Book reviews

Published on Saturday 6 March 2010 10:18

NEW NON-FICTION February by Lisa Moore is published by Chatto & Windus, priced £12.99

This beautiful novel is the fourth from Canadian writer Lisa Moore, and traces the life of widow Helen O'Mara, who lost her husband Cal on a Newfoundland oil rig on Valentine's eve, while pregnant with her fourth child.

The story and related memories are triggered 26 years later by a late-night call from her son John, as he informs her that a woman he had a brief fling with is now pregnant.

Each chapter flashes between Helen's life since that fatal night alongside the thoughts of John and those of the mother of his unborn child, Jane, as they travel to meet each other in Toronto.

The merging of their separate stories delicately portrays the immensity of the emotions felt, and hints John chose a life travelling away from home as a result of his mother's struggle to admit her loss.

9/10 Review By Laura Temple

The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris is published by Viking, priced 12.99

The Unnamed is an emotionally acute and brilliantly sad book with an unusual narrative, and is the second novel by American author Joshua Ferris. The premise is simple: One day, Tim Farnsworth, a high-flying, wealthy New York lawyer, leaves his office building and starts walking. He doesn't stop until his body gives out. When he wakes up, he comes home to his wife, terrified. "It's back," he announces.

We soon learn that Farnsworth is afflicted with a disease that is unnamed and incurable. He experiences random bouts of walking, unbidden and uncontrollable. It disrupts his career and family life – the former forever ruined, the latter broken, but held together by love and confusion.

Unable to find an explanation or a prognosis for his disease, Farnsworth realises he can no longer live a normal life. He stops returning home. He wanders off where his feet take him, struggling mentally and suffering physically.

A thoughtful and highly intelligent albeit harrowing story of a man's suffering and despair and the life that was his, but is no longer. The Unnamed is difficult but accomplished, and is certainly worth a read.

9/10 Review By Trisha Andres

Gone by Mo Hayder is published by Grove Press, priced 14.99

Detective Jack Caffery is sent to interview a distraught victim of a violent car-jacking incident, but unlike regular car thefts, the jacker forced the victim into giving up her car – along with her 11-year-old daughter.

When the jacker starts taunting the police through letters, Caffery, who is a senior investigator at Bristol's crime investigation unit, is certain that this wasn't a one-off occurrence. He's waiting to pounce again – on another car with another child passenger. Moreover, the jacker seems to know Caffery and his team's every move – which makes the chase even more difficult.

The fifth book in the Jack Caffery series, Mo Hayder's Gone sees the talented detective meet his intellectual match. Although the British mystery writer has avoided graphic descriptions of violence that featured in some of her earlier offerings, her latest thriller serves up a fast-paced storyline that will see you racing through the pages.

6/10 Review By Nilima Dey Sarker

Whoops! Why Everyone Owes Everyone And No One Can Pay by John Lanchester is published by Allen Lane, priced 20

It's barely been away from the news over the past year, but how many of us really understand the ins and outs of the credit crunch?

British writer John Lanchester does, and in his new book, he chops up sub-prime mortgages, equity and the relentless march of capitalism, and serves it up in an easily digestible way.

He describes how virtual money, constantly whizzing round the globe, powers the economy and how colossal sums are passing through the hands of a relative few. And he underlines how the machinations behind the scenes in the City and on Wall Street and elsewhere can affect our everyday lives, from our mortgage repayments to our bank accounts.

The Icelandic bank collapse, the scale of the Royal Bank of Scotland bail-out, and the cost of the downturn are among the topics dissected in this timely offering, which manages to transform a potentially dull, dry and complicated topic into an interesting, simple and informative read.

7/10 Review by Claire Ennis

Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Anti-Semitism in England by Anthony Julius is published by Oxford University Press, priced 25.

This massive volume by well-known London lawyer Anthony Julius describes in disturbing detail the history of anti-Semitism in England.

Although the murderous anti-Jewish excesses of the Middle Ages have not recurred in the country for the past 350 years, there is still concern.

Legal discrimination against Jews in England ended a long time ago, but Julius documents many cases where Jews have continued to be publicly sneered at, insulted and discriminated against socially.

Julius got a taste of this, as a leading member of the commercial legal firm Mishcon de Reya, which specialises in litigation. When it was announced that he would represent the Princess of Wales in her divorce from Prince Charles, a number of newspapers focused on the fact that he was Jewish. Some of their comments, he says, were "downright anti-Semitic".

Although his book is scholastic, it is well-researched and contains a fine dissection of anti-Semitism itself.

8/10 Review by Anthony Looch