BOOK OF THE WEEK
CILKA’S JOURNEY
by Heather Morris, Bonnier Books, £14.99, ebook £6.47 ★★★★★ CONVICTED for corroborating with the Nazis, after spending three years at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Cilka Klein is forced to spend the next decade of her life at a Soviet gulag in the Arctic Circle. This much anticipated sequel to The Tattooist Of Auschwitz focusses on the brutal gulag system, but unlike its predecessor, this book is not based on first-hand experience, yet it is well-written, and well-researched.
It is captivating, devastating and even darker than The Tattooist. It will make you despair at the cruelty of humanity, but leave you in awe of the strength of the human spirit. It’s not necessarily a book you will “enjoy” reading – it will leave you emotionally drained by the time you have raced to the final page – but Cilka’s story is a powerful one.
AKIN
by Emma Donoghue, Picador, £16.99, ebook £8.99 ★★★★★
EMMA DONOGHUE’S bestselling
THE GIVER OF STARS
by JoJo Moyes, Michael Joseph, £20, ebook £9.99
★★★★★
STRUGGLING with the boredom of English teatime small talk and the burden of behaving ‘properly’, Alice marries American Bennett Van Cleve in an attempt to rescue herself. But upon arriving in his small hometown in Kentucky, in Depression-era America, the charms of marriage quickly dissipate, particularly in the
2010 novel Room, told the story of a mother and son living, enduring and bonding in captivity. Akin is also a two-hander; here the main characters are relatives, but meet as odd-couple strangers.
Widowed New Yorker Noah Selvaggio, almost 80, is returning to Nice having left France as a face of her new father-in-law. And so, when a chance to join the Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky, a band of women who supply books to those living remotely, she saddles up, with the strong, tenacious Margery for company.
Moyes’ easy-to-read prose is, of course, intact, but this is a novel with real depth and feeling, hinging on the support to be found in books, as well as each other.
young boy. Days before he flies he is contacted by social services and asked to look after his great-nephew Michael, whose carers are now dead or in prison. The chalk-and-cheese pair not only have to deal with their interpersonal asymmetry but also jet-lag and culture shock when they reach the Riviera.
Cutting through that disharmony is a mystery surrounding Noah’s French past. Tech-savvy teen Michael is
SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE is undoubtedly one of the UK’s history heavyweights.
In this anthology of speeches, he helps the reader experience the words of people who once shaped events and moved the people of their time. Montefiore’s passionate introduction to the anthology defines what makes a ‘good’ speech and unpacks how technological changes leave their imprint.
Each speech is contextualised against its historical and social background. It’s would make an excellent gift, or an exciting window on the past for those who love to analyse society and history.