Time for a look at the new arrivals on the Cornflower bedside table (Mr. C. being deep in his millionth re-read of the entire P.G. Wodehouse canon - don't let that John Fuller commentary on W. H. Auden fool you as it's just for show, I reckon.....). Anyway, back to the semi-serious side of the bed, and here's what's on top of the pile:
Gillian Slovo's novel Ice Road
was shortlisted for the Orange Prize, now far from Russia she's looking at the question of belonging and fitting in in her new book Black Orchids
. Beginning in 1946 Ceylon (as it then was) moving to post-war Britain bound in fog and prejudice and then back to the heat and vibrancy of 1970s Sri Lanka, this is the story of a mixed-race marriage and a family set apart by an unaccepting and narrow-minded community.
Jhumpa Lahiri's short story collection Unaccustomed Earth
takes it title from this quotation from Nathaniel Hawthorne: "Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and replanted, for too long a series of generations, in the same worn-out soil. My children have had other birthplaces, and, so far as their fortunes may be within my control, shall strike their roots in unaccustomed earth." The stories explore the heart of family life and immigrant experience and "are infused with eloquent warmth and lyrical simplicity", and from the reviews I've read they promise much and do not disappoint.
Lastly, a new novel by Alexander McCall Smith, published very fittingly on Remembrance Day. La's Orchestra Saves the World
begins in Suffolk in 1939 when La, recovering from a the heartbreak of a failed marriage, forms an amateur orchestra. This is "an inspiring, gloriously atmospheric and deeply affecting novel which not only celebrates the nature of love and friendship but also explores the character of a nation at war and the extraordinary healing power of music." I can't wait!
