Egg & Spoon
Gregory Maguire (Candlewick Press)
****
Book monster
Like a set of Russian nesting dolls, Maguire offers up a series of interleading vignettes woven within a larger narrative. Set in Tsarist Russia, this tale of an aristocrat inadvertently switching places with a peasant girl enthralls as adventures await both girls. It’s populated by fantastical beasts and historical and folkloric characters, sprinkled with acute reflections on socioeconomic class, global warming, gender roles and mass consumerism. The slightly old-fashioned tone could prove somewhat tedious but perseverance is rewarded. — Ayesha Kajee @ayeshakajee
Midnight Sun
Jo Nesbo (Penguin Random House)
****
Book thrill
The master of Nordic crime takes a sideways step into fable with this short (for Nesbo) novel about a man trying to hide from his criminal past beneath the relentless gaze of a sun that never sets. Nesbo makes the forsaken landscape of the far north a bleak and menacing place peopled by stern religious fundamentalists, but this is at heart a love story in which the lost hero has his path illuminated by a simple country woman. It’s not all poetry and redemption, however. Nesbo wouldn’t be Nesbo if there wasn’t a bit of gore and violence involved. Let’s just say you will never look at a dead reindeer the same way again. — Sue de Groot @deGrootS1
Wine, Women & Good Hope: A History of Scandalous Behaviour in the Cape
June McKinnon (Zebra Press)
****
Book buff
A wonderful romp through the Cape’s colonial heritage, this book exposes the feet of clay among many a puffed-up ancestor. McKinnon sifts through memoirs, diaries and historical documents to record the often overlooked stories of the women and servants sent to augment the Cape colony. She threads these through the narratives of the men we learnt about at school and humanises those dull embodiments of textbook archetypes. McKinnon does not shy away from how awful the women’s lot was, but also highlights their bravery and their ability to adapt to a rough country where the colonists wore only a semblance of familiar manners and culture. — Cat Hellisen @CL_Hellisen
Playing with Fire
Tess Gerritsen (Bantam Press)
****
Book thrill
Gerritsen’s Rizzoli and Isles books are solid thrillers, but they seem watered down compared to her stand-alone novels like this. Besides being a physician, Gerritsen is also a musician. She composed the haunting music that is at the centre of the book and recommends listening to it while reading (find out how to download it here). Julia finds a piece of music, Incendio, in an antique shop in Vienna. When she gets home and plays the piece, it drives her three-year-old daughter into a murderous frenzy. We are then taken to pre-war Vienna to find out why the music is cursed. — Jennifer Platt @Jenniferdplatt
Book details
- Egg by Gregory Maguire
EAN: 9781406361087
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- Midnight Sun by Jo Nesbo
EAN: 9781846559914
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- Wine, Women and Good Hope: A history of scandalous behaviour in the Cape by June McKinnon
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EAN: 9781770229860
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- Playing with Fire by Tess Gerritsen
EAN: 9780593075302
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