Boundaries of Choice: Five Fiction Reads

It’s been some time since I last wrote about books. This post reviews five - or perhaps four and a half - novels that I have recently read. My choices span continents and genres to suit a variety of tastes but they share one thing: characters facing major, life altering choices.

We begin in the UK, where crime writer A.A. Dhand introduces us to the complicated world of a new “hero” in his challenging yet gripping novel, The Chemist. From there, Lea Ypi’s book delves back into Albanian history, exploring a diverse, many-layered, but now disappeared world. This one is the “half” - all is explained in the review below. Next, Ben Markovits’ latest novel tells the story of an unplanned road trip by a disappointed, middle-aged basketball fan.

Finally, we look at two titles from contemporary Indian writers. Both are second novels following acclaimed debut titles. Building on the success of a first book is a well-known challenge that authors sometimes fall short on, but that’s definitely not the case here.

A.A. Dhand - The Chemist

 

In this, his sixth full-length novel, Dhand introduces us to a new leading character. Idris Khan, the chemist of the title, runs a pharmacy on a rundown Leeds estate. His ex-wife, Rebecca, is one of dozens of locals who visit him every day for their methadone prescription. She fails to turn up one day and his resulting search for her draws him into a violent turf war between two powerful drug gangs. 

 

As the story progresses, Idris is provoked to commit terrible acts from loyalty and necessity. He is forced into a series of decisions that challenge both his professional oath and his personal morality, engaging in violence and using his knowledge to outwit the gang leaders. 

 

Dhand’s style creates a sense of urgency, making it difficult for the reader to resist starting the next chapter and then another one. His writing is gritty, realistic and brave. He does not shy away from tackling difficult issues, including racism and prejudice between minority communities and the impact of cultural practices on the lives of his characters. He also writes with authority. He comes from a British Asian background, has a Master of Pharmacy qualification, and several years of experience in the profession. 

 

The Chemist is not a comfortable read. The scenes that play out on the bleak housing estates on the city’s periphery are particularly dark, yet authentic. The estate residents include students, methadone users, drug gangs, the vulnerable and exploited and “ordinary” people, just trying to survive against overwhelming odds. Particularly memorable are Al-Noor, a Syrian refugee trying to keep his young son away from malign influence; Amy, a young woman drawn into prostitution and Rebecca whose commitment to helping others places her in danger.

 

Brave, authentic, gripping, The Chemist is a great addition to the British crime writing canon. It is also just the beginning of Idris Khan’s story, as he features in Dhand’s new book, The Kingpin, due out in July.

 

Lea Ypi – Indignity: A Life Reimagined

 

Indignity is not, strictly speaking, a novel. Author Lea Ypi describes it as a re-imagined telling of her grandmother’s life story in Ottoman Salonica and in pre-Second World War and then communist Albania. This reimagined approach, involving detailed dialogue between characters real and imagined, led me to include Ypi’s book in a list of fiction reads.

 

She began researching this story after seeing a photograph on social media of her grandmother, Leman, honeymooning in the French Alps in 1941. This was despite having been told that all evidence of her younger days had been destroyed during the early part of Albania’s communist period. Intrigued, she began researching her family history in archives opened to the public following the fall of the old regime in the 1990s.  

Leman is portrayed as a resilient, talented, determined woman who manages to survive some of the most turbulent events of the 20^th century. Her story takes place against the backdrop of forced population exchanges between Greece and Turkey, the Italian and German occupations of Albania during the Second World War, the deportation of Salonica’s Jews, and the establishment and collapse of one of the world’s most repressive communist regimes. Historical characters also appear, including communist leader Enver Hoxha and Albania’s first and last monarch – King Zog. Real life British spy Vandeleur Robinson also features in the story. 

 

The “fictionalised” chapters are used to develop characters and demonstrate changing political moods and allegiances, and to show how historical events impact and are reacted to by Leman. They are interspersed with the author’s experiences in various archives as she searches for the truth about her grandmother. Ypi also introduces us to Leman's social milieu – that of writers, artists, politicians, revolutionaries and socialites from different backgrounds. Many were learned, multi-lingual people of various ethnicities and religions, representing a culture that no longer exists.

 

Women feature strongly in the story, some of them breaking long-held taboos and customs, but others fall prey to them. Her feminist aunt, Selma, for instance, commits suicide rather than go through with an arranged and unwanted marriage. This act highlights the meaning behind the book’s title, a refusal to surrender to the indignity of a forced existence. Indignity matches the sharp observation of Ypi’s acclaimed first book, Free, (so good I’ve read it twice) and consolidates her position as a major talent in modern biographical writing.

 

Ben Markovits - The Rest of Our Lives

 

Tom Layward, a 55-year-old law professor, drives his daughter to Pittsburgh to start university, then rather than heading home to his wife in New York, heads west. He spends several days visiting his brother, his son, an old girlfriend, eating at roadside diners and playing basketball with strangers. 

The background to this unplanned road trip is that twelve years earlier, his wife Amy, had an affair and Tom had resolved to leave her once their children had grown up. After dropping his daughter, he remembers this promise to himself and takes off. 

 

The trip forces him to confront problems at work, hidden health issues (which will later assume greater importance), an unsatisfactory relationship with his son, and to confront various other disappointments. He sums all of this up when describing his marriage, saying: “What we obviously had, even when things smoothed over, was a C-minus marriage, which makes it pretty hard to score much higher than a B overall on the rest of your life.” How is he to face his remaining years?

 

Tom is disappointed with life but is still likeable. He finds it easier to make connections with strangers rather than to communicate with close family and old friends. This may be because some of those he meets in bars, diners and on basketball courts, are also looking for something from their lives although they don’t quite know what. These and other characters are well-drawn, including his wife Amy, who makes several appearances in the book, has her own disappointments and is not written as a minor character.

 

Basketball features largely in this story. We learn that he was once a player (as was the author) and planned to write a book on the sport. Whilst on the road he decides to resuscitate this project and to this end, makes notes and collects anecdotes from strangers, but admits to himself that the book will never be written. This involves the use of a few “techie” basketball words. Look them up or don’t – I didn’t but this did not impact on my enjoyment. Tom’s challenge is to come to terms with past failures and to embrace his remaining years with hope.

 

The Rest of Our Lives was shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize.

 

Rahul Bhattacharya – Railsong

 

Charu is the daughter of an inter-caste marriage; her father, a railway worker, renounced his Brahmin status and family name to marry a woman of lower social standing. He becomes involved in left-wing political activism which forces the family to flee to the safety of a tribal village, making the first of many moves and journeys that will chart Charu’s life.

 

Railsong describes a double journey, one physical, the other personal. The former tracks her moving from Bihar to Bombay, as well as travelling across the country to fulfil her duties as a welfare officer for the Indian Railways. The latter deals with the sexism and opposition she encounters from more senior male colleagues. It also charts her emotional growth as she forms friendships, deals with office politics and eventually marries. Her story is one of transience and evolution, living in temporary accommodation, buffeted by events in the lives of others and by rapid change in a newly independent country. 

 

The passage of time is marked by the ten-yearly census in which Charu notes the rapidly expanding population and is conscious of her “smallness” set against such vast numbers. Historical events anchor the timeline – the assassinations of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi; the demolition of the Babri Masjid and various strikes and protest movements. 

 

The role and position of women in Indian society is a constant theme of the book. We see an aunt condemned to a life of servitude when she becomes a widow. When Charu's mother dies, the aunt is expected to move in with the family, to cook, clean and care for them. The possibility of her re-marrying or living independently is unthinkable. In contrast, Animesh, Charu’s father, is pressured to re-marry. These themes culminate in Charu’s wedding. Breaking with tradition, she chooses a love marriage. Already controversial, her entry into a Gujarati family brings new challenges – shared faith but different traditions, food and language.

 

Though she continues to work, she faces hostility from her conservative in-laws, who oppose her independence. Her husband, although supportive, is unable to stand up to his parents. He advises her that she must: “dissolve like sugar in milk,” giving up her own identity to blend-in and make the household run smoothly.

 

Railsong tells the story of one woman’s resilience, as she refuses to “dissolve” into her surroundings or surrender to the oppressive and unreasonable expectations of others.  Charu sets her personal struggle against that of a newly independent country as it tries to balance tradition with modernity. Bhattacharya has an engaging style, with well-drawn, believable characters and superb historical and social contextualisation, making this epic double-journey a moving, irresistible addition to modern Indian fiction.

 

Megha Majumdar – A Guardian and a Thief

 

Megha Majumdar’s second novel, like its predecessor, is set in her home city of Kolkata. Described as a moral thriller, the story takes place a few years in the future as law and order begins to break down, and the population struggles with flooding and extreme heat.

 

Ma, her two-year old daughter Mishti, and her elderly father (referred to as Dadu), plan to leave India to join her husband who is already settled in the USA. They have their passports and visas ready but shortly before their departure date lose everything in a burglary. Ma then sets out to recover or replace her documents, triggering a series of events that lead to a shocking denouement.

 

One of the key themes of the book is an examination of human responses to adversity. Dadu loves the city and the kindness and human connections it was once known for. He exemplifies this through giving precious cold water to a rickshaw driver. But kindness may only last so long in extreme situations, and we also see him stealing an orange from a starving child to feed his own granddaughter. 

 

The other main character is Boomba, a young man who leaves his village to find work and to support his parents and little brother. He finds a series of jobs but like Ma, he too meets disaster and turns to crime, including theft. The reader may wish to consider how society views Boomba’s stealing to help his family survive, against that of Dadu who despite the hard times, is still much better-off. For both of them, love and desperation blur the lines between right and wrong. 

 

The story is interspersed with telephone calls between Ma and her husband in the USA. Neither of them tells the full story of their condition and situation, preferring to keep the truth to themselves, hoping to resolve their mounting problems rather than to reveal them.

 

Majumdar’s first novel, A Burning, became a New York Times best seller and was also shortlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Fiction. It was my favourite book of 2020. Repeating success with a second novel is always a challenge, but I read A Guardian and a Thief in two sittings, anxious to know the outcome of Ma’s and Boomba’s struggle for survival. The book has also received critical acclaim and a Carnegie award. 

It would be interesting to know what you think of these selections, or to hear about what you’ve been reading recently. Let me know in the comments!

Best Reads of 2021 Part 2 Contemporary Indian Fiction

This is the second of two posts on my favourite reads of 2021. This time I focus on contemporary fiction by writers of Indian heritage. My selections include four first novels, all of them by women writers and a third novel by a prominent British-based writer. The stories are set in Kolkata, Kashmir, Uganda, Punjab and London, but their themes are universal.  They address some common issues - loss, expulsion, rejection and displacement, but also hope and strength in the face of adversity. I am grateful to the reviewers of  The Scroll for drawing my attention to these and several other memorable books during 2021.

Much has been written about the partition of India, particularly about events in the Punjab. Less well known, is the equally violent and devastating partition of Bengal. Victory Colony 1950, Bhaswati Ghosh's first novel, is set in the aftermath of those events, when continuing inter-communal violence caused many Hindus to leave what was then East Pakistan, and is today, Bangladesh.

Amala, and her younger brother, Kartik, arrive in Kolkata's Sealdah Station having fled their home in the hope of a safer future. Within moments of their arrival, they lose each other.  Kartik disappears and Amala reluctantly accepts help from Manas Dutta, a young volunteer, who takes her, together with several other new arrivals to a government refugee camp. This is Bijoy Nagar, the Victory Colony of the title. The refugees receive little official help and some feel no more welcome in India than they were in Pakistan. Manas and his friends help them find work, supplement their meagre rations and try to provide medical assistance. Some of the women take on low-paid piece work and others become the prey of would-be abusers.

Manas comes to admire Amala for her tenacity in trying to make the best of her situation, and over time he begins to feel affection for her. But his mother cannot accept her son's relationship with a woman from a different social class, or caste and Amala becomes the focus of her prejudice. Can the young couple's relationship survive the many pressures placed upon it?

References to Bengali culture add context to the story. These include descriptions of typical Bengali dishes made in the camp and in the Dutta family home, and the regular "adda" sessions in which groups of friends (and sometimes strangers) debate and argue about ethics, politics and culture.  The author has a background in journalism and has written for The Wire and Times of India. She lives in Canada and is currently writing a book on Delhi.

  

A Death in Shonagachhi is also set in Kolkata. The story takes place in the city's red light district and opens with the murder of a young woman employed at Shefali Madam's Blue Lotus brothel. The killing sends fear through Shonagachhi but does not deter Lalee, a friend of the murdered woman from wanting to become an "escort". This would be more financially lucrative, but no safer, than being a brothel girl. 

There are several strands within the book. Lalee's regular client, Tilu Shau, a poverty stricken writer of erotic fiction, falls in love with her, and wants to help her escape from prostitution, but she seems disinterested. Lalee gets her wished for "promotion" but becomes ensnared in a bizarre, abusive religious sect where her life is placed in danger. Throughout all this, the largely disinterested police carry out a half-hearted investigation into the murder, prompting the women of the neighbourhood to carry out mass protests. This strands come together in the  final scenes which whilst tense also have moments of humour.

The author describes the realities of life for women in Shonagachhi, through the character of Lalee. She became a prostitute after being sold by her drunkard father. Despite this the family still look to her for financial help. At one point, her brother arrives from his village, asking for money to pay for repairs to his house and for medicines for their mother. He eats and drinks in Lalee's room - without putting his lips to the utensils - and when he leaves he walks "...with his head bowed, determined not to see any more than the track of dirt that led to the main door". He is ashamed of his sister, but happy to take the money she earns from prostitution and to eat the food paid for by it. Money and power is a recurring theme in the book, with the women of Shonagachhi producing vast amounts of wealth, but for those controlling and exploiting them, rather than for themselves. 

Rijula Das is from West Bengal and now lives in Auckland, New Zealand. A Death in Shonagachhi is her first novel. It won the 2021 Tata Litrature Live First Book Award and was also long listed for the prestigious JCB Prize.

Shalini is 30, unmarried and drifting in a job that does not interest her. She is convinced her mother's death is somehow linked to the sudden disappearance of a Kashmiri salesman, whose visits to the house ceased a decade earlier. She is also the central character of Madhuri Vijay's first novel, The Far Field, winner of the 2019 JCB Prize, Times of India Fiction Award and the Tata Literature Live First Book Award.

The novel switches between scenes from the earlier life of Shalini's affluent but dysfunctional Bangalore family, and her impulsive search for the salesman - Bashir Ahmed - in Kashmir. Her mother rejects her middle-class friends and contemporaries in exchange for an unlikely friendship with Ahmed. As their friendship develops, the author explores several themes including class, belonging, loneliness and mental health. Over the years of their friendship, the political conflict in Kashmir heats up and eventually erupts in violence.

Shalini takes off for Kashmir, knowing only the name of the village that the salesman may have come from, and not even knowing if he is still alive. She receives help from a Kashmiri Muslim family who open their home to her and help her to reach the village. She again receives help and hospitality, but despite being 30 and from the big city, she is naive. She can only see what seems to be a simple, idyllic, rural life. She takes too long to recognise the tensions, secrets and lies that surround her there, as much as in Bangalore. Her naivety also extends to the risks of the military presence in Kashmir and eventually brings danger to those who have helped her. 

 

China Room is Sanjeev Sahota's third novel. The main story revolves around Mehar, a fifteen year old girl married to one of three brothers, all married on the same day in Punjab in 1929. Together with the other brides - Harbans and Guleen, her days are filled with chores and at night they share the "China Room", so named because of the plates stored there. Each night they wait to be summoned by Mai, their harsh mother-in-law, to go and sleep with their husbands in the hope of becoming pregnant with a son. The girls don't know which brother is their husband as they see them only after dark and are veiled in public. Mai refuses to tell them who's bride they are, but defiant Mehar thinks she knows.  But does she really and if she has made a mistake what will the consequences be?

The late 1920's saw a period of significant unrest in India and a sub-plot of the story  revolves around the Independence Movement and it's different and rival factions during this time. Issues of caste-discrimination are also examined within this context. 

The other part of the novel is set in 1999, and is the story of an unnamed 18 year old male heroin addict, sent from the UK to spend time in Punjab with his uncle's family. His aunt, who is worried about his influence on her children does not want him in the house, and he moves instead to the now abandoned farm where Mehar lived seventy years previously. He forms a friendship with Radhika, a young and independent woman doctor and they become the subject of local gossip.

China Room was long listed for the 2021 Booker Prize. His second book, The Year of the Runaways was shortlisted for the 2015 prize. Not bad for someone who did not read a novel - Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children - until he was 18 years old. He lives in Sheffield and since 2019 has taught creative writing at Durham University.

Neema Shah's first novel, Kololo Hill, is based on real life events from the early 1970's when dictator Idi Amin gave Uganda's long-established Asian community just 90 days to leave the country. They were allowed to take only what they could carry and those who resisted were subjected to theft, physical and even sexual violence by Amin's soldiers. Amin accused them of sabotaging the economy, and claimed to be implanting a policy of "Africanisation" that would give Uganada back to its African citizens. 

Kololo Hill is the story of one Asian family impacted by the expulsion and its aftermath. The characters respond to the situation in different ways. Motichand, the head of the family, is in denial and retreats to his whisky bottle and vintage Hindi film songs. His sons Pran and Vijay make plans to secure the family's future abroad in ways that may or may not be legal. Asha, Pran's wife of just a few months worries about her elderly in-laws, her family and their future. As the deadline for departure approaches, the situation deteriorates and they become subject to curfew. More and more of their neighbours leave, sometimes without saying goodbye. When night-time attacks on the remaining Asian residents come close to home, they realise it is time to leave. The tension builds as they leave the house to travel to the airport, risking robbery and worse en route. 

The relief at escaping Uganda soon dissipates as the family face new problems in London.  They find it hard to adjust to reduced circumstances and also encounter various levels of racism. This ranges from it being suggested that better paid jobs are not really suitable for them despite their language skills and qualifications, to more overt behaviour. Asha trips and bumps into a man in the street and is told to " Just go back to your own country".  Despite this, she finds work, makes friends and does well, but Pran seems resentful of her success and pines for Uganda. Asha begins to question her marriage. 

Neema Shah was born in London. Writing is her second career, having previously worked in marketing and brand strategy. Her grand-parents moved to East Africa from India in the 1940's and she spent several school summer holidays there with them. 

Kololo Hill was my favourite fiction read of 2021.

You might also like Best Reads of 2021 Part One which features a re-discovered novel set in  Berlin, a tragedy based on a true story from Cardiff, crime and political intrigue in London and a homeless detective in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Best Reads of 2021 Part One

I had hoped to begin traveling again last year but other than a few nights in Kent, Covid kept me in London. I tried to use my time profitably by beginning to learn a new language, producing a small book of pictures and stories from my travels, and of course, by reading. I spent many happy hours - and quite a lot of money - in London's bookshops, especially Foyle's flagship store on Charing Cross Road, Daunts on Cheapside and Stanfords in Covent Garden. I also bought several books from The Book Corner, an excellent independent book shop in Saltburn-by-the-sea, that kept me supplied with reading material during the various lockdowns. This post is the first of two detailing my favourite fiction reads in 2021. 

Anthony Quinn's London, Burning brilliantly re-creates the mood of  the city during the chaotic late 1970's. The story is set against a background of strikes, rubbish-filled streets, IRA bombings, National Front marches and the collapse of old political loyalties in the dying days of Jim Callaghan's Labour government.

There are four main characters. Hannah Strode, a young reporter with a talent for uncovering corruption, and Vicky Tress, a policewoman at the beginning of her career, work in different worlds but face similar challenges of dealing with casual sexism and patronising attitudes to women. Freddie Selves is a brilliant but philandering and unlikeable theatre director, while Callum Conlan, a young Irish university lecturer becomes a victim of prejudice and circumstance. The fears, hopes and romances of the four play out against the political backdrop, with their fate coalescing around the murder of Anthony Middleton, an ex-spy and hawkish Shadow Cabinet member. Middleton is clearly based on real-life politician, Airey Neave a member of Margaret Thatcher's inner circle before she became Prime Minister, and who was killed in a bomb blast.

As well as the 1970's political references, Quinn reminds us of the cultural mood of the decade, with passing references to World of Sport and Dickie Davies, John Travolta's white suit, the Deer Hunter movie and Punk Rock. One of the minor characters attends a Clash concert. Although the action takes place several decades ago, the main themes are topical - a changing political landscape, the threat of terrorism and the hypocrisy of the elite. But perhaps there is hope. Towards the end of the book, Freddie shares the following thoughts "When you behaved decently and put others before yourself people liked you. And when you behaved like a prick people resented you. It wasn't such a difficult principle. But it seemed to have taken him most of his life to grasp it". 

Trevor Wood's One Way Street is the second in a trilogy of crime novels set on the streets of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Homeless military veteran Jimmy Mullen, has a habit of getting drawn into the city's underworld. This time he is drawn into the search for the suppliers of a dodgy batch of spice that appears to be behind a series of drug-related deaths amongst the city's teenagers. 

As in the first novel, Jimmy is ably (well, more or less), assisted by his two friends - Gadge, an alcoholic IT expert and teenager Deano whose search for his missing brother is one of the main strands of the plot.  These characters are further developed in this story, as are those of several of the supporting cast, including Kate, the daughter Jimmy hasn't seen in years and his extremely tough probation officer, Sandy, who knows when to step in and when to feign ignorance. 

Jimmy is a tough character, sometimes given to violence, but despite this, he also has a more vulnerable side and we see him struggle with PTSD, following active service in the Falklands. The city makes a perfect stage for Wood's writing. I enjoyed the local references to Dog Leap Stairs, the Crown Posada pub and Brighton Grove, all of them real places, and all of them familiar to me from my student days. Wood perfectly describes the Crown Posada as "...a proper drinker's pub. Great beer, a handful of old men at the bar who looked like they'd taken root, and a snug in the corner if you wanted privacy". I also enjoyed the scenes set in the local library where Gadge helps Jimmy look for evidence on the internet. I especially liked the no-nonsense, but heart of gold librarian who allows Gadge to charm his way back in to the library after having been "banned...for attempting to fart the national anthem..."

Trevor Wood describes himself as "an adopted Geordie" after having lived in Newcastle for twenty-five years. The first book in the trilogy, The Man On The Street received the CWA New Blood Dagger award. The follow-up,  Dead End Street, was released earlier this month.

Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz wrote The Passenger in 1938, shortly after Kristallnacht, the state-sponsored pogrom that finally made clear Nazi intentions towards the Jews. It is the story of Jewish businessman Otto Silberman who flees his home to escape the violence and who is quickly abandoned by his non-Jewish wife, his friends, colleagues and business associates, several of whom take the opportunity to divest him of his belongings.

He goes on the run, taking one train after another, traveling around Germany in an attempt to find a safe place, a friend or acquaintance who is willing to help him. He attempts to cross the border into Belgium but is sent back to continue his journey to nowhere. Silberman's shock at his transformation to pariah status was the shock of many middle-class German Jews whose ethnicity and, or, religion was incidental to them until the Nuremberg Laws of 1935. He may have been successful and respected but he is now  reduced to the letter "J" stamped on his papers.

There are many eerily prescient moments in the book. At one point Silberman, reflecting on his situation says "If only I'd gotten a visa earlier on! But who could have foreseen any of this..." Yet the writer does seem to have foreseen where things would lead, and has Silberman say "Perhaps they'll carefully undress us first and then kill us, so our clothes won't get bloody and our banknotes won't get damaged" before going on to say "These days murder is performed economically". He could not have known that this was exactly what was to happen just a few years later.

The author's own story is tragic. He was born in Berlin in 1915, left for Oslo in 1935 and then studied at the Sorbonne in Paris. He wrote two novels including The Passenger before he managed to settle in England in 1939. When war broke out he was interned as an enemy alien and then shipped to Australia with many other detainees. He was allowed to return to England in 1942, but his ship was torpedoed by a German submarine, and all 362 passengers were killed. He was just twenty-seven years old.

In Lottie Moggach's Brixton Hill, Rob is serving the last few months of a seven year prison sentence for an initially unspecified crime. His preparation for freedom includes being allowed out to work in a local charity shop during the day, before returning to the prison at night. To be certain of his impending freedom, he must stay out of trouble, prove he can be trusted and not make contact with outsiders other than the staff at the shop.  The manager treats him with disdain and Rob spends most of his time sorting through unwanted belongings, preparing them for sale. 

A chance encounter on Brixton Hill puts his freedom in jeopardy. An attractive woman, Steph, "walking expertly in high heels," trips and literally falls at his feet. He helps her up and then over the following weeks continues to bump into her. They begin to form a connection but in order to maintain it, Rob must avoid telling her where he really lives. He must also ensure that the prison authorities do not find out. But is it really a coincidence that he regularly sees her, and is she really everything she says she is? Steph also has something to hide and although Rob is incarcerated in a building, she is a prisoner of circumstance.

The descriptions of prison life are detailed and believable. Drugs, suicide, violence and the impossibility of being able to trust anyone all feature strongly. The horror of sharing a small cell with a stranger is perfectly illustrated by Rob's dislike for his loathesome cellmate, Marko. Marko is addicted to trashy TV shows, sneers at Rob's books and constantly looks for an advantage or hold over him. He is so annoying that Rob admits to having been happier when he shared with a quiet, polite character, who left him in peace, but who he eventually discovered, was in prison for having stabbed someone to death. 

Both main characters have something to hide, something to lose and a desire to escape their surroundings. The uncertainty about how they might achieve this is maintained to the final pages. Tense, engaging and full of authentic scenes from south London, Brixton Hill is a contender for my favourite fiction read of 2021. 

Nadifa Mohamed's The Fortune Men is based on the true story of a murder in 1952, in Cardiff's docklands. A Jewish woman, Lily Volpert (Lily Volacki in this story) was found in her shop and Mahmood Mattan, a Somali sailor becomes a suspect, is arrested and put on trial. The evidence against him is flimsy and circumstantial but an overtly racist police investigation and a series of dishonest witnesses combine to frame him. When his unsympathetic defence lawyer describes him as "Half child of nature - half semi-civilised savage" the outcome of the trial seems inevitable.

There are many moving scenes in this story, especially those in the condemned cell as Mattan awaits the outcome of his appeal application. His develops a relationship with his jailers, some of whom try to calm and encourage him as he veers from confidence to despair. The scenes of him waving through the prison bars to his wife and sons are particularly affecting.  

The story includes some rich background detail as Nadifa Mohamed describes the diverse make-up of Cardiff's Butetown during this period, with a cast of characters that includes Somalis, Yemenis, Jews, Italians, Poles, Africans and people from the Caribbean. The story provides a glimpse of daily life amongst these largely male communities and their clubs, bars, cafes and boarding houses. Many of them were seamen, some of them settled in the city, others waiting for a ship and a job. Some of the men married local women as did Mattan. We are also given Mattan's back story - his childhood in Hargeisa, British Somaliland, his time at sea and his experiences in various ports. 

The author makes interesting use of press cuttings and quotes to tell the story but also had access to someone who knew Mattan. Her father knew him in when they both lived in another port city, Hull, part of the same Somali community. Many British port cities are, or were, home to long established and sometimes relatively large numbers of Somali and Yemeni seamen. It is estimated that 1,500 Yemenis lived in Cardiff in the 1920'a - half of the city's ethnic minority population at the time.

The Fortune Men was deservedly shortlisted for last year's Booker Prize. The author previously won the Betty Trask Award for Black Mamba Boy, based on her father's life in Yemen in the 1930's and 1940's.

Look out for Best Reads of 2021 part two, coming soon!

Best Reads of 2020 Part Two

A recent Adrian Yekkes post featured reviews of some of my favourite reads of 2020. It focused on five great works of contemporary fiction, all of them by Indian writers. This post continues the literary theme with five more of my favourite books from last year.

Andrew Cartmel's Vinyl Detective series is perfect for me combining music with the detective work of the unnamed hero and his fabulous partner, Nevada. Low Action is the fifth title in the series and once again the pair accept a commission to track down a rare vinyl record, the pursuit of which inevitably leads them into trouble. This time they investigate a series of attempts on the life of an ageing rock star's girlfriend, whilst simultaneously searching for a rare album of the fictional disbanded punk girl group - the Blue Tits. Low Action sees the return of several old favourites including the afore mentioned ageing rock star, Erik Make Loud, free loader Tinkler and shaved headed cab driver Agatha. I am especially fond of Agatha who gets drawn into the trickier parts of the couple's work and is admired from afar by Tinkler. 

In Low Action, Cartmel works his usual magic, leading us through numerous twists and turns, developing his characters so that one feels they've known them for some time. The reader develops either a liking or disdain for each one, before reaching the final denouement which never fails to surprise. The series has great continuity with all the little habits and interests of the main characters maintained and developed with each book. The Vinyl Detective always has something to say about the quality of his coffee and Nevada can be relied upon to choose a great wine and to track down haute couture fashion in second-hand shops whilst simultaneously searching for the elusive vinyl. At the same time, there are always new subjects in his stories and trouble is sparked by all kinds of jealousies, resentments and grudges. It's worth starting at the beginning of the series if you haven't read any of them, but each title  can stand alone. Cartmel has also written a number of Doctor Who novels and novellas and wrote scripts of the TV series in the late 1980's.

Still on the subject of crime, I discovered the books of A.A Dhand for the first time last year. Amit Dhand's stories, set in Bradford look at crime through the prism of various social issues including religious and political extremism, corruption and poverty but without becoming didactic or cliched.

His detective, DI Harry Virdee is a complex character who resorts to unorthodox methods to solve cases. and this often lands him in trouble with his superiors This includes occasionally securing the help of his brother who is himself involved in the city's underworld. The books also have a sub-plot. Virdee is a Sikh married to a Muslim woman. Their marriage has caused both families to sever ties with them. These mutual prejudices are to some extent examined in each of the stories but are given particular attention in his most recent novel One Way Out. 

The first of his books I read was City of Sinners which left me hungry for more of his writing. Our hero is tracking a vicious serial killer bent on revenge for a perceived slight several years previously. Although he doesn't realise it at first, the grudge is somehow linked to Virdee and threatens to destroy his family. The tension builds to an almost unbearable level that kept me reading into the night, too worried to put the book down until I reached the end. 

Dhand grew up in Bradford and as a teenager helped his parents in their convenience store. His experience there was no doubt a rich source of ideas for the characters and story lines of his books. He went on to qualify as a pharmacist, a profession which he still practices full-time. There are plans for Streets of Darkness, his  first novel, to be made into a TV series. 

Elif Shafak's 10 Minutes 38 Seconds In This Strange World was shortlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize. It is an atmospheric tale of outsiders, misfits that the city needs but doesn't want. It centres on Tequila Leila, an Istanbul sex-worker, brutally murdered and dumped in a garbage bin in the back streets of the city. The first half of the book deals with what happens to her mind after death, where for ten minutes and thirty eight seconds her life passes before her as each memory is evoked by a different smell or taste - lemons, cardamom coffee, wood and even sulphuric acid. 

This device is used to take us through her life from her childhood in a small village to her escape to Istanbul where she becomes a prostitute and where her life is shaped through her relationships with her five best friends. All of them are, to some extent, outsiders. Jameelah is a Somali woman, brought to Istanbul by human traffickers. Zaynab122 (the number refers to her height) is a very religious refugee from Lebanon who is taunted for her dwarfism. Sinan is her best friend from childhood, Nalan is a trans woman and Humeyra has fled her abusive husband. 

This group inhabit what was once a very diverse city and the writer's affection for those times is clear. A couple of years ago I heard her speak about how her beloved Istanbul has been cleansed of much that made it both interesting and a refuge for the dispossessed.  Shafak describes the quarter in which she once lived as having a synagogue, an Armenian church, a Greek church, a Sufi lodge and a Russian Orthodox Chapel "between rows of licensed brothels" all within short distance of her street. Istanbul has also been cleansed of her presence as she now lives in the UK after having been prosecuted in Turkey for daring to refer to the Armenian Genocide in her work. 

The second half of the book deals with what happens to Leila's body after her death. Her friends are not happy to let her lay in an unmarked grave where those who die in the street or without relatives are dumped. They embark on an almost slapstick mission to bury her somewhere more fitting, avoiding pursuing police as they drive through the night in a stolen truck. This is a final act of friendship and an indication of how even in death the outsider will no longer find a welcome in the city. 

Shafak has a particular talent for enabling the reader to feel they are in the room with the characters. I especially felt this in the scenes in Leila's apartment and in the tension of the stifling life she lived in the village before her escape. The story examines some of her favourite themes - the treatment of women and sexual minorities, growing problems with religious and political orthodoxy and the rejection of difference. These subjects are also examined in her earlier works including The Bastard Of Istanbul, The Flea Palace, Three Daughters of Eve and Honour - all of them cracking reads.

Not many people can say that they won the Booker Prize with their first novel, but Douglas Stuart can. The Glasgow born, New York based fashion designer picked up the 2020 prize for Shuggie Bain the story of a young boy growing up in Glasgow at the beginning of the 1980's. The focus of the novel is Shuggie's relationship with his alcoholic mother Agnes and his attempts to save her from herself. In the early chapters his older brother and sister take responsibility for her but eventually leave in order to save themselves and so it's just Shuggie and Agnes from then on. 

Agnes is a fascinating character. Despite living on an isolated sink estate in what was then a decaying city, she is determined to keep a clean house, to wear only the smartest clothes that show off her figure at its best, to always attend to her hair and not to go out without getting made up first. All of this despite her growing reliance on the alcohol that takes most of her weekly benefit payments. There are brief moments of respite when it looks as if everything will be fine. From time to time Agnes and Shuggie decide they will be "new" and she stops drinking, but the city, her neighbours and her need for love are always going to be there to pull her back down.

As if this isn't enough for a young boy to cope with, he is also gay. His way of speaking, attention to his appearance and disinterest in the games of other boys lead to him being described as "not right" by friends, relatives and neighbours. They also make him vulnerable to abuse by adults and older children.

Whilst Shuggie and Agnes are the main characters, there are several other stories here. Her parents have a dark secret. The female neighbours on the estate are both jealous and secretly admiring of her appearance and most of them have stories of their own with husbands made redundant in middle age and destined never to work again but still having to maintain themselves and several children. And then there's the issue of sectarianism with religious affiliation governing who will be friends with whom and where they will live, or go to school. However, despite the misery of much of their lives, Agnes and Shuggie manage moments of humour and there were occasions when I laughed out loud whilst reading this. It's a great, albeit difficult read, and good to see a novel featuring authentic working class characters receiving the highest accolades.

Avi Luria, a 73  years old retired engineer who seems to be in the early stages of dementia is the hero of Israeli writer A.B. Yehoshua's latest novel,  The Tunnel. Avi's memory loss is first alluded to when he forgets to collect his grandson from school and then has trouble remembering people's first names, including that of a woman he once had a brief affair with.

His wife Dina is a high profile paediatrician who wants him to remain active and intellectually engaged in order to slow the progress of the disease. She persuades him to return to his former employer, the Israel Roads Authority as a volunteer where he becomes involved in a supposedly secret project to build a military road in the Negev Desert. The project is hampered by the road needing to pass through the location of a hill at the summit of which are ancient Nabatean ruins. Not only this, the hilltop is home to a family living in Israel but who lack appropriate documentation to do so. The family claim to be trapped and unable to live elsewhere and so Avi develops proposals to take the road underneath the hill, a costly project that will bring many technical challenges. The project gives him a new lease of life but his family are troubled by his occasionally going missing and some of his former colleagues are against his ideas.

The tunnel is a metaphor both for Avi's dementia as his world narrows and slowly darkness begins to surround him. However, perhaps all is not lost and as Dina says "Does it matter what day it is, if there is love every day". The tunnel idea is also a reference to the ongoing political situation in Israel with opportunities for resolution narrowing but then there is always light at the end of the tunnel. 

You might also like Best Reads of 2020 Part One - Contemporary Indian Fiction or Essential Items And Other Tales From A Land In Lockdown - Stories From The Pandemic