Novellas in November #NovNov26 begins in less than 24 hours . There’s nothing like a looming “deadline” to galvanise me into action. Hence why I’ve spent the last hour searching through my bookshelves looking for potential candidates to read at some point during the next month.
These are the books I’ve found so far. I thought I had many more novellas in my TBR stack but on close examination four of them turned out to be short story collections. Another three had to be rejected because they’re above the 200 page count that our Novellas in November hosts — Cathy of 746 Books and Rebecca of Bookish Beck — class as novella length.
There’s a pleasing mix of options in this little pile with two translated works, two classics, and some contemporary works.
The Unheard is the debut book by English author Anne Worthington . The theme of memory comes through the central character whose dementia means he forgets what day it is or whether he’s had his tea. There are some memories he would rather forget from his childhood or his war experience.
The Europeans by Henry James is part of my Classics Club list. I hope this will be more enjoyable than my first experience with James via A Portrait of a Lady.
Surfacing by Margaret Attwood. I picked this up in a charity shop not really knowing anything about the book. Goodreads tells me it’s about an artist who goes to a remote Quebec island in search of her missing father.
Quicksand by Junichiro Tanizaki is apparently “A seductive psychological thriller about obsession, jealousy and deceit.” I do enjoy Japanese fiction though I’m always conscious that it has subtleties and meanings I don’t fully understand.
A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines tells the story of a troubled teenager growing up in the small Yorkshire mining town of Barnsley whose life is changed when he finds Kes, a kestrel hawk. This was one of the books featured in my October TBR book jar pick. I said at the time I’d aim to read it by end of November. So now it’s time to put my money where my mouth is….
Heartburn by Nora Ephron. The only thing I know about Nora Ephron is that she wrote the screenplay for the film Julie & Julia about the life of chef Julia Child. Heartburn is her first novel and is a semiauthobiographical account of a marital breakdown. I could be doing Ephron an injustice but that topic isn’t calling strongly to me. So this book is likely to get returned to the shelves unread (unless one of you wiser readers tell me it’s a book I really shouldn’t overlook).
And finally we have Mirror, Shoulder, Signal by the Danish author Dorthe Nors. This was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2017. I’m really unsure about this one. The Guardian review described it as experimental fiction — sometimes that comes across to me as the author having more fun than the reader.
Any thoughts on this selection oh wise ones? Anything that you would highly recommend — conversely are there some books here that you’d advise me not to touch with the proverbial barge pole.