The other hand by Chris Cleave

Newsday calls this novel “searing….. poignant and compelling…. utterly believable and mesmerising.”  It is all that and so much more! Chris Cleave’s second novel set in contemporary Britain deals with immigration, depression, persecution and fear and the world as we know it now shown from two completely different viewpoints. It is quite simply a "must read".

There is a frontispiece in this novel that I have never ever seen before. It is a letter from the Senior Editor at Hodder & Stoughton which says, amongst other things, “that every now and then a book comes along that is so special it gives you goose bumps”. This is one of those very rare books.   Posted by Hastings Book Chat

The Other Hand was published in the USA and Canada as Little Bee.

About the Author

From Chris Cleave's website: www.chriscleave.com

Chris Cleave is 38. He lives in London with his wife and three children.

His debut novel Incendiary won a 2006 Somerset Maugham Award, was shortlisted for the 2006 Commonwealth Writers Prize, and won the United States Book-of-the-Month Club’s First Fiction award 2005.

His second novel is titled Little Bee in Canada and the US, where it is a New York Times #1 bestseller. It is titled The Other Hand in the UK, where it is a Sunday Times bestseller. It was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award.

His third novel is Gold - see our review for Gold

Chris Cleave has been a barman, a long-distance sailor and teacher of marine navigation [read a short story I wrote about there here], an internet pioneer and a journalist. 

Read about The Other Hand on the author's website: www.chriscleave.com/books/the-other-hand-little-bee

Check our Catalogue and reserve online

The other hand by Chris Cleave, 2008

Hilary Mantel wins Man Booker Prize for second time.

Hilary Mantel has won the £50,000 (NZ$99,059) Man Booker Prize for Fiction for her novel Bring up the Bodies, published by Fourth Estate. Hilary Mantel is the first woman and the first British author to win the prize twice.

At 60, she is only the third double winner alongside J.M. Coetzee and Peter Carey. She is also the first person to win the prize for two novels in a trilogy, following her success in 2009 with Wolf Hall. There is the last volume of her trilogy still to come so her Man Booker tale may yet have a further chapter.

‘Perhaps the real object of envy is not the winner – she thoroughly deserves her triumph – but the readers who have yet to open Bring Up the Bodies. They have just won a prize too.’   – The Man Booker Prize Committee

About the Author

Hilary Mantel is the author of twelve books, including her dual Man Booker Prize winners: Bring Up the Bodies and Wolf Hall which has sold more than 1.5 million copies worldwide.  Her other novels include A Place of Greater Safety, Giving Up the Ghost and Beyond Black, which was shortlisted for the 2006 Orange Prize. Hilary lives outside London.  ...From the Publishers

Read our review for Bring up the Bodies 

Check Catalogue and reserve online

Bring up the bodies by Hilary Mantel, 2012

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, 2009

All books by Hilary Mantel on our Catalogue

Publishers' Book Exp at Havelock North Library

The annual Publishers' Book Expo will be held in Havelock North Library on Wednesday 21 November, 6.45pm for a 7pm start. 

Our special guest is Janet Luke, author of Green Urban Living.

Tickets are available at all three libraries for $5.00. This includes a glass of wine and nibbles.

Pantheon by Sam Bourne

A real page turner that saw me start and finish this book within 24 hours. Sam Bourne is a pseudonym of journalist and broadcaster Jonathan Freedland. He lives in London with his wife and two children and writes for The Guardian for whom he was previously Washington correspondent. This novel draws on that background, being set both in England and America during WWII prior to the US’s involvement. It contains the expected high level espionage, clandestine meetings and secret societies on both sides of the Atlantic with an unexpected foray into the world of eugenics.

This is Sam Bourne’s sixth novel and I will be seeking out his previous works when next looking for a pacey intelligent British thriller.

Posted by a member of the Hastings Book Chat group (meets in Hastings Library)

About the Author

Sam Bourne is the pseudonym of Jonathan Freedland, an award-winning journalist and broadcaster. His first novel, The Righteous Man, was a Sunday Times Number 1 bestseller. His subsequent novels have all been top five bestsellers.  Read more from the Publisher

Jonathan Freedland's website: www.jonathanfreedland.com

Check our Catalogue and reserve online

Pantheon by Sam Bourne, 2012

Nobel Prize in Literature 2012

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2012 is awarded to the Chinese writer Mo Yan “who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary”.

"Mo Yan (a pseudonym for Guan Moye) was born in 1955 and grew up in Gaomi in Shandong province in north-eastern China. His parents were farmers. As a twelve-year-old during the Cultural Revolution he left school to work, first in agriculture, later in a factory. In 1976 he joined the People's Liberation Army and during this time began to study literature and write. His first short story was published in a literary journal in 1981. His breakthrough came a few years later with the novella Touming de hong luobo (1986, published in French as Le radis de cristal 1993)."  Read more...

Check Catalogue and reserve online

Big breasts and wide hips by Mo Yan, 2004 

The Garlic Ballads by Mo Yan, 1995

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The first book (that I remember) I can honestly say that when I finished reading I wanted to turn around and read it again from the beginning. It is beautiful writing – I wanted to prolong the pleasure and to ensure that I hadn’t missed anything, also to marvel at the author’s masterful storytelling and lyrical crafting. It is a true gem.

A couple of examples:

“The lamps along the Ramblas marked out an avenue in the early morning haze as the city awoke, like a watercolour slowly coming to life.”

“…. I leafed through the pages, inhaling the enchanted scent of promise that comes with all new books…”

Set in Barcelona just after the Spanish Civil War it tells the story of a young bookseller’s son Daniel and his discovery of a book in “The Cemetery of Forgotten Books” ( Quote: “a place where every book has a soul – the soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Unquote). The story follows Daniel’s life as he unravels the author’s life and becomes obsessed with knowing what became of him. It is beautifully told with almost as interesting sub-characters. The warmth and humanness won me over. 

Posted by a member of the Hastings Book Chat group (meets in Hastings Library)

Translation from the Spanish by Lucia Graves 2004

About the Author

"Carlos Ruiz Zafón is the author of six novels, including the international phenomenon The Shadow of the Wind, and The Angel's Game. His work has been published in more than forty different languages, and honoured with numerous international awards. He divides his time between Barcelona, Spain, and Los Angeles, California." 
Read more at his website: www.carlosruizzafon.co.uk

Check our Catalogue and reserve online 

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, 2004

All That I Am by Anna Funder

Initially difficult to follow, this story involves a confusing cast of characters: non-Nazi Germans mostly, some Jews during the time of the lead-up to WWII. The story is told, woven back and forward in time by the two main characters: Toller, from a hotel room in New York in 1939, and Ruth, from her old age now in Australia. Once I got the cast clear in my mind, around page 87 of 363 pages the story became riveting reading. All the more so as you can easily imagine how close to fact it is, borne out by the Sources Section at the back of the book.

Well worth reading, let down a little by the lack of clarity at the beginning, but perhaps the author is just over familiar with this period as her previous work is the highly acclaimed "Stasiland". Two quotes which illustrate the authors eye for detail and craft of language: " ....... London was a place where the wind blew litter around red postboxes and the parks were under lock and key." And on the English. The manners ........ fenced off unassailable and pristine areas, like the parks."

About the Author

"Anna Funder is the author of the international bestseller Stasiland, which won the 2004 Samuel Johnson Prize and was published in 20 countries and translated into 16 languages. She is the recipient of numerous awards, and a former DAAD and Rockefeller Foundation Fellow. Anna Funder grew up in Melbourne and Paris and lives in Sydney with her husband and family." ...From the Publisher 

Winner of the 2012 Miles Franklin Literary Award 
www.milesfranklin.com.au/2012/bio_annaf

www.penguin.com.au/products/9780143567516/all-i-am

Shortlisted for KOALA Awards 

Check the Catalogue and reserve online

All That I Am by Anna Funder, 2011

Write to be Published by Nicola Morgan

Despite being helpfully subtitled: “The Crabbit Old Bat whips you into shape and helps you make a publisher say YES!” - this is a no-nonsense and realist’s guide to getting your book published. You will receive advice from an experienced and successful novelist about what publishers are really looking for when they read your manuscript.

This is not a ‘how-to-write’ handbook, rather it is focused on the actual getting published side of writing. It may not appeal to those just putting pen to paper, but if you’re 90% of the way there this book will whip your untidy manuscript into something the glimmers with the shine of success.

Reviewed at the Young at Heart Book Group at Havelock North Library (YAH)

About the Author,  Nicola Morgan - the Crabbit Old Bat

"Before trusting my advice, you need to know why you should. So, here's some CV-type information to help you. (Excuse the boasting but it's what CVs have to do... And, yes, I cringe.)

I have around 90 books published, mostly in the children's and YA markets. Some of my books for younger children are best-sellers in their category, and many of my novels have made it onto various shortlists and / or won awards, including being nominated for the Carnegie Medal. I have also written hundreds of articles for magazines, and reviews for The Guardian and The Scotsman."

Read more at http://helpineedapublisher.blogspot.co.nz/p/about-me.html  

YouTube clip on the author by her daughter:

Check our Catalogue and reserve online:

Write to be Published by Nicola Morgan