The cellist of Sarajevo | Steve Galloway

Superb! This is an excellent book, sad and moving and worth every minute I spent reading it.
I had heard of this book for ages but never got round to reading it. I'm pleased I did for a few reasons: it's very well written, Galloway captures the nature of the people living under siege in Sarajevo and it is amazing to think it happened in the 1990's. The city was under siege from 1992 to 1996.

On the 27th May 1992 mortar shells killed 22 people who were waiting to buy bread. For the next 22 days Vedran Smailović, a renown cellist, played Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor at the site of the deaths to honor the 22 victims. Although the book uses this as one of the main events, the rest is a fictionalized account of life in the city.

We have three narrators and their lives are incredibly well portrayed, you feel like you are right there, under siege. Arrow is a woman who is a sniper. Kenan, a father who is simply trying to get fresh water for his family. Dragan, an older man who is trying to cross an intersection so he can get some bread.

Arrow speaks of why she is a sniper and how she can kill the 'men in the hills' with a clear conscience, although she has rules and parameters in place for her own sanity. Kenan's walk to the water spring takes all day and he has to cross the line of fire repeatedly to get it. He speaks of his fear and his tiredness and the constant struggle against those who are making a lot of money on the black market selling goods to the trapped population. And Dragan, waiting two hours to try and get across an intersection. He just wants to get bread but is incapacitated by the knowledge that snipers may be waiting for someone to cross that street. Or maybe not. The uncertainty and  gamble that each step brings is incredible  He is torn as he sees people killed, does it make it safer to cross or increase the odds he will be hit?

It must have been  traumatic and exhausting to live through the siege and the destruction of the city. I would like to do some more reading about the conflict and its aftermath.
This book was a good place to start.

Gentlemen and Players | Joanne Harris

I found this an unusual book, having not read Joan Harris before I'm not sure if it is characteristic of her story telling or not. I was never quite sure what kind of story I was reading until well into the plot. I would call it a subtle who-dunnit.

It is set in an English private school (not state run) in a fairly typical small English town. The tension between the upper class and the lower public class is the main theme of the book. Our narrators are one of the Masters in the private school and Julian, who attends the State school although his father is the caretaker of the private school. 

Julian is drawn to the bookish, privileged life of the private school and through stealth infiltrates the system. He adopts the uniform (found in lost property boxes) and sits in on classes. He's smart and loves learning and loves being in control of this 'game'. 

As the story unfolds we discover Julian's infatuation with Leon, who is not currently around. It takes most of the book to discover what happened to him. 

The story moves between Julian's childhood and adulthood, a story which as it unfolds tends to weave and dodge. 

Overall I enjoyed this book although I felt a bit bogged down in the middle but once  through, the story gains momentum to a fast paced ending with lots of twists. The main twist is not hard to guess but how we get there is sometimes surprising. Worth reading. It's made me want to read her other novels.

Wulf | Hamish Clayton

What an amazing book! Newzealanders write extremely well about their own landscape and this is a great example. You can see the mists, smell the bush and feel the dampness in your bones.

This is the story of Te Rauparaha, a native chief who was in the North and South islands of NZ in 1820'-1840's. He was a fierce warrior and proud of his tribe ( Ngati Toa) and his land. In the story he persuades the captain and crew of the Elizabeth to carry his warriors from Kapti Island to Banks Peninsula to engage in slaughter and conquest. He also guised his people through the North Island's desert like landscape to settle further south. The descriptions of the landscape endow it with almost supernatural powers.

There is a lot of early NZ history in this book but not in a history-lesson kind of way. The main portrayal and telling of Te Rauparaha's life and conquests is chilling and mesmerising.
 Incredibly well written it is one of the best NZ novels I have read. Clayton is in his early twenties and a student, what amazing talent.

Can't wait to read more of his work.

The world we found | Thrity Umrigar

I really enjoyed this book. It gives the reader an insightful look into modern Indian culture and its juxtaposed with modern American life.
The story develops around four women who have been friends from childhood, have drifted apart in adulthood but are called together by Armaiti who is diagnosed with cancer. Armaiti wants the four to be reunited before she dies.
 Laleh is happily married to her college sweetheart. Kavita is a lesbian in a stable relationship and has a great career as an architect. Armaiti is the rebel who fled India to America and married an American. Nishta married her college sweetheart who has become a devout and strict Muslim and will not allow her to travel with the others.
The plot is simply the journey the four have to take to come to terms with their past and the suture they must face without Armaiti. It is well paced and interesting and the characters really are well developed. They each have an individual story to tell and they have a shared story that is evolving.

Mr Rosenblum's List | Natasha Solomons

What a great little book this turned out to be! Don't be put off by the cover (twee) or the comment by Paul Torday saying "charming"....It is a much better book than that. This one we won't judge by the cover.
Sadie and Jakob Rosenblum are refugees arriving in England fleeing from Nazi Germany. They have left their Jewish relatives behind and realize as news of the war unfolds that their families have been murdered in camps and ghettoes.
Upon arrival in England Jakob is handed a pamphlet with the title: While you are in England, Helpful Information. And it prescribes how to become assimilated into English life and accepted as an Englishman. Jakob sets his hear on this and follows the list meticulously, making helpful annotations and additions to the list as the years go on. The last item on the list is to become a member at a golf club. And this he cannot do as he is rejected because he is a Jew.
Parallel to his story we have Sadie's story which is one steeped in sadness and the inability to assimilate because she is a German Jew. She has lost her family and mourns them deeply, she has an accent and a funny turn of phrase given her first language is German and she cannot relate to the Englishwomen she meets. She is beautifully drawn in the narrative and I feelt saddened by her, wanting her to be able to come to some place of peace.
Jakob decides to buy some land and build his own golf course and the main part of the book is the going about of this venture. Sadie is dragged from London to the country and has to reintegrate herself all over again. She moves deeper into depression and grief which push her outside, literally. She discovers the garden surrounding the cottage, learns the seasons, rediscovers her mother's cookbook and puts herself back together through the gentle pace of living in the country.
Jakob creates the first few holes by hand, obsessed with Bobby Jones, the creator of Augusta. The locals object and oppose the golf course and shun Jakob and Sadie because they are Jewish but in the end come to admire the doggedness with which Jakob pursues his dream of becoming the member of a golf club, and the endless baking Sadie undertakes to work out her sorrows.
Yes, there is a happy ending of sorts which I felt the characters richly deserved.

I loved the experience of reading this book, it's not twee or charming or chick lit. It touches on many deep emotions, the plight of refugees and the deepest desire we carry in us of wanting to belong.

English Passengers | Matthew Kneale

I  have mixed feelings about this book. There is no doubt that is well written and that there  was a lot of research prior to writing the story, but...
The basic outline is that of a group of English passengers who charter a ship to sail from England to Tasmania in the 1800's determined to prove that the Garden of Eden was actually in Tasmania not the Middle East. The captain of the ship is involved in smuggling goods in his tailor made ship with secret compartments. And the third group in the story are the Aboriginal people who are invaded and subjugated by the colonials throughout Australia.
The story is told chapter by chapter by characters in the various groups and others (like the Governor's wife) who has a few chapters when the Governor is involved in the narrative.  The pace and voice of each chapter reflects the narrator and this got a bit tedious after 200-300 pages. It was like going over speed bumps when you just wanted to know what was going to happen next.
Although I think it's a good novel to have read, I don't think it will appeal to a lot of readers who would find it hard to keep going, especially through the mid section which is very slow. Could have been a shorter novel, and still told a very intriguing story.

A beautiful place to die | Malla Nunn

The first of the Emmanuel Cooper series, I was eager to see if I was onto another good crime series. Set in South Africa it encompasses many complex issues: apartheid, land ownership, white vs white conflicts  forbidden love, corruption...A bit of everything.

I have travelled in Africa and recognised the landscapes beautifully described by Nunn. The story has pace and kept me interested. I haven't read any more in the series but will try and get to it sometime soon. Not sure it has the stamina to reinvent itself sustainably as so many issues were touched upon in this novel. Will give it a try, the writing is great.

The Redbreast | Jo Nesbo

Nesbo is a crime writer of renown, no need to introduce him and his 10 or so crime novels. A few years ago I started reading crime novels as a break from 'real' reading. Even though I read them quickly and don't expect a lot from them, I try and find authors who can actually write well and tell a story.
I find Nesbo to be inventive and spinner of a good yarn. This one took about a third of the book to really get into the story but then it was easy to get hooked. This one and The Snowman are my two pick of his novels.
Set in Oslo, with Harry Hole as flawed main detective, we have two stories threaded through the book. One is set in WW2 where Norwegian soldiers defect and fight for the Germans. And in modern day a security assignment goes horribly wrong and implicates Hole.
A very specific kind of sniper amo is found in a forest and the rifle traced to an old man...There is a Neo-Nazi element in Oslo underworld who seem to be involved as well. The novel is written as a clever puzzle and kept my attention to the end.

The Snowman is another Nesbo worth reading. It involves, among other things, a snowman. You will never innocently look at a snowman again.