My Year in Books 2023: May

I'm a bit late posting this one, but here is my monthly blog post with mini-reviews of the books I read in May this year. There are only three this time. And wouldn't you know? They were all library books!

In case you're interested, here are my review posts for the rest of the year: January, February, March, April

The Last by Hanna Jameson (2019)

So I started the month (as I often do) with a library book. And this one had such an intriguing and original premise that I just couldn’t resist it. The Last takes place in a remote hotel in Switzerland… shortly after nuclear war has broken out and destroyed the world as we know it. Most of the guests and staff of L'Hotel Sixieme fled when news of the apocalypse broke – some even ended their own lives rather than draw out the inevitable. A small group, though, have chosen to stay, deciding that the hotel is as safe as anywhere else. One of the survivors is Jon Keller, an American historian who decides to document their experience in case anything of the human race survives. However, this is all derailed somewhat by the discovery of a body – a young girl has been murdered, and her killer could well be among the small group of survivors sheltering in the hotel. It’s like Z for Zachariah meets And Then There Were None! Okay, it turns out it’s not quite like that, but Jameson’s novel is certainly a compelling read and very much to my taste. I couldn’t help but notice the inspiration for L'Hotel Sixieme (it’s clearly modelled on the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles, with the discovery of the girl’s body bearing grim similarities to the tragic death of Elisa Lam). But the story doesn’t quite go in the direction you might be expecting, and the denouement comes as quite a surprise!

Various Pets Alive and Dead by Marina Lewycka (2012)

Marina Lewycka’s A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian must rank among my favourite novels of all time. I also loved Two Caravans and We Are All Made of Glue, though the latter was a little bit more heavy-handed in its humour, which makes for something of a challenging read. I don’t know why it took me so long to read Various Pets Alive and Dead, but I’ve finally got around to it! It was a little bit of a surprise after the other three novels, but not necessarily in a bad way. The thing about this novel is that, compared to Lewycka’s earlier novels, it’s really rather gentle! The story revolves around Marcus Free and Doro Marchmont, radical left-wing activists who chose to raise their children in a commune. The novel is actually set years after the commune’s demise, when their daughter Clara is working as a secondary school teacher in Doncaster, and their son Serge (who’s told them he’s finishing up his PhD at Cambridge) has become an evil capitalist banker. Marcus and Doro are also raising the amazingly named Oolie-Anna (actually Ulyana), who has Down’s Syndrome and is the abandoned daughter of another commune member. The novel takes place during the 2008 financial crisis, with the family navigating the present, while remembering some of the things that happened in the commune to bring them to where they are now. It’s very readable, and really very charming, but it lacks the sucker-punch of some of Lewycka’s other writing.

The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan (2016)

And next… another library book! I got this one out because last month I read another of Ruth Hogan’s books – Queenie Malone’s Paradise Hotel – and really enjoyed it. Even though it’s not my usual genre, I thought Hogan’s writing was so good that I wanted to read more of her work. The Keeper of Lost Things is the story of Anthony Peardew, a man who collects things that people have lost (a single glove, a child’s hair bobble). Anthony has lost something himself, you see, and this is his way to make up for this. I say this is Anthony’s story, but it’s really the story of Laura comes to work for Anthony and to whom he leaves his house and his collection when he dies. Anthony’s bequest comes with the condition that Laura must do everything she can to reunite the lost things with their owners, and in this she is helped by Freddy, Anthony’s attractive gardener, and Sunshine, a young woman with Down’s Syndrome who lives nearby. Intertwined is the story of Eunice and Bomber, but I won’t spoil that story too much or reveal how the two tales intersect (you’ll work that out as you read it!). The Keeper of Lost Things is definitely a bit of a lighter read that I would normally choose, but Hogan’s writing really is excellent. The central premise initially reminded me of Kate Atkinson’s Behind the Scenes at the Museum, but the story unfolds in quite a different (less painful) way.