Episode 18
Reading recommendations for Episode 18 of The Book Show...
On The Book Show this week with Mariella Frostrup are acclaimed novelist Maggie Gee with her danger-laced comedy My Driver; Tom Rob Smith on his debut novel of child murders in Stalin’s Soviet Union, Child 44; and the fabulous Dame Joan Bakewell who has penned her debut novel, All The Nice Girls.
To read first chapters of the books featured in The Book Show for free, visit LoveReading.co.uk for a taste of what’s coming up!
If you liked Maggie Gee’s My Driver and are after further excellent novels that attempt to breach the cultural divide, why not try these:
Aravind Adiga: The White Tiger
In this year’s Booker winner, Aravind Adiga casts a satirical eye over the realities of life amidst India’s booming economy. It’s narrated by the son of a rickshaw-puller who has escaped poverty to work as a driver for a white family. No ordinary rags to riches tale, Adiga offers a very different vision of India from the familiar romantic one.
Kate Grenville: The Lieutenant
The Lieutenant is set during the period of white settlement in Australia. When Daniel Rooke, an English astronomer, sets up an observatory in the New South Wales, he finds himself drawn into conflict. But then Rooke befriends a young aboriginal girl who starts to teach him her language. Based on real events, this is a powerful story detailing an extraordinary friendship.
If you liked Tom Rob Smith’s Child 44 and are after further chills and thrills, why not give these a go:
Martin Cruz Smith: Gorky Park
This classic 1980s novel is set during the Soviet era and introduces chief investigator Arkady Renko who finds himself with a triple murder on his hands. Three corpses have been found buried beneath the snow in a Moscow park, but why have they been horribly mutilated? What were they doing there? And why are the KGB obstructing the investigation? Crack open the vodka while Renko cracks the case.
Robert Harris: Archangel
Archangel places historian Fluke Kelso in peril when he discovers the existence of a secret notebook belonging to Stalin. Determined to find it, whatever the cost, his quest takes him from the political intrigue and violence of Moscow to the port of Archangel where secrets of the past come back to haunt the present.
If you liked Dame Joan Bakewell’s All The Nice Girls and are after further novels set during World War Two, why not have a go at these:
Mary Ann Shaffer: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
You’re sure to enjoy Mary Ann Shaffer’s novel, set in 1946. Told through letters, its main character is Juliet, a writer who is searching for inspiration for her next book. By a string of coincidences, she becomes involved with a remarkable literary society initially set up in Guernsey as a cover from the Germans. It’s a story that celebrates literature, love and the human spirit.
Noel Streatfield: Saplings
Although Streatfield is best known for writing children’s stories, she also produced books for adults, including Saplings. Written in 1945, it’s about an ordinary middle-class family who are forced to break apart from one another as war sets in. Streatfield looks at what life was really like for children forced to become evacuees, and the impact on family life.
Bedside Table
This week we explore the bedside readings of American author Tom Perotta
Edith Wharton: Ethan Frome, Summer, Bunner Sisters
Dennis Lehane: The Given Day
Sheila Weller: Girls Like Us
Fine Line
Author Philip Hensher reveals his favourite line from a book, Charles Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend
Book Club
This week we venture into a literary Aladdin’s cave in the form of Glasgow’s Foltaire and Rousseau where Eddie McGonigil recommends Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front for this week’s Book Club Read.
Write Place
We take a peek into Janice Galloway’s study where she wrote her recent memoir, This Is Not About Me.
Quests' literary heroes and heroines
Every week our guests tell us about their literary heroes and heroines. This week Maggie Gee’s favourite character comes from Hans Christian Andersen’s Snow Queen; Tom Rob Smith’s hero appears in Robert Luis Stevenson’s Treasure Island; and Joan Bakewell’s literary heroine is from William Shakespeare’s As You Like It. But who have they chosen?
