Power, passion and a bit of brutality
TVNZ presenter and book lover Corin Dann shares his summer reading list. No crime novels are included.
Red Sparrow author Jason Matthews’ Cold War spy novels were everywhere when I was growing up in the 1980s. My father seemed to be a huge fan of Fredrick Forsyth, Len Deighton, Adam Hall and John Le Carre.
So much so, that when I think of our old family home in Christchurch I immediately see the large bookcase in the living room with Deighton’s brilliantly named Hook, Line and Sinker trilogy in the middle row.
I read a few of them growing up but never really got the bug for the spy genre. Mrs D might suggest it’s because I’ve got book snob tendencies as I also won’t read her crime novels either. She might be right.
Anyway, these days it’s very unusual for me to read a spy thriller such as Jason Matthew’s Red Sparrow. In fact, I only did so because it was my mother-in-law’s recommendation and her book suggestions are always top notch.
And sure enough I found Red Sparrow to be a cracking story. What’s more, it has an incredible and highly believable level of detail and insight into modern day spying practices. Mathews was a CIA agent for many years. Interestingly, not long after I finished the book, the Russian Spy poisoning scandal broke in the UK. And whenever I read reports about that poisoning story, I always found myself thinking back to what I learned in Red Sparrow. Word of warning though. The film version of Red Sparrow with Jennifer Lawrence really sucked. And I’m no film snob.
Spoils – Brian Van Reet Spoils is one of a growing list of compelling, insightful, albeit harrowing literary fiction to be written about the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Spoils is interesting because it’s told from the perspective of a female US soldier and a young jihadist fighter in Iraq, whose paths cross when the soldier is taken hostage. It is pretty brutal at times but nevertheless utterly absorbing.
A Shout in the Ruins – Kevin Powers Former soldier Kevin Powers came to fame a few years back for his fantastic Iraq War novel, Yellow Birds. His follow-up A Shout in the Ruins came out this year but this time tells a story of the US Civil War. It feels more complicated and challenging a read than I remember Yellow Birds to be but is worth the effort. Powers seems to write with great historical depth and feeling about the conflict.
Montpelier Parade – Karl Geary I picked this up on a whim at Wellington Airport (which has an excellent new books section, I should add) and I’m so glad I did. This is a great tragic love story set in Dublin in the 1980s. It centres on an unlikely romance between a working class boy and an older rich woman. Didn’t know anything about Irishman Karl Geary before this but his writing hit me from the get-go. If you are a fan of fellow Irish writers John Banville and Anne Enright, you’ll probably like this.
Normal People – Sally Rooney Staying with the Irish theme is Sally Rooney’s Normal People. What can I say that hasn’t already been said about this fantastic and hugely popular novel? Not much other than to say it lives up to all the hype that surrounds it. I smashed it in a couple of days but was still thinking about it for weeks. I’m not clever enough to articulate why it was so good. All I can say is that during a busy year, in a busy world in a busy life, it cut through and had a very strong emotional impact on me. I liked the writing so much that I bought her first novel, Conversations with Friends and read that straight away, too. It didn’t disappoint, either.
Baby – Annaleese Jochems This twisted, dark and gripping Kiwi thriller tells the story of a young, disillusioned Auckland woman who runs away to Northland with her female yoga instructor. The main character Cynthia is an extraordinary piece of imagination and writing. Quite a few times, I’d find myself muttering aloud about something she’d done or thought. Totally authentic though. Jochems is a talent. Can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.