BOOKS OF THE WEEK
Parasol Against The Axe by Helen Oyeyemi Faber & Faber, £16.99 (ebook £9.99) Review by Prudence Wade
Don’t pick up Parasol Against The Axe expecting a traditional story with a beginning, middle and end. Instead, it’s a masterclass in the absurd – as has become Oyeyemi’s signature. For her latest offering, she takes the reader to Prague – a city she’s lived in for a decade. It’s ostensibly written from the perspective of Prague, picking up a cast of characters along the way – including Hero, who arrives in the city for a former friend’s hen do, when another figure from their past bursts in. It’s weird and wonderful and half the time you won’t be 100 per cent sure what’s actually happening – but that’s the magic of it
Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind by Molly McGhee Fourth Estate, £16.99 (ebook £9.99) Review by Ian Parker
Jonathan Abernathy is the loser’s loser. Socially inept, all but unemployable, and with an almost comical mountain of debts – in short, he’s desperate. So desperate as to take a job with the mysterious Archive, a quasi-governmental organisation where he is employed to enter the dreams of the citizenry and clear their subconscious of the undesirable to ensure maximum productivity at work. But if we remove our fears and doubts, we leave behind half a person. Writing from her own bitter experience of corporate culture, Molly McGhee has, with acid wit and sharp prose, offered a biting update on the Big Friendly Giant for a millennial generation.
Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead by Jenny Hollander Constable, £16.99 (ebook £6.99) Review by Anita Chambers
A strong debut novel from Jenny Hollander, this a proper thriller with plenty of twists and turns. Charlie Colbert seemingly has it all – a successful magazine editor in New York with an equally successful and wealthy fiance – but she may have been more involved in a tragic college event than public record believes. A timeline that flips between past and present may not be for everyone, but it works in what is well-paced and solidly-plotted story. There are more than enough revelations to keep you turning the pages as you race to find out the truth of ‘Scarlet Christmas’ and while the ending was perhaps a little too neat, it was nevertheless an enjoyable read.
The Last Yakuza by Jake Adelstein Corsair, £25 (ebook £14.99) Review by Prudence Wade
The Last Yakuza might be a work of non-fiction, but it reads more like a thriller. Journalist Jake Adelstein has spent years embedded in Japan, particularly reporting on the dangerous criminal world of the yakuza. He wrote his memoir, Tokyo Vice, back in 2009, and The Last Yakuza looks further outwards. It follows the life of one man: Makoto Saigo, nicknamed Tsunami. He takes us on a journey through the yakuza, showing the organisation’s brutal reality. Through Saigo, we learn about the history of the yakuza and how the organisation has changed. It’s colourfully written – sometimes leaning into the drama perhaps a bit too heavily – but still making for a gripping read.