The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby by Ellery Lloyd BLOG TOUR #TheFinalActofJulietteWilloughby @ElleryLloyd @panmacmillan @RandomTTours #BookReview

 

Some women can’t be erased from history . . .

A story of love and madness, of obsession and revenge.

Paris, 1938: Runaway heiress Juliette Willoughby perishes, with her married lover, in an accidental studio fire alongside her Surrealist masterpiece, Self-Portrait as Sphinx.

Cambridge, 1991: Two art history students stumble across proof something sinister was at play in Juliette's death, threatening to expose the long-buried secrets of the artist's aristocratic family.

Dubai, now: An art dealer is accused of the brutal murder of his oldest friend – the last surviving member of the Willoughby dynasty.

Three suspicious deaths over the course of a century.

Is the key to unlocking them all hidden in Juliette Willoughby’s lost painting?

From the author of The Club, a Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick, The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby is Ellery Lloyd's compulsive multiple - timeline mystery – a story of love and madness, of obsession and revenge.

The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby by Ellery Lloyd is published in hardback today, 20 June 2024. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review, as part of this #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour

A book that really has it all. If you are a fan of historical fiction, combined with mystery and domestic noir, then this is the novel for you. The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby has raced into my list of best books of the year. It was intriguing, perfectly plotted and populated with a cast of characters who are beautifully created and wonderfully formed. 

Told over three timelines, and with multiple points of view, the authors have done a fabulous job of interweaving the various eras. The main focus of the story is on Juliette Willoughby; a young artist who died in a fire in the 1930s, along with her lover; another famous artist. Juliette was estranged from her wealthy family, leaving home to spend her life alongside her lover Oskar.

The second timeline features Caroline Cooper and Patrick Lambert; art history students at Cambridge University in the early nineties. Caroline and Patrick team up and decide that their dissertation will be about Juliette Willoughby and her famous missing painting 'Self Portrait of a Sphinx', believed lost in the fire that took her life. Caroline and Patrick are introduced to art mentor Alice Long, a mysterious woman who enables them to find out much more than they ever believed to be possible about Juliette. 

And, the present day, in an art gallery in Dubai, where that famous painting is about to be displayed. Discovered once, and then discovered again, how on earth has the painting survived, and why do there seem to be two copies? Are they genuine? Somebody knows the truth, and Caroline and Patrick, once married, but now divorced, feel threatened by events that they cannot control. 

This novel is so rich, filled with a real sense of place and era. The authors seamlessly go from era to era, from location to location with no effort at all. The characters are carefully drawn and the mystery at the heart of the plot stays central throughout. Unusually for a multiple time zone novel, I liked every part equally, all are believable, all are gripping and every single page made me want to read more and more. 

This is a stunning, absolutely enthralling book. It is a complex, multi layered examination of families and friendships. There's menace, ambition, betrayals and dark dark secrets. Highly recommended. 

Ellery Lloyd is the pseudonym for London- based husband-and-wife writing team Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos.

Collette is a journalist and editor, former content director of ELLE UK and editorial director at Soho House. She has written for The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times.

Paul is the author of two previous novels, Welcome to the Working Week and Every Day Is Like Sunday. He is the programme director for English literature with creative writing at the University of Surrey.

www.ellerylloyd.com

X @ElleryLloyd

Instagram @ellerylloyd_author

Un Amor by Sara Mesa t. Katie Whittemore #UnAmor #SaraMesa #KatieWhittemore @PeirenePress #TranslatedFiction #BookReview

 

Fleeing from past mistakes, Nat leaves her life in the city for the rural village of La Escapa. 

She rents a small house from a negligent landlord, adopts a dog and begins to work on her first literary translation. 

But nothing is easy: the dog is ill tempered and skittish and misunderstandings with her neighbour’s thrum below the surface. 

When conflict arises over repairs to her house, Nat receives an unusual offer – one that tests her sense of self, challenges her prejudices, and reveals her most unexpected desires. 

As Nat tries to understand her decision, the community of La Escapa comes together in search of a scapegoat.

Un Amor by Sara Mesa was published on 4 June 2024 by Peirene and is translated from the Spanish by Katie Whittemore. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review. 

I really enjoy translated fiction, I usually read translated crime so was eager to delve into Un Amor by Sara Mesa for something a little different. Described by the publisher as 'unmissable' and chosen by various Spanish newspapers as their book of the year, I certainly was not disappointed. This is a short novel at around 150 pages and I easily read it in a couple of sittings. 

This is an entrancing, lyrical story about a woman who leaves the city and moves into a run-down shack like house in a small, very rural village in Spain. The reader knows very little about Nat's past, we know that she is a translator, we know that she is fleeing a serious mistake, but other than that, we learn to know her through the author's incredible descriptive prose. 

La Escapa is a small village, populated by a collection of eclectic people. There's a shop and a bar and a few house dotted around. Some of the houses are empty, some are used as weekend retreats, and there are a few permanent residents. 

Initially, Nat's only real company is the bad-tempered dog that her boorish landlord gives to her. The dog doesn't appear to like Nat, and there are many times that she'd like the landlord to take it back. The landlord also seems to take a dislike to his newest tenant, making things feel very awkward, refusing to do repairs and then turning up out of the blue and entering the house. Nat is frightened of him. 

Her nearest neighbour is Píter, known as the hippie; another man who Nat really can't work out. There's also the man called 'The German'; although Nat isn't sure that he is actually German. When Nat's roof needs to be repaired, it is the German who comes to the rescue, but his offer of help come with a strange and unusual request. 

It is this request, and the consequences that carry the novel. It is beautifully written and wonderfully translated into English. The sense of place is so very present and as the tension mounts, page by page, the reader begins to question many things. We can examine the reaction of a small community when a newcomer arrives and their actions may not be the norm. We are privy to Nat's innermost feelings, the way that she battles with her own emotion, the effects that certain people have on her actions. 

This is a disquieting book, with much to savour. The prose is spare, yet quite exquisite, the storyline is compelling, tense and propulsive. A beautiful novel, one to savour and highly recommended.

Published in the UK for the first time by Peirene Press, Sara Mesa is the author of eight works of fiction, including Scar (winner of the Ojo Critico Prize), Four by Four (a finalist for the Herralde Prize), An Invisible Fire (winner of the Premio Málaga de Novela), Among the Hedges, and La Familia. Her works have been translated into eighteen different languages, and she has been widely praised for her concise, sharp writing style.

Katie Whittemore is graduate of the University of NH (BA), Cambridge University (M.Phil), and Middlebury College (MA), and was a 2018 Bread Loaf Translators Conference participant. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming with Two Lines, The Arkansas International, The Common Online, Gulf Coast Magazine Online, The Los Angeles Review, The Brooklyn Rail, and InTranslation.

The Perfect Guest by Ruth Irons BLOG TOUR #ThePerfectGuest @RuthIrons @bwpublishing @Tr4cyF3nt0n #BookReview

 

We all have that friend - the one who doesn't quite belong. Dinah Marshall is that person and knows it. After someone drops out, she's invited to spend the weekend at a luxury holiday home with women she's known since university. However, the gulf between them has widened since then, and Dinah is conscious of being the only one with no money, career, partner or children. Feeling like an outsider, she takes to snooping around the house. She's fascinated by its owners, Sarah and Isaac Rivers - and when she discovers she can secretly stay an extra night, that fascination quickly spirals into obsession.

When Isaac Rivers meets 'Diana Malone' at an exclusive members club, he introduces her to his wife and friends, and she's soon welcomed into the group. She seems to be trying a little too hard, however, and as her somewhat intense behaviour starts to raise both eyebrows and questions, one of her new acquaintances begins to suspect she isn't who she says she is. For Diana - or is it Dinah? -this is a disaster: she's worked hard to get where she has, and these suspicions threaten everything. But Diana isn't the only one with secrets, and if she's going down, then she might just take everyone else with her . . .

The Perfect Guest by Ruth Irons is published by Black & White Publishing on 20 June 2024. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review as part of this Compulsive Readers Blog Tour 

Oh Dinah!  What an incredibly complex, mixed up character you are. A character who will drive the reader to distraction as she makes strange, weird, sometimes dangerous decision after decision.  A character who is as unreliable as the majority of the trains running from your local station. A character who will drag you into her crazy world and not let you go until the final pages. 

Dinah has joined some friends at a luxury country-house weekend. She wasn't their first choice, someone dropped out, but they've all known each other since University over twenty years ago, so she knows what she's letting herself in for. After all, a couple of nights of pure luxury is far better than her dark, dingy damp flat. 

Dinah is definitely the odd one out in this group. She left her Oxford University course early, she doesn't have any money, her car is a rust bucket. Her clothes are shabby, she works a dead-end job in a cafe. The others are all glamorous, fun, successful and have money. 

The house that they are staying is extraordinary and Dinah does quite a lot of snooping about. Into rooms that she shouldn't enter, touching things that are out of bounds. It's not long before she's obsessed with the owners; Sarah and Isaac Rivers,  and begins to search for them on social media. 

And this is the very beginning of a story that is something of a roller-coaster read. Dinah becomes more and more unstable as she works her way into the lives of the Isaac family and their wider circle of friends. 

I can tell you that this book will keep you totally engaged throughout. As Dinah reinvents herself, moulding her life and her history to fit her new found friends, she gets herself deeper and deeper into the lies. How on earth is she going to get through this without being found out?  I really don't think that she thought it through at all, and there is one particular member of her new circle who is desperate to get rid of her. Little do they know that their plan to get rid of Dinah will open up the biggest, most wriggly can of worms you've ever come across. 

Tense, super fast paced, especially towards the end, this is a cleverly structured and well written novel that deals with some dark issues at times. Highly recommended.

Ruth Irons grew up in South Wales before studying music at Exeter University, and then musical theatre at Central School of Speech and Drama. 

She worked as an actor, musician, and music teacher for many years before turning to writing as a creative outlet, completing courses with Curtis Brown Creative and The Writers Bureau. 

Ruth lives in Kingston-Upon-Thames with her husband and two daughters. 

The Perfect Guest is her debut novel.

X @RuthIrons

www.ruthiewrites.co.uk

IG @ruth.clarkeirons

Toxic by Helga Flatland BLOG TOUR #Toxic @HelgaFlatland @OrendaBooks T. Matt Bagguley #BookReview

 

When Mathilde is forced to leave her teaching job in Oslo after her relationship with eighteen-year-old Jacob is exposed, she flees to the countryside for a more authentic life.

 Her new home is a quiet cottage on the outskirts of a dairy farm run by Andres and Johs, whose hobbies include playing the fiddle and telling folktales – many of them about female rebellion and disobedience, and seeking justice, whatever it takes.

 But beneath the apparently friendly and peaceful pastoral surface of life on the farm, something darker and more sinister starts to vibrate and, with Mathilde’s arrival, cracks start appearing … everywhere.

Toxic by Helga Flatland was published by Orenda Books on 23 May 2024 and is translated from Norwegian by Matt Bagguley. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review as part of this Blog Tour 

Toxic was one of my most anticipated books of the year. I am totally in awe of this author's masterful, beautiful writing. I read and reviewed her two earlier Orenda books; A Modern Family (2019), and then One Last Time (2021). It has felt like a very very long wait, but it was worth it!  Once more, this extraordinarily talented author has produced  a novel that has kept me enraptured throughout, it is perfectly translated into English by Matt Bagguley. 

The novel begins with two seemingly unrelated characters narrating their stories. A clever use of a slightly different font clearly marks out the two separate narratives. We are introduced to Johs, a man who helps to run the family farm in the countryside of Telemark. The farm has been in the family for generation and currently Johs lives alone in one house, his parents in another and his married brother and his family in the other. Lying empty is the old cottage that was occupied by Johs' grandfather Johannes, before he died. Johannes not only left the farm to his family, his other legacy was his talent for playing the fiddle. A pastime that Johs has continued, taking part in concerts and competitions, but appearing uneasy about doing so.

Meanwhile, in the city of Oslo, Mathilde is a teacher. She lives alone, her parents were killed in an accident many years ago, when she was just a very small child. She was raised by her mother's sister, who she calls Mum. Mathilde is a complex, flawed character. Her parents were very successful, her mother was an acclaimed novelist, but Mathilde appears to lead an unstructured life.  She makes rash decisions, but rarely believes that she is responsible for them, despite being an adult. She's obsessive at times, saying and doing things that can only lead to trouble.

When the headteacher at her school discovers that she's been in a relationship with Jakob, a pupil. Mathilde once again refuses to acknowledge her blame and it is this incident that introduces the two parts of the story.

Fleeing Oslo, Mathilde rents Johannes' old cottage from Johs' family. She moves out of the city that she loves and begins a fresh start in the countryside. 

Mathilde has not learned anything from her experience. Once more, even though she's a visitor to the area she does and says exactly what she wants to. Not considering the consequences, nor the hurt that she may cause. 

Flatland's ability to get into the heart of her characters, and their families is outstanding. She has created a novel that looks past the exterior, and the current events and weaves family history into the story. The reader can understand why Johs acts as he does, the lasting legacy of his grandfather looms darkly over him at all times. The coldness of his mother and the fragility of his brother become too much to bear at times, he's a man who is looking for peace and tranquility. He thinks that he may have found it, only for his world to explode around him. 

Mathilde's issues also stem from her parents.  A couple who have always appeared to be perfect, and tragic. However, when she learns more intimate details about them, later in the novel, the reader can understand, if not agree with, some of her actions. 

This is an exquisite novel, perfectly formed. It's not a long novel at less than 300 pages, but it is one to savour, to think about and to enjoy. Flatland is one of Norway's most awarded and acclaimed novelist and it is very easy to see why. Her characters are sublime, her setting is evocative and the plot is complex and clever with an ending that will shock. Highly recommended. 

Helga Flatland is one of Norway’s most awarded and widely read authors. 

Born in Telemark, Norway, in 1984, she made her literary debut in 2010 with the novel Stay If You Can, Leave If You Must, for which she was awarded the Tarjei Vesaas’ First Book Prize. 

She has written six novels and a children’s book and has won several other literary awards. 

Her fifth novel, A Modern Family (her first English translation), was published to wide acclaim in Norway in August 2017 and was a number-one bestseller. The rights have subsequently been sold across Europe and the novel has sold more than 100,000 copies. 

One Last Time was published in 2020 and also topped bestseller lists in Norway. 

Helga lives in Oslo.

X @HelgaFlatland

Children of This Land by Serafina Crolla #ChildrenOfThisLand #SerafinaCrolla @LuathPress #BookReview

 

The moving and delightful story of the Valente family, although fiction, is grounded in first-hand knowledge of the way of life in Picinisco, southern Italy, in the post-war years. Poverty, separation and loss were common experiences that caused many to emigrate. Yet the hardships were more than balanced by a culture of family warmth and vitality, shared connection to the land and an intimate understanding of how to work it.

A born storyteller, Serafina Crolla was inspired to write Children of This Land when visiting the cemetery in her native village of Picinisco. There, she saw a headstone for ‘An exemplary mother of nineteen children’. She was deeply struck by the eloquent simplicity and poignancy of this memorial inscription. As the daughter of a shepherd, Serafina well understood the joys and hardships that life would have entailed for this family.

Through the vicissitudes of life, ties to this place hold strong for the Valentes. The nineteen children who make up the family tell their stories of love, marriage, trials and tribulations, loss and pain of immigration. Serafina’s own family emigrated to Scotland when she was a little girl but she returns to her homeland often, for, as she puts it: ‘A love for Picinisco as deep as the valleys and as pure as the snow-capped mountains is never forgotten.’

Children of This Land by Serafina Crolla was published on 30 November 2023 by Luath Press. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review.

This is an absolutely delightful book that transports the reader back to rural Italy, just after the Second World War. Whilst only a thin book at less than two hundred pages, it is packed with drama. The sights, sounds and smells of the family home, the surrounding countryside and the food preparation is a delight.

It is the story of the Valente family; Vincenzo and his wife Matilda and their sixteen remaining children. Yes, sixteen children! Matilda actually gave birth to nineteen babies, but three did not survive. This is a poor family, with little money but rich in love. They work the land, and every one of them has their own tasks to perform. Sometimes the children would rather not work the fields, or prepare the food, but they are a team, overseen by their parents and are totally aware of what needs to be done in order to survive. 

The family live in a small house, crammed into every available space, and this is shared with numerous grandparents too. The author relates the story of their background, how the family came to be and beautifully describes their everyday life too. 

We are introduced to neighbours, both richer and poorer and the sense of community and the willingness to always help out and repay a kindness with even the smallest of gift show the strength of these people. Hard working, loyal and loving.

Times are changing. Some of the Valente children want to move on. Some of them would like to marry and raise a family but see nothing for them in their small community except years of hard work and struggles, just like their parents. The reader follows them as they prepare to leave, we feel the heartbreak of Matilda as her children leave her. When the large dining table is replaced by a much smaller one, due to those who have left it feels so poignant.

There are some terrible times that the family have to endure. The author does not hold back and the reader will feel the pain of these characters that they have come to love and cheer for when things get a little darker. However, the strength of the family and their loyalty and love for each other holds them together. 

This is, quite simply, a wonderful little book. The author was inspired by a gravestone that she stumbled upon in an Italian cemetery that read 'an exemplary mother of nineteen children', from this one short sentence she has created a novel that is an utter delight. Filled to the brim with colourful characters and relating simpler times, but harder times. Highly recommended. 

SEREFINA CROLLA is a wife, mother and grandmother who lives between Edinburgh
and Val’ Comino in the province of Frosinone in Italy. 

Born in Picinisco in the foothills of the Abruzzii mountains, the daughter of a shepherd, she has lived an unusual life.

Question 7 by Richard Flanagan BLOG TOUR #Question7 @vintagebooks @ChattoBooks @RandomTTours #BookReview

 

This is a book about the choices we make and the chain reaction that follows . . .

By way of H. G. Wells and Rebecca West’s affair, through 1930s nuclear physics, to Flanagan’s father working as a slave labourer near Hiroshima when the atom bomb is dropped, this daisy chain of events reaches fission when a young man finds himself trapped in a rapid on a wild river, not knowing if he is to live or to die.

Flanagan has created a love song to his island home and his parents and the terrible past that delivered him to that place.

Through a hypnotic melding of dream, history, science, and memory, Question 7 shows how our lives so often arise out of the stories of others and the stories we invent about ourselves.

Question 7 by Richard Flanagan was published on 30 May 2024 by Chatto and Windus / Vintage Books. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review as part of this #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour

I have not read anything by Richard Flanagan before and I have certainly never read anything remotely like Question 7 before either. It is an astonishing piece of writing, I devoured it over a couple of evenings. 

It is part memoir, part historical fiction and a lot of reflection. The author describes it as a love letter to his parents and it certainly that, and so much more.  My copy is full of folded corners, places that I kept going back to, to re-read, or read out loud. Pondering and wondering as I did. 

Question 7 was initially asked by Chekhov in 'Questions Posed by A Mad Mathematician' (no, I've not read Chekhov either), and the actual question is; 'Who loves longer, a man or a woman?'.  Who knows? However Flanagan's portrayal of his parents and family speak volumes and one could try to answer the question using the author's family as your subjects. 

Whilst there is such a lot incorporated into this story, the main theme, for me as a reader is 'Time does not heal, it leaves scars' .... oh, so very true.  We are never healed after a loss, but we will always bear the scars of that loss. Anyone who has lost anyone, or experienced something life altering will testify to that, and Flanagan certainly bears the scars of his childhood, his parent's memories and his own very near brush with death. 

I'm a little afraid about writing this review as the author clearly states that there are good readers and there are bad. I hope that I am a good reader, maybe I got something different from this book, I will never know! 

I loved the authors recollections of his childhood in Tasmania, the fifth son of six children. This is not just a memoir about his life and family though. Running throughout the novel, we are shown how his father's survival after being a slave labourer in a Japanese war camp could quite possibly be attributed to H G Wells. We learn how Wells and journalist Rebecca West entered into an affair, and how Wells then moved abroad. It was then that he wrote 'The World Set Free', featuring a bomb to end all wars. A very similar bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, killing tens of thousands of people, yet that bomb was the reason that Flanagan's father survived. 

Question 7 raises so many questions of its own. It is beautifully written, there's tenderness and compassion, there's hurt and anger. It is contemplative and serious, and totally different to my usual reads. Enjoyed is a strange word to describe how I feel about this one, it made me think, it made me stop reading at times and sit and think. It is multi layered, very clever and really so very clever. 

Richard Flanagan has been described by the Washington Post as ‘one of our greatest
living novelists’ and as ‘among the most versatile writers in the English language’ by the New York Review of Books. He won the Booker Prize for The Narrow Road to the Deep North and the Commonwealth Prize for Gould’s Book of Fish.

A major television series of The Narrow Road to the Deep North is now in production, directed by celebrated film director Justin Kurzel (The True History of the Kelly Gang, Macbeth, Nitram), and starring Jacob Elordi (Euphoria, Saltburn, Priscilla) and Ciarán Hinds (Belfast, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy).

The Fascination by Essie Fox PAPERBACK BLOG TOUR #TheFascination @essiefox @OrendaBooks #BookReview

 

Victorian England. A world of rural fairgrounds and glamorous London theatres. A world of dark secrets and deadly obsessions…

Twin sisters Keziah and Tilly Lovell are identical in every way, except that Tilly hasn't grown a single inch since she was five. Coerced into promoting their father's quack elixir as they tour the country fairgrounds, at the age of fifteen the girls are sold to a mysterious Italian known as ‘Captain’.

Theo is an orphan, raised by his grandfather, Lord Seabrook, a man who has a dark interest in anatomical freaks and other curiosities … particularly the human kind. Resenting his grandson for his mother’s death in childbirth, when Seabrook remarries and a new heir is produced, Theo is forced to leave home without a penny to his name.

Theo finds employment in Dr Summerwell’s Museum of Anatomy in London, and here he meets Captain and his theatrical ‘family’ of performers, freaks and outcasts.

But it is Theo’s fascination with Tilly and Keziah that will lead all of them into a web of deceits, exposing the darkest secrets and threatening everything they know…

Exploring universal themes of love and loss, the power of redemption and what it means to be unique, The Fascination is an evocative, glittering and bewitching gothic novel that brings alive Victorian London – and darkness and deception that lies beneath…

The Fascination by Essie Fox is published in paperback on 6 June 2024 by Orenda Books. The hardback edition was published on 22 June 2023. As part of this paperback publication Blog Tour, I am delighted to re-share my original review of this wonderful book. 

Fans of historical fiction, with an incredible gothic feel, populated by colourful characters who creep into your head will love this. If you like Laura Purcell's writing, then this author is for you. 

Fox takes her readers back to Victorian England, the story is set in and around London, taking in the travelling fairs so popular then, along with some of the darkest corners of central London, where anything is permissible, especially if you have status and money. 

Narrated in turn by three main characters; twin sisters Tilly and Kaziah Lovell, and Theo Seabrook; an orphan brought up by a vicious uncaring grandfather who resents him and eventually puts him out on the street when he finds himself a new wife who bears him a son. 

Tilly and Kaziah may be twins, born on the same day, and facially they are very alike, but Tilly stopped growing at five years old. Forever destined to be fairy like, she's the perfect fit for her father's travelling show where he sells an elixir to gullible crowds.

Theo finds employment with Doctor Summerwell, at the Museum of Anatomy. It is here that he can continue his fascination with the freakish, bizarre and strange that began when he discovered his grandfather's atrocious private collection years ago. 

When Tilly and Kaziah cross paths with Theo, another obsession begins for him, and this will eventually lead all three of them into danger, whilst also gaining the friendship and support of amazing characters such as Captain and his 'family'.

Essie Fox is a master in all things Victorian Gothic and The Fascination is one of those books that really transports the reader. The writing and the language are beautifully structured, the characters are so well created, they almost jump from the page. The description of London in this era is just marvellous, with the dangers fully explored, and the evil and wicked deeds carried out in the name of entertainment for the wealthy. 

There's a real magical feel to this story, with hints of sorcery and lots of superstition, suspicion and twisted minds. It's a story to savour. A wonderful, evocative read. Highly recommended

Praise for The Fascination

Makes skilful use of the tropes of Victorian gothic fiction… a story of society’s outsiders seeking acceptance and redemption' Sunday Times Book of the Month

‘Mysterious, sometimes shocking, full of surprises and twists … brimming with Victorian wonders!’ Sean Lusk

‘A magical, macabre masterpiece’ A.J. West

 

‘Fascinating and immersive’ Anna Mazzola

‘Essie Fox follows in the footsteps of Angela Carter and AS Byatt with an adult fairy tale that delves into the darkest compulsions of human nature …  an opium trance of a novel, a vivid fantasmagoria’ Noel O’Reilly

 

‘Deliciously dark, full of twists and surprises’ Liz Hyder

 

‘Filled with gothic darkness and glorious hope’ Liz Fenwick

 

‘Rich, dark and heady … a glorious gothic carnival’ Kate Griffin

 

‘Truly unexpected and original’ Kate Forsyth

 

‘Beautifully researched, full of horrors and delights … a chilling, thrilling slice of Victorian gothic’ Bridget Walsh

‘A cast of characters Dickens would be proud of’ Frances Quinn

Essie Fox was born and raised in rural Herefordshire, which inspires much of her

writing.

After studying English Literature at Sheffield University, she moved to London where she

worked for the Telegraph Sunday Magazine, and then book publishers George Allen & Unwin, before becoming self-employed in the world of art and design. 

Essie now spends her time writing historical gothic novels. Her debut, The Somnambulist, was shortlisted for the National Book Awards, and featured on Channel 4’s TV Book Club. The Last Days of Leda Grey, set in the early years of silent film, was selected as The Times Historical Book of the Month. Essie is also the creator of the popular blog: The Virtual Victorian. She has lectured on this era at the V&A, and the National Gallery in London.

www.essiefox.com

The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks #CautiousTraveller @Sarah_L_Brooks @wnbooks #BookReview

 

It is said there is a price that every passenger must pay. A price beyond the cost of a ticket.

It is the end of the nineteenth century and the world is awash with marvels. But there is nothing so marvellous as the Wastelands: a terrain of terrible miracles that lies between Beijing and Moscow.

Nothing touches the Wastelands except the Great Trans-Siberian Express: an impenetrable train built to carry cargo across continents, but which now transports anyone who dares.

Onto the platform steps a curious cast of characters: Marya, a grieving woman with a borrowed name; Weiwei, a famous child born on the train; and Henry Grey, a disgraced naturalist.

But there are whispers that the train isn't safe. As secrets and stories begin to unravel, the passengers and crew must survive their journey together, even as something uncontrollable seems to be breaking in ....

The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks is published in hardback on 20 June 2024 by W&N. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review. 

First, I have to pay homage to the incredible cover of this book. It is so eye catching, with the gold and black and the image of the enormous stream train travelling towards the reader. 
I had to go and look up what genre this novel is being sold as. It is most certainly a mystery novel, but it is so much more too. Historical fiction, combined with a healthy dose of magical realism, and a smidge of fantasy, and a real steam punk feel to it. This one will appeal to so many readers. 

It's a captivating story that kept my interest from the opening pages. The novel takes place during the twenty three days of a journey on the Great Trans-Siberian Express. It makes its way from Beijing to Moscow and has to cross the land known as the Wastelands. 

The Wastelands is a place of terror, filled with terrible things that will drive anyone who gazes out at it for too long, quite mad. With large walls in both Beijing and Moscow to ensure that the lands do not encroach upon the cities, only this Express train can make the journey, and only the most brave, or the most desperate will take the passage. 

Narrated in three voices; Weiwei Zhang; know as 'the child of the train', she was born on the train and has remained on the train ever since. Weiwei knows the hiding places, she knows the secrets and she knows that the company that own the train are frightening, and corrupt. We also hear from Marya Petrovna, a first-class passenger who appear to be a widow, dressed in black and keeping herself to herself. However Marya has her own reasons for boarding the train, and it is not just to attend The Great Exhibition in Moscow. Finally there's Henry Grey. Henry is an angry man, he is a naturalist and his recent findings were debunked. He feels humiliated, but determined to clear his name and to prove his worth. 

The character creation is wonderful. Each one of the passengers is so perfectly formed and the supporting cast are magnificent too, I was especially freaked out by the two men known as the Crows! 

This is a story of exploration and discovery. As the train continues its journey, unexpected discoveries are made and there's so much to consider within the writing. The author cleverly shows the dangers of capitalism, portraying the Trans-Siberian company as greedy, responsible for the changes in the landscapes, not caring about the environment, and only interested in money in their coffers. The significance of the two large walls cannot be ignored either; this is a historical tale, with futuristic elements that are totally relevant to our world today. 

The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands is an ambitious, clever and carefully constructed novel of past and future combined. The addition of magical realism gives it an other worldly feel, yet the characters are truly human. 

Mysterious and a bit wild. Recommended by me

Sarah Brooks won the Lucy Cavendish Prize in 2019. 

She works in East Asian Studies at the University of Leeds where she also helps run the Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing. 

She has a PhD on monsters in classical Chinese ghost stories. 

She is also co-editor of Samovar, a bilingual online magazine for translated speculative fiction. 

Originally from Lancashire, she now lives in Leeds.

www.sarahbrookswriting.co.uk

Instagram @sarah_l_brooks

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