RETROS
VAL HENNESSY
GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING by Tracy Chevalier
(Borough Press £8.99, 288 pp) If ever a novel rightly deserves its ‘ five million copies sold’ achievement, it is this dazzling little masterpiece.
It tells the imagined story of the Dutch teenage servant girl who inspired vermeer’s heartbreakingly lovely painting.
Innocent Griet, from an impoverished family, works as a bullied household drudge in vermeer’s once wealthy household.
A vicious, vituperative and constantly pregnant wife, malicious children and unremitting work make Griet’s life a misery.
when vermeer notices her beauty, she falls under his spell as he secretly paints her portrait. for the artist, she is an untouchable muse, but humble Griet suffers the agony of unrequited love.
Absolute magic.
MALICE AFORETHOUGHT by Francis Iles
(Macmillan £9.99, 336 pp) enter a village teeming with snobs, gossips and nosy parkers — all classic ingredients for a gripping whodunnit. But this one differs because we know who’s going to do it from the start.
henpecked Dr Bickleigh, a mousey little man, plans to murder his nagging wife. with awful fascination we follow his murderous plans, discover his infatuation for a glamorous, wealthy newcomer, and his penchant for squalid extramarital activities.
Despite clacking tongues and several near slip-ups, it seems the death- dispensing doc will get away with it. Utterly brilliant — apart from the improbability of any woman actually fancying the furtive homicidal creep.
LITTLE MAN, WHAT NOW? by Hans Fallada
(Penguin £8.99, 352 pp) YOUNG newlyweds struggling to make ends meet is a universal theme. fallada’s 1932 classic, set in Berlin, details the familiar hazards experienced by two starry- eyed innocents — debt, unemployment, flat-finding, an unplanned baby, a diet of spuds and pea soup.
At rock bottom, sunshine and a sudden loving hug has the despairing wife looking ‘as if all the Christmas trees in her life were suddenly alight’.
Packed with wit, insight and hilarious incidents, the youthful couple’s happiness blazes from every page, suggesting that love conquers all — even nappies, sleepless nights and a motherin-law from hell.