. Published by Farrago. $26.99 Review by Chris Saliba  A woman sinks into a pool on a warm Autumn day, and refuses to get out.
It’s an unseasonably warm day in November, 1957. Kathleen Beckett, who lives with her husband Virgil and two sons in Newark, Delaware, decides to take a dip in the pool at her apartment block. It’s a slightly odd residence for a young family, as the Acropolis Place is filled with retirees. The apartments overlook the pool and resident busy bodies and curtain twitchers keep a vigilant eye on Kathleen, whose behaviour is considered odd. No one ever uses the pool, and besides it’s November, not exactly the warmest month of the year. When her husband finds her in the pool he becomes alarmed and tries to coax her out. But she insists she’s fine; actually, she’s never felt better. As Virgil returns again and again to the pool, and the day progresses, the reader is given the backstories for both husband and wife. Kathleen had been a tennis ace in her youth and had enjoyed a romantic affair with Billy Blasko, a Jewish refugee from Czechoslovakia. The relationship is not only sensual and heartfelt; Billy gives Kathleen intellectual books which she attempts to read. Virgil, on the other hand, is pretty much a failed insurance broker who is trying to escape his boozy past. As the day comes to an end, with Kathleen’s soaking in by now cold water, the couple must decide if they can survive their secret pasts and come together as a couple. The Most reads very much like classic 1950’s American fiction - think Richard Yates (Revolutionary Road), John Cheever (recall his famous short story “The Swimmer”) and Sylvia Plath. Jessica Anthony uses a similar technique to Plath’s Bell Jar in creating an atmosphere of looming dread in the recurring descriptions of the Sputnik 2, launched on the day the story takes place, and harboring the Soviet dog Laika that everyone knew was sure to die in space. (Plath opens The Bell Jar with her famous description of the execution of the Rosenbergs). There are also subtle touches of humour in the character of Colson (“Coke”), Virgil’s father, easily an escapee from a Cormac McCarthy novel and a portrait of over-the-top American masculinity. Highly enjoyable. A crisply written portrait of American life, one that seems perfect and sunny on the surface, but that harbors darkness and sadness underneath. The Most, by Jessica Anthony. Published by Doubleday. $29.99 Review by Chris Saliba  Two sisters negotiate men, relationships, sex and family in this compelling novella by Tessa Hadley.
It’s post-war Britain. The urban landscape is dreary and battered. Two sisters, dressed up despite the economic privations all around them, are on their way to a pub to meet friends and enjoy a rowdy night. Evelyn, the younger sister, is studying French. She’s unsure of herself, and looks up to her outre older sister, Moira, who is a fashion student. Both women flirt with the young men, sizing them up as potential love interests, only to find many of them wanting, and the decent guys unattractive anyway. The sisters still live with their parents, and younger brother Ned, in a bleak working class house. Theirs is not a happy family. Ned makes explosives as a hobby, and their father is carrying on an affair. It’s a constant battle to keep fights and simmering animosities at bay. One night soon after the party at the pub, Moira takes her sister to a house in another part of London. It’s a big, once grand house, now fallen into disrepair. They meet a group of Moira’s friends and start drinking. An atmosphere of boredom and futility predominates.The men at the house are not great catches, some decidedly sickly, and lurking at the bottom of this barrel is Sinden, a creepy young man with designs on both the sisters. The Party is a stark portrait of young women’s lives in what feels like 1950s Britain (there are references in the novella to the Malayan Emergency, a guerilla war fought between 1948-1960). Evelyn and Moira are just starting their adulthood, studying with a clear hope of improving their lives (they dress with exuberant confidence in tight clothing), yet are surrounded by a culture not yet ready to offer women emancipation from subservient roles. With their mother as an example, the reader feels that Evelyn and Moira are destined to get dudded by life, ending up as downtrodden wives. Yet there is a glimmer of hope for them at the end, as bad sexual experiences unite both women in a more clear eyed view of the world. Grim, gritty and realistic, readers of Claire Keegan will enjoy this accomplished novella. The Party, by Tessa Hadley. Published by Jonathan Cape. $29.99 Review by Chris Saliba |
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