Two different books released

A CENTURY after it was first written by Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien, the new novel, Beren and Luthien, was published on June 1. The story was prompted in part by the horrors Tolkien witnessed in World War I.

The book, edited by Tolkien’s son Christopher, presents two characters – a man and an elf, which are taken from Tolkien’s fictional world, Middle Earth.

The story centres on a series of daunting quests and forbidden love, extracted from a longer novel that Tolkien revised and developed several times, according to HarperCollins Publishing.

Written after Tolkien ( above) came back from France in 1916, the book served as an “exorcism” of the appalling experiences he had on the battlefields of World War I, Tolkien scholar John Garth said in a BBC interview.

The book’s illustrations are by Alan Lee, who won an Academy Award for work on Peter Jackson’s film adaption of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Those books have sold over 150 million copies worldwide, while the Lord of the Rings films have grossed over US$1 billion (RM4.28 billion) altogether.

Tolkien died in 1973 at age 81.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, American awardwinning author John Grisham is treading new ground for his 30th novel, Camino Island, which hit shelves recently.

The author known for his legal thrillers – the next of which is planned for October – has written a heist novel that is set in the sleepy resort town of Santa Rosa on Florida’s Camino Island.

The plot follows Santa Rosa bookstore owner Bruce Cable who works as a prominent dealer in rare books, but is not averse to occasionally taking to the black market to deal in stolen books in manuscripts. Trouble in paradise ensues after young novelist Mercer Mann accepts an offer from a mysterious company to go undercover and infiltrate Cable’s literary circle and attempt to learn his secrets.

All of this, meanwhile, is tied to the heist, staged “from a secure vault deep below Princeton University’s Firestone Library. Their loot is priceless, but Princeton has insured it for $25 million”, reads the book’s description. – Agencies