Published in the Sunday Times
I Shot The Buddha
Colin Cotterill (Soho Press)
Book Mystery
****
This is the 11th novel featuring Dr Siri Paiboun, now retired as the best (and often only) coroner in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. A Buddhist monk disappears. He was sheltered by Siri and his wife, Madame Daeng. He left a note asking them to smuggle a fellow monk back across the Mekong River to Thailand. The pair soon find themselves not only investigating the monk’s disappearance, but also a trio of murders that took place on a single night in 1979. A whodunit with a slight supernatural twist, I Shot The Buddha shines in its wit and its multifaceted characters, set against a backdrop of the conflict between communism and spirituality. – Andrew Salomon
The Bone Sparrow
Zana Fraillion (Orion)
Book monster
*****
Madeleine L’Engle said: “If the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.” This is what Zana Fraillion has done with her heart-shredding tale of Subhi, a Rohingya refugee who lives in an Australian immigration detention centre. This young storyteller and his sidekick, a Shakespearian rubber duck, take readers into the camp where hope is a scarcity and residents yearn to be visible to a society that would prefer to forget they exist. His only connection to the outside world is Jimmie, a motherless girl, who lives on the other side of the fence. Together, through their shared love of stories, a friendship is born. A must-read for all ages. – Tiah Beautement @ms_tiahmarie
How To Sound Cultured: Master the 250 Names that Intellectuals Love To Drop Into Conversation
Hubert van den Bergh & Thomas W Hodgkinson (Icon)
Book brain
*****
Hodgkinson recently wrote in a Telegraph piece that he and his co-author had only two rules when compiling the list of philosophers, scientists, poets and artists included in this book: the first was that each name had to be one that was bandied about by intellectual show-offs and the second was that it had to be one that made one feel personally insecure because we either knew nothing about the person or because we were aware that we ought to know a little bit more. These short, punchy bios are not only unusual bits of info but are also downright funny. – Jennifer Platt @Jenniferdplatt
The One Man
Andrew Gross (Pan Macmillan)
Book thrill
***
The Nazis, the Holocaust, and the race to develop the atom bomb are subjects that never get tired: this well-researched action adventure combines all three. Despite co-authoring five books with James Patterson, Andrew Gross is a good writer, and this story is close to his religious and cultural roots. The US sends a spy to infiltrate Auschwitz and rescue a Jewish scientist, the one man with the knowledge the Manhattan Project desperately needs. Ranging from chess to electromagnetic physics and romance, with great escapes and a couple of exciting twists in between, The One Man is the perfect distraction, and not just for World War II buffs. – Aubrey Paton
Book details
- I Shot the Buddha by Colin Cotterill
EAN: 9781616957223
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- The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillion
EAN: 9781510101548
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- How To Sound Cultured by Hubert van den Bergh, Thomas W Hodkinson
EAN: 9781785780936
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- The One Man by Andrew Gross
EAN: 9781509822812
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