The Buzz...About Books

Pemberley Revisited

Sequels to Jane Austen's novels are often greeted by fans of Austen's works with a variety of reactions, which can range anywhere from curiousity and enthusiasm through distain and resentment.  

P.D. James (or Baroness James of Holland Park, to use her official title) is one of a few well-known authors to publish a sequel of one of Jane Austen's books.  P.D. James is one of Britain's best known detective fiction authors.  She has published 19 novels, most of which feature policeman Adam Dalgliesh. 

In Death Comes to Pemberley, she continues the story of  Pride and Prejudice, revealing the six years between the end of that book and the beginning of this story in the Prologue.   I think Austen fans will particulary enjoy this part of the book, as it is quite "Austen-esque".

The story itself begins on the eve of Lady Anne's Ball, with Jane and Bingley, Colonel Fitzwilliam, Georgiana and the Bingleys' friend Henry Alveston all visiting Pemberley.  Just as they are about to retire for the night, a chaise arrives driven quite unexpectedly.   As the galloping horses come to a stop, a hysterical Lydia Wickham throws herself out of the carriage and screams that her husband Wickham has been murdered in the Pemberley woods.   Darcy, Colonel Fitzwilliam and Alveston soon set off, only to discover  Wickham over the body of Captain Denny crying "He's dead! Oh God, Denny's dead! He was my friend, my only friend, and I've killed him! I've killed him! It's my fault".  Has Wickham really killed Denny?

Publishing a sequel to such a enduring classic is not done lightly, paricularly by a well-respected author.  P.D. James discusses her motivation for writing this story in a interview with the Telegraph and in this video interview, which took place in her home in October 2011.

 

 

Quite a number of reviews of this book have been written, including in the New York Times and Globe and Mail.  The Toronto Public Library also has it available in audiobook format.

 

Related Posts:

• Spinning Austen or Jane has the last laugh
• Jane Austen Ruined My Life
• Mashed up Fiction and the "ick" factor

Man Booker Longlist Announced

Three Canadian writers are on the longlist for this year's Man Booker Prize.  Alison Pick's second novel Far to Go tells the story of an affluent Jewish Czech family during the Nazi takeover of Czechoslovakia.  Patrick deWitt is nominated for The Sisters Brothers, a humorous Western set during the California Gold Rush.  Esi Edugyan's Half Blood Blues examines the life of a brilliant jazz musician and the racial barriers he faces in 1940s Paris.  Half Blood Blues is scheduled to be released in Canada in the fall.  

Man Booker Longlist

A Cupboard Full of Coats by Yvette Edwards

Derby Day by DJ Taylor

Far to Go by Alison Pick

Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan

Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch

The Last Hundred Days by Patrick McGuinness

On Caanan's Side by Sebastian Barry

Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

Snowdrops by AD Miller

The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst

The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers

The shortlist will be announced in September and the winner will be presented on October 18.

Bi Feiyu wins Man Asian Prize

The 2011 Man Asian Prize has been awarded to China's Bi Feiyu for his novel Three Sisters.  Set during the Cultural Revolution, the novel tells the story of three women from a peasant family who struggle to survive and to thrive in an environment where the options for women are limited. 

This year 54 novels from 14 countries were considered for the award, the most lucrative literary prize in Asia.

Related stories:

Man Asian Shortlist Announced

Man Asian Literary Prize Longlist Revealed

 

Man Asian Shortlist Announced

Five novels reflecting the diversity of Asian literature have been selected as finalists for the 2010 Man Asian Literary Prize.  First awarded in 2007, the award is presented to the best novel by an Asian writer that was either written in or translated into English. 

2010 Shortlist:
The Changeling by Kenzaburo Oe

Hotel Iris by Yoko Ogawa

Serious Men by Manu Joseph

Three Sisters by Bi Feiyu

The Thing About Thugs by Tabish Khair

Past winners:
2009: The Boat to Redemption by Su Tong
2008: Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco
2007: Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong

 

Nordic Crime Fiction

   
 
   
 

 

 

 

 

These mysteries from Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Finland are not for the faint of heart. Steig Larsson is just one of the many authors that swept in on the Nordic crime fiction wave.  Dark, psychological, and often twisted - these thrillers are the perfect read for long winter nights.

Harry Hole Series by Jo Nesbo. Detective Hole (pronounced “Her-ler’) is a high-octane, Doc-wearing, punk devotee drunkard who brilliantly tracks down the sickest serial killers between blackouts. His latest is The Leopard. [Norway]

Inspector Sejer Series by Karin Fossum. Intuitive Inspector Konrad Sejer investigates murders in a small town. Fossum's books are really, really creepy. Her latest is Bad Intentions. [Norway]

Irene Huss Series by Helene Tursten. Detective Huss works in the Violent Crimes Unit of Goteberg.  She solves grisly crimes (try The Torso, if you dare) and deals with the challenges of leading a hostile male-dominated unit. [Sweden]

 

 

 

 

 

Karen Alvtegen - her psychological thrillers are page turners - I went 20 minutes past my bus stop reading Betrayal. Her latest is Shadow. [Sweden]

Erik Winter Series by Åke Edwardson. Erik Winter is the youngest Chief Inspector in Sweden - highly intelligent, he is more than a match for the most vicious killers. [Sweden]

Erlendur Sveinsson Series by Arnaldur Indri­­đason. Detective Erlendur solves sordid murders in Reykjavik. Fun fact: Icelandic authors are filed under their first name. [Iceland]

Ann Lindell Series by Kjell Eriksson. The Last Link is the latest with Lindell, a single mother who works on the Violent Crimes Unit with the Uppsala police. [Sweden]

Varg Veum Series by Gunner Staalesen. Veum is a burnt-out ex-social worker. Hoping to make a real difference, he becomes a hard-boiled private eye. One of his early child abuse cases comes back to haunt him in The Consorts of Death. [Norway]

Frølich & Gunnarstranda Series by K.O. Dahl. Detectives Gunnarstranda and Frølich are an oddly-matched, yet formidable team solving gruesome crimes in Oslo. Their latest is The Last Fix. [Norway]

Kurt Wallender Series by Henning Mankell. One the best known authors - now a BBC series starring Kenneth Branagh as the somber Detective Wallendar. Reserve the latest: The Troubled Man.  [Sweden]

Timo Harjunpää Series by Matti Yrjänä Joensuu. Joensuu was a cop himself for 35 years before creating  Detective Harjunpää  - a detective with a strong social conscience working in Helsinki. Try To Steal Her Love. [Finland]

Pure Pleasure

Pure Pleasure: A Guide to the 20th Century's Most Enjoyable Books by British literary critic John Carey is delightful from beginning to end. Each article is about three pages long, so it is an ideal book for dipping into in an idle moment.

Carey includes novels, short stories, poetry, memoirs, criticism and books translated into English -- in short, any book that induces pure pleasure.

He made me want to read these three poetry collections. Here are some of the comments that caught my attention:

• on W.B. Yeats: Collected Poems: "Why one of our supreme poetic masters should have needed the help of beliefs that would disgrace a fairground fortune-teller is a question that takes us to the heart of the modern poet's predicament."
• on Thomas Hardy's poetry collection: Satires of Circumstance: "Melodiousness is exiled too. It is replaced...by intricate metrical variations that control your reading as surely as a hand on your throat."
• on A.E. Housman: Collected Poems: "The choice of short, common words implies suppression of the ego. Splendour is shunned. Yet there is also something majestic about wielding such power while scarcely seeming to lift a finger."

Why do girls get tattooed?

Unless you've been living on under a rock you will know that author Stieg Larsson’s "Millennuim Trilogy" is this year's publishing phenomenon and a great summer read. Sadly, Larsson died before he could enjoy all the hoopla and before someone could ask him about the tattoo thing.

In his trilogy Larsson explores many of today’s social issues making the novels a little long.  Still, how can we object to his desire to expose corporate greed and corruption, white supremacists, evil Secret Police and men who hate women.  There are perhaps too many characters with difficult Swedish names but his main characters are highly likable and intriguingly flawed.

“The Girl…” books are so popular that bookstores have devoted large sections to their display.  Naturally, critics can’t agree on whether the books are good or bad but all agree that Larsson weaves a compelling, if somewhat lengthy, tale. He really hit the big time this month when writer and humorist, Nora Ephron, wrote a parody of the series in The New Yorker magazine and called it "The Girl who fixed the Umlaut”.

It seems that the world just can’t get enough of the girl, aka Lisbeth Salander, and her tattoos. The Swedes have made a TV series and movies of all three books.  Two of which are in North American theatres now. Hollywood has its own version in the works with Daniel Craig rumored to be playing the lead.  If they have to do a remake wouldn’t Kenneth Branagh be better?  And wouldn't our own Ellen Page would make a great Lisbeth.  But would she get real tattoos or fake ones...  what if she already has a tattoo or two?

After reading the first two books I found only a hint as to why our brilliant, strong willed and somewhat silent heroine, Lisbeth [pronounced Lizbet], has so many tattoos.  There was nothing that I remember, about why she has a dragon on her back.  Each tattoo has to mean something, doesn't it? 

In the first book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [original title:"Men who hate Women"], Lisbeth gets a new tattoo just after she has she has a violent encounter with her new so-called guardian and just before she takes her revenge on him! 

In the second book, The Girl Who Played with Fire, Lisbeth actually has one of her tattoos removed.  Is she growing up or are we just finding out more about her?  Towards the end of the book Blomkvist calls Salander the woman who hates men who hate women. 

I've just started the final book, The Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest, which may reveal more about Lisbeth's tattoos... or not.  I’m not sure that it matters much now… and the whole "tattoo thing" may have been a publisher’s ploy.   I can’t help thinking that tattoos are just something Pippi Longstocking would've done when she became a teenager and then lost interest in when she grew up.  

What do you think?
 
- Jane

IMPAC Dublin Award - Shortlist selected by Librarians

The shortlist for the 2010 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award was announced April 12, 2010. Libraries in capital and major cities around the world nominate books on the basis “high literary merit".  

• The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker (Dutch)
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (Moroccan/French)
• In Zodiac Light by Robert Edric (British)
• Settlement by Christoph Hein (German)
• The Believers by Zoë Heller (British).
• Fig Tree Netherland by Joseph O’Neill (Irish)
• God’s Own Country by Ross Raisin (British)
• Home by Marilynne Robinson (American)

The winner will be announced June 17, 2010.

 

- Jane

Female Nobel Laureates in Literature

Of the 102 Nobel Prizes in Literature awarded since 1901 only 12 of these have been women.   Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940) was the first woman to be awarded in 1909. Selma Lagerlöf was awarded five years before she was elected to the Swedish Academy, the Nobel Prize awarding institution responsible for selecting Nobel Laureates in Literature.   Since the 1990s more women have been winning this prestigious prize awarded for a body of work.  The most recent is 2009 Winner Herta Müller "who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed."

Here is a link to books by Herta Müller available at through Toronto Public Library.  

Why not try Herta Müller’s The Passport.  It’s a short but gripping account of the sufferings in a German village under the dictatorship of Romania’s Ceausescu and the temptations of the West just out of reach.  The story centres on the village miller's quest to escape. All he needs is a passport.

Jane - Guest Book Buzz Host

African mysteries

In spite of the phenomenal success of the #1 Ladies Detective Agency series there have not been a lot of murder mysteries set in Africa, particularly by Africans. So I was excited to read a new mystery set in Ghana, a country I visited two years ago.

Wife of the Gods, by Kwei Quartey, is a not only a good mystery in an exotic setting but is a picture of Ghana's rural-urban divide, or to say it another way, an illustration of the conflict between the modern and the traditional. Inspector Darko Dawson lives in the capital city and works for the national police force. He is sent to a remote village to help solve the murder of a young female medical student. He finds that traditional beliefs are well-entrenched, including the system of trokosi, where young girls are offered to fetish priests (becoming Wives of the Gods) as a way to change their families' fortunes.

Dawson is a flawed character; he has anger management problems, perhaps due to his mother's disappearance some twenty odd years before. Other characters exhibit equally human characteristics. It's an engrossing read.

Other African mysteries: