The theme for January in Spell the Month in Books — a linkup hosted by Janna on Reviews From the Stacks — is “Valentine’s Day/something sweet on the cover“. I’ll have to skip that topic since I don’t read romance novels and usually forget what’s on the cover of books once I’ve read them.
I’ve chosen my own theme of the Booker Prize. The titles I’ve selected either won the prize or were nominated.
Links are to my reviews unless I read the book well before this blog was born.
F
In a Free State by V S Naipaul
V S Naipaul won the Booker Prize in 1971 with In A Free State, a novel set in an unnamed African nation which has recently gained independence. It sees two members of the previous white ruling class take a dangerous car journey during a time of conflict and trouble.
E
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
Ondaatje’s 1992 winner, The English Patient , is one of my favourite Booker Prize titles. It’s set in a deserted Italian villa occupied by four people who are physically, emotionally and mentally damaged by war. The villa is their refuge and a place where they hope to heal their wounds. But the dangers of the outside world are forever present.
B
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
Mantel became a two-time Booker winner with Bring Up the Bodies, the second in her trilogy based on the Tudor statesman Thomas Cromwell. It sees Cromwell’s power rise once more; having secured a divorce for his King, he now has to find a way to remove the second wife. It’s an extraordinary piece of historical fiction. taking us deep into Cromwell’s mind as he tries to outmanoeuvre the aristocrats who condemn him as an upstart.
R
Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
This was one of the first Booker Prize winners I read and it remains one of my favourites. It features a wonderfully unreliable narrator in the form of Stevens, the butler at Darlington Hall. He is a man who denies his own feelings and emotions and is unshakeably loyal to his employer, maintaining discretion when his Lordship invites German sympathisers to dine with him in an effort to prevent war.
U
The Unexploded by Alison Macloed
Long-listed for the 2013 Man Booker Prize. The Unexploded offers a portrait of ordinary Londoners in the first year of war with Germany, their fears of bombs falling on the capital, their anxieties about the possibility of an invasion, and the frustrations of daily life amid food shortages.
A
Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
McEwan won the 1998 Booker Prize with this dark novella about a euthanasia pact between two friends — a composer and a newspaper editor —whose relationship spins into disaster.
R
Rites of Passion by William Golding
Rites of Passage is an odd tale. It begins in comic fashion with a naive English dandy boarding a sailing ship for a voyage to the British colony that became Australia. But half way through the tone changes an becomes a much more disturbing narrative about a clergyman and his degradation at the hands of the sailors.
Y
Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg
Bill Clegg made it to the longlist in 2015 with Did You Ever Have A Family. It clearly didn’t make a big impression on me because I can’t remember anything about the book and had to check out my review to help me. He takes a tragic event — a house fire which resulted in several fatalities — and looks at the event through the lens of the survivors. It was an interesting narrative device but the book ran out of steam by the end.
.If you fancy having a go at Spell the Month, you’ll find all the info you need on the website of the host, Reviews From the Stacks. The March theme is “Science Fiction.”