The Couple Upstairs by Holly Wainwright

 

This very interesting, very clever book is almost like a distant relative of Sliding Doors; it’s not about what might have been, it’s more what has been but doesn’t have to be again. I don’t want to spoil anyone’s enjoyment of watching the story unravel but here is just a little glimpse:  Mel, the main protagonist, sees a young man who bears an uncanny resemblance to someone from her past moving into the apartment upstairs and from then on it’s as if she is watching a replay of her own earlier life.

Lorelai and Flynn are the couple upstairs and their back stories, as well as Mel’s, ensure a suspenseful, uneasy thread which never loosens and a totally unexpected turn which kept me glued to the book until the last page.

Scenes from Broome, Manchester and Sydney’s Coogee Beach are vivid and evocative. Characters are real, sometimes almost painfully so and Holly Wainwright is, obviously, one of those authors who can inhabit her characters as she writes.

I think a lot of people spend time dwelling on a part of their previous lives that they would change, if they could. What about if you saw a story from your past, involving someone just like you, playing out in the present time and, you presumed, heading for the same outcome. Would you try to step in and change the course of events? This is the beauty of fiction; it can take a what if? and run with it, seeing where it goes.

We have so many terrific writers in Australia, and Holly Wainwright is up there with the best of them. This was a brilliant read!

Published by Macmillan

The Combat Doctor by Dr Dan Pronk

 

It’s a strange world, isn’t it? While the rest of us were going about our daily existences back home in Australia, working, raising children, paying the mortgage, men like Dan Pronk were facing life and death in Afghanistan and Dan was as well responsible, as a doctor, for caring for and at times keeping alive wounded soldiers, civilians and enemy fighters alike. Dan was also a trained, highly skilled SAS operative in the thick of the action, risking his life while saving others.

Back home Dan was utterly blessed with a beautiful wife and children, loving parents and an inspirational older brother. He had the kind of life which he needed when he inevitably suffered post traumatic stress. He is a brilliant wordsmith and I’m going to have to include here some quotations from his raw, honest, profoundly moving story:

“…somewhere inside of me a psychological bucket was brimming full and threatening to overflow if I poured too much trauma into it,”

When he came back to civilian life:

 “What metaphoric armour had been stripped from me when I took my literal armour off for the last time?…”

“When all is said and done, I will not die wondering, and my place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

There are explicit descriptions of some of the injuries Dan treated in battle and it is important that he put them into his unflinching accounts. They are written with love and respect for his comrades.

Dan is a rare person who can say he has lived his life to the fullest. I thank him for his service and wish him the long and happy life he deserves.

This is a 5 out of 5 stars autobiography.

Published by Macmillan

Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra

 

The writing in this book is so good that I had to stop sometimes and take the time to enjoy it before I went on to the next page. It’s a big book so at that rate it took me a while to finish it!

The story takes in the years from the early 1930s to 1946. Maria Lagana and her mother have emigrated from Italy to Los Angeles after the Mussolini regime sentenced her father, a prominent Roman lawyer, to internment in San Lorenzo in Calabria. Maria works for Artie  Feldman who, with his twin brother, Ned, has fled Germany. Artie and Ned are the founders and major shareholders of Mercury Pictures. 

After Pearl Harbour and America’s entry into World War 2,  American born or naturalised Japanese, Italian and German citizens are interned, leaving the movie industry bereft of actors, directors and writers, many of whom came from the Hollywood emigré community.

The stories of the lives of the principal characters in the book are told separately and in detail, from Europe to America; stories of persecution, prejudice, opportunism; cynicism; creativity and, against all odds, love is in there too. There is so much to absorb it is a book that needs to be read twice which is something I will try to do when I can put aside some quiet time, one of these days.

Anyone with an interest in the early days of Hollywood and in the lives of people who lived through World War 2 will want to read this brilliant book. Anthony Marra is a master of his craft,

Published by John Murray

Dear Maggie by Gen Webster

 

I love a good historical novel featuring my home state of New South Wales and Dear Maggie by Gen Webster is really very good. It takes the form of letters  written by Andy Brander to his great-niece, Maggie, who was born on Andy’s 90th birthday in 1935, which are to be given to her on her 15th birthday.

The story ranges from the village of  Taynuilt in Scotland, the birthplace of Andy and his twin brother, Bruce, to Edinburgh, to Goulburn and Sydney in New South Wales, to Cape Town in South Africa, to Paris, to London and Nantwich in England and back to Sydney where ‘Old Andy’ is living in a rest home in North Sydney.

Andy has been a feature writer for newspapers as well as a writer of short stories and he sits in his room in the rest home filling the note books which are to comprise his life. It is a beautiful, fascinating story of hardships endured with love and compassion, of friendships and romantic loves, of much happiness and of great sadnesses. Andy writes with full self-awareness of his faults and pride in his achievements. 

There is so much in this book which made it an absolute pleasure to read. Although I was captivated firstly by the stories of New South Wales I know it will appeal to anyone who appreciates stories from the past, and especially this period from 1845 to 1945. When Andy was in England he became involved with the suffragette movement, and back in Sydney he watched the progress of the building of the Sydney harbour bridge.

Congratulations to Gen Webster on her first novel. I hope she is planning to write more!

Published by Austin Macauley Publishers

The Rising Tide by Ann Cleeves

 

The Rising Tide by Ann Cleeves is a seriously good British crime novel. The plot, the characters, the locations: perfect! This was my first Vera novel but, having seen a couple of episodes on television, I think Brenda Blethyn was perfectly cast as DCI Vera Stanhope and I had no trouble picturing her as I read.

For fifty years a group of friends has been meeting once every five years on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne to commemorate a weekend retreat they had all once attended as sixth formers; this year, however,  Vera and her team are called in to investigate the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of one of the group after their first night on the island.

From that point on the story unfolds in the most interesting way, exploring the personal stories of not only the suspects but also the investigating detectives. The writing is in turns witty and empathetic and it seems possible that all of the suspects, who at first appeared to have no motives for killing their friend, could have secrets buried in their pasts. Vera needs to find out if, or how, there could be a connection with this death and the apparent accidental death of a group member at the first reunion, forty five years ago, when her car was engulfed by the rising tide over the causeway between the island and the mainland. 

England is a treasure trove for writers of crime fiction with all its ancient historic locations and, as well, the sea closing in over the causeway is always a stunning dramatic effect in a murder mystery. The Holy Island of Lindisfarne is a perfect setting for this terrific Ann Cleeves story. It was hard to pick who might have dunnit but the solution was absolutely satisfactory.

I read a lot of crime novels and this one was a standout!

Published by Macmillan

The Smell of Roses by Elizabeth Crocket

 

Until I read this book my only knowledge of shoe shiners was from old American movies from my childhood where little boys popped their rags at train stations before breaking into a tap dance and I still remember the old song, Chattanooga Shoeshine Boy; but I probably didn’t think such an occupation existed in real life. I have now looked in Google and found there is a shoe-shining business in Sydney’s trendy Queen Victoria Building being run by an Englishman with a business degree here in Australia so Sam from this story is quite a credible character! I read also that there are still shoeshine stands at American airports although they are decreasing in number. Now that I’ve got that out of the way I can go ahead with my review.

This is a good story in the contemporary romance genre but it is more than a rom-com. Sarah has worked hard in helping her father and brothers keep their highly successful business at the top. She has come to a point in her life, however, where she is beginning to question if this is all there is for her. The story is about her progress in exploring new pathways and facing her problems with the ways she deals with stress and her relationships with her parents and brothers.

Sarah and Sam come from different worlds but their friendship is based on their similarities. Sarah’s openness with people she meets allows her to draw on their stories and put her life into perspective. 

This book is about looking for meaningfulness and personal satisfaction, and the hope that those things can be achieved. It was an entertaining, enjoyable read.