BOOKMARK May 2024 Book recommendations
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May titles
All books are available from Waterstones in Perth and Adventure Into Books in Blairgowrie.
Caledonian Road by Andrew O'Hagan
(Faber & Faber, 2024)
Fiction
Caledonian Road by Andrew O’Hagan (ISBN: 9780571381357, hardback). O’ Hagan’s previous book, Mayflies, was compelling, emotionally hard-hitting and powerful. From the early reviews, I’m expecting nothing less from this new story, which charts the rise and fall of Campbell Flynn: a privileged, possibly naïve, celebrity intellectual, who is exposed and unprotected when scandal hits and he falls very publicly from grace.
One Hour of Fervour by Muriel Barbery
(Gallic Books, 2024)
Fiction
Muriel Barbery: One Hour of Fervour (ISBN: 9781913547608, hardback), which tells the story of Japanese art dealer Haru, and a dreadful promise he was forced to make that kept him from his daughter, Rose. Her story was told first, in The Single Rose, set in Kyoto after Haru’s death. Barbery writes deftly of love – never soppy, sometimes unflinching, usually kind - and I can’t wait to meet Haru and learn more of his enduring love for a daughter he can never meet.
A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
(Pan Macmillan, 2020)
Historical Fiction
A Thousand Ships (ISBN: 9781509836215, paperback), which is a retelling of the Trojan War, from the perspective of the women, girls and goddesses involved.
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
(Penguin, 2025)
Fiction
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray, which is now out in paperback (ISBN: 9780241984406). Winner of the Nero Book Award for Fiction 2023, this is described as a ‘tragicomic triumph’. Set in Ireland, it plots out the trials and tribulations of the Barnes family, as bankruptcy looms, a marriage hangs by a thread and past mistakes rear their ugly heads.
No one Saw a Thing by Andrea Mara
(Penguin, 2024)
Fiction
No One Saw a Thing by Andrea Mara (ISBN: 9781804990780, paperback). Described as ‘suspenseful’ and ‘thrilling’, the panic starts when two little girls, aged six and two, get on a busy tube, just ahead of their distracted mum, and just as the doors close behind them. Panic goes off the scale when only the toddler is found and taken off the train at the next station. Has Faye got lost? Been taken by a stranger? Been taken by a friend? The plot twists and twists, and builds and builds.