What we Read in March
War and the 20th century
Two captivating historical novels are making waves. Alice Winn's debut, In Memoriam, takes us to the Western Front of World War I. A powerful blend of love story, lament for the war's devastation, and poetic tribute to the fallen this deeply moving novel is also a testament to the enduring power of love. French author and actress Anne Berest takes a more personal approach delving into her own family history in The Postcard. This fictionalized account follows her family's journey from 1920s Russia to their murders at Auschwitz. As a novel, The Postcard is haunting and visceral. As a history book, it's informative and revelatory, and as a memoir it's deeply personal. Put together, it's a stunning and vital piece of one of humanity's darkest moments.
Essays for everyone
I was also captivated by vastly different but also intersecting works of non-fiction from climate change to food and anxiety. In End Times, Rebecca Priestly travels the length of the West Coast during the pandemic, talking to the locals and taking a 'state of the nation' look at the area, while reminiscing on her time as an evangelical Christian in the early 1980s. The collection spans religion and belief, climate change and the natural world, geology and mining and the future of the region.Rebecca May Johnson cooks the same recipe 1000 times in Small Fires, An Epic in the Kitchen, while philosophising on sausages, Nigella Lawson, The Odyssey and feminism. Curious and deep. In 2012, author, poet and blogger Melissa Broder chronicled her year of intense panic attacks via an anonymous Twitter account. In So Sad Today she delves deeper into the themes of mental health, sex, relationships in the internet age, addiction and marriage. While many of these essays are quite challenging and dark, I really enjoyed Broder's candid approach to these topics, especially her later works where she talks about caring for her chronically ill husband. Not for the faint of heart.
Magical realism
When Kate Atkinson dabbles in speculative fiction, I will read it (Life After Life)! In Normal Rules Don't Apply, Atkinson has collected a genre defying set 11 short stories. A man who bets on a talking racehorse, a ghostly secretary who remembers her murder and a fairytale queen who makes a promise she cannot keep are all linked throughout this spellbinding and very clever collection. I wanted more.
Mia, raised in a suffocating commune, finds liberation within the pages of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. The novel's defiance against societal control sparks a daring escape – a dash under the cover of darkness to the local library where the librarian offers sanctuary. But freedom comes with a chilling shadow. Haunted by the commune leader she calls Father, Mia builds a new life consumed by Hawthorne's works. She fixates on how a book written centuries ago could mirror her childhood pain so perfectly. A chilling question emerges: Did Hawthorne somehow chronicle her life, or could something even more fantastical be at play? If what you're missing from your reading life is the intersection of cults, time travel and Nathaniel Hawthorne, then The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman is the book for you.
Being a mother is hard
Thomasin Sleigh's The Words for Her, Jodie is a single mother living in Whakatāne, raising her six year old daughter Jade and looking after her blind father, for whom she 'colours' - filling in the world that he can no longer see. Slowly at first, but with increasing frequency, people around the world are vanishing from all digital record. These 'gaps' can be seen by the naked eye, but cannot be recorded or photographed. This quickly creates an us vs them society, with the gaps on one side and those who are still 'present' on the other. As the phenomenon spreads, society begins to collapse and Jodie and Jade find themselves at an unexpected epicentre. The Words for Her is an enigmatic and elusive pandemic novel that explores humanity's relationship with our own image, our digital footprint and our future online while reflecting many of our own experiences in the pandemic.
Haunted by grief, Erica seeks solace in a remote coastal New South Wales town, closer to her imprisoned son. Obsessed with building a labyrinth in her garden, she delves into a past shadowed by a childhood in the mental institution run by her Father. The labyrinth becomes more than a garden feature; it's a physical manifestation of her struggle to navigate a life fractured by family estrangement, loss, and the complexities of her son's actions. As Erica works with a young stonemason, the labyrinth's purpose unfolds, offering a path not just through the garden, but also towards a deeper understanding of herself and the tangled threads of her family. The Labyrinth by Amanda Lohrey is a captivating exploration of grief, resilience, and the enduring power of a mother's love.
