‘The Echo Man’ – the first book by Sam Holland – was one of the books I absolutely couldn’t put down in 2022, so I was delighted to be granted a copy of this latest book by NetGalley. As always, opinions are my own.
This story opens with an intriguing crime scene – a body is discovered on waste land with a spray-painted number next to the corpse. When more bodies and numbers appear, DCI Adam Bishop realises that this is only part of a much bigger – and much more horrifying – picture. When Dr Romilly Cole turns up in his office with evidence that links the latest crimes to previous murders, Adam is reluctant to believe her for multiple reasons. However, the numbered corpses keep turning up, leaving both Adam and Romilly facing up to their pasts while trying to change the future. Can the countdown be stopped before the killer hits the magic twenty?
Long-time readers of my blog might remember me raving about a book called ‘Grave Secrets’ a while back – if you missed it, my enthusiastic ramblings can be found here.
I totally fell in love with the sassy, funny, feisty necromancer Lavington Windsor at the heart of that book – so I was delighted to be gifted a copy of the sequel, ‘Grave Danger’, by the author. Regardless of how the book got into my hands, opinions are entirely my own.
Thanks to Random Things Tours for my place on the blog tour and my copy of the book for review. As always, opinions are entirely my own.
From the Publisher:
The Sunday Times bestseller from Booker winner Julian Barnes, this is a thrillingly original novel about truth, history and thinking for ourselves.
The Sunday Times Bestseller from the Winner of the Booker Prize.
She will change the way you see the world . . .
‘I’ll remember Elizabeth Finch when most other characters I’ve met this year have faded’
The Times
Elizabeth Finch was a teacher, a thinker, an inspiration. Neil is just one of many who fell under her spell during his time in her class.
Tasked with unpacking her notebooks after her death, Neil encounters once again Elizabeth’s astonishing ideas on the past and on how to make sense of the present. But Elizabeth was much more than a scholar. Her secrets are waiting to be revealed . . . and will change Neil’s view of the world forever.
‘Enthralling . . . A connoisseur and master of irony himself, [Barnes] fills this book with instances of its exhilarating power’
Sunday Times
‘A lyrical, thoughtful and intriguing exploration of love, grief and the collective myths of history’
Booklist
‘A new novel from Booker Prize winner Julian Barnes is always a literary event, and Elizabeth Finch…is not different. Wistful, thought-provoking stuff.’
Sunday Telegraph
My Review:
Reading Julian Barnes is always a bittersweet experience for me; I was introduced to him the sublime A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters as a teenager by my step-father who is sadly no longer with us. Every new Barnes book is a joy, but one that I won’t get to share with him.
This book is narrated by Neil, a mature student who befriended his university lecturer, Elizabeth Finch. Their relationship became one of letters and occasional lunches before Elizabeth died and Neil is left her papers. As he considers the idea of writing a biography of her, he trawls the notebooks and the memories of those she left behind.
As with all Barnes’ books, it is packed with ideas and philosophical considerations. Elizabeth Finch was a scholar in many ways, but also an original thinker and someone with secrets; one of the things that Neil grapples with in the novel is how much someone can ever be truly known. This is explored further in the middle section of the book, Neil’s extended essay on Julian the Apostate, in which he considers who writes history and how it is revised over the ages.
I absolutely adored the sections that were so very Barnes – Neil’s confessions and ruminations (in a novel where not much actually happens – not that this is a problem!) put Barnes’ fans on familiar ground. Neil is thoughtful, aware of his own shortcomings, slightly awkward in his relationships with others, perhaps obsessive – an echo of other Barnes characters who have gone before. If you enjoy this style of thought-over-action novel (and I do), there’s much to like.
The character of Elizabeth Finch is also fascinating. She is only seen through the lens of Neil’s memories (and those of his fellow students who he speaks to about her or who feature in the memories). It’s clear she is a divisive figure – loved by some (including Neil) and not by others who cannot see her appeal. How true this is of a lot of us! Personally, I liked this independent, feisty and opinionated woman – the snippets of the contents of her notebooks (as included in the narrative by Neil) were intriguing and interesting. I felt like I should be highlighting and making notes, just as if I was in one of her classes!
The middle section of the book is a long essay, purportedly written by Neil in response to an interpretation of Elizabeth Finch’s notebooks. While interesting in a lot of ways – and absolutely fitting for Neil’s character – it didn’t engage me in the same way that the Neil/Elizabeth sections did. Stripped of the quirks of Neil’s narrative and the often-surprising tales of Elizabeth Finch’s life, this section reads like an academic biography. It fits with the novel, yes, and I understand the reasons for its inclusion, but I would have preferred more Elizabeth!
Overall, if you were a Barnes fan before, you still will be after reading Elizabeth Finch. Elizabeth herself is a character who will stay with you – and you’ll know way more about Julian the Apostate than you probably ever thought you’d need! If you’re new to Barnes’ writing, dive in – much like the views of Elizabeth in her students’ eyes, you’ll probably be captivated…and if not, I think philosophical and clear-sighted Elizabeth would recognise that you can’t win them all! Either way, this book will present interesting ideas that you’ll come back to even once you’ve put the book down.
About the Author:
Julian Barnes is the author of thirteen novels, including The Sense of an Ending, which won the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, and Sunday Times bestsellers The Noise of Time and The Only Story. He has also written three books of short stories, four collections of essays and three books of non-fiction, including the Sunday Times number one bestseller Levels of Life and Nothing To Be Frightened Of, which won the 2021 Yasnaya Polyana Prize in Russia. In 2017 he was awarded the Légion d’honneur.
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Thanks to the lovely people at Yellow Kite/Hodder and Stoughton for providing me with a copy of this new poetry book for review.
As always, opinions are entirely my own.
I’ve long been an advocate of literature as a means of wellbeing – for lots of us in the blogging community, books are where we relax, engage, challenge ourselves and zone out of everyday problems and stresses.
With this in mind, I was delighted to be asked to review Rachel Kelly’s ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone: Poems for Life’s Ups and Downs’. Kelly is a Sunday Times bestselling author as well as a mental health campaigner so I was interested in her poetry collection – an anthology of poems that have helped her over the years.
I read a lot of non-fiction – probably something that makes me a bit different from a lot of book bloggers who (quite rightly) focus on the wealth of glorious fiction out there. I love fiction, read fiction and spent my academic life on (classic, modern and feminist) fiction.
But I have insomnia and a night-time non-fiction audiobook habit!
With this in mind, I thought I’d update on some of the brilliant non-fiction books that I’ve listened to or read recently.
I was looking for something immersive, tense and action-packed to keep me turning the pages. I definitely found it in ‘A Stranger on Board’, and was just sorry that I didn’t pick this up before now.
The plot follows Sarah, an ex-Royal Marine suffering from PTSD and trying to carve out a career for herself as a security expert after leaving the Navy. She is persuaded to join the crew of ‘The Escape’, a luxury superyacht being moved from Spain to the Caribbean at the request of the mysterious owner. However, once they leave the relative safety and calm seas of the Mediterranean, Sarah soon learns that this voyage will not be the cushy job she thought. As the conditions on the open Atlantic worsen, the crew suffer a series of setbacks which suggest that this journey will have a tragic end for them all – one orchestrated by someone in their midst.
I’m delighted to welcome you to my stop on the blog tour for ‘What Child is This?’, the fifth book in Bonnie MacBird’s excellent Sherlock Holmes series.
Thanks to Random Things Tours and Collins Crime Club for my place on the tour and copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. As always, opinions are my own.
Having read Cooper’s previous books – ‘The Chalet’ and ‘The Chateau’ – I knew what to expect. Glamorous settings, a small cast of seriously dodgy people and a twisty mystery that I wouldn’t be able to predict!
I started reading this book on Pigeonhole, a chunk at a time, released daily. This is definitely one you don’t want to read in small chunks – to keep up with everyone and to not constantly be on a cliffhanger, you need to devour this in one sitting! Thanks to NetGalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.
