Book Reviews: Issue 47

The 2012 East Midlands Book Award saw a diverse range of genres represented. Gregory Woods, Paula Rawsthorne and former NTU student Kerry Young flew the flag for Nottingham but it was Derbyshire- based Anne Zouroudi who scooped the coveted prize with The Whispers of Nemesis. You can read reviews of all six shortlisted books below as well as links to author interviews.

The Whispers of Nemesis
Anne Zouroudi
Bloomsbury, £7.99

We join Zoutoudi's much-loved Greek detective Hermes Diaktoros – known as The Fat Man - for his fifth adventure, this time in the snow filled mountains of Vrisi where two dead bodies create much gossip among the locals. We have witchcraft, superstition, hubris and Homer thrown in to the equation but the real mystery, as always, lies with her enigmatic, complex lead character. Zourodi has been nominated because she instantly transports you into the landscape of Northern Greece, so much so it’s like the words were written in honey. James Walker        
 

Read an interview with Anne Zouroudi
 

The Truth About Celia Frost
Paula Rawsthorne
Usborne, £6.99

This novel combines a taut thriller with a teenager’s painful journey to independence. The characters are appealing and the rundown estate where the action takes place is a chilling sketch of modern Britain. Fourteen-year-old Celia suffers from a rare blood disorder; the slightest cut could prove fatal. Then a knife attack turns her life upside-down. Her mother, motivated by a dark secret, forces them to go on the run. A private detective, meanwhile, is hired to find them. Can Celia solve the mystery of her past and escape danger? This book has concise prose, page-turning suspense and an eye for the human condition.  Ian Douglas 

Read an interview with Paula Rawsthorne

The Misadventures of Winnie the Witch
Laura Owen
OUP, £10.99

The lively, characterful pictures in this eight-story compilation, complemented by equally frenetic and hilarious text, are in glorious stimulating colour, meaning that new details are there to be discovered with every reading. Winnie's antics will encourage children to read. The stories are also such a delight that parents, who play such an important role in nurturing literacy, will be keen to read along with them. This has to be a recipe for success. Go Winnie! Elaine Aldred  
 

Read an interview with Laura Owen

 

Bloomsbury, £11.99  

Murder, corruption, blackmail, and kidnap are just some of the themes addressed in this pacy gangland thriller set in Kingston’s Chinatown. Zhang is invited to Jamaica by Chinese elders in 1912 and is fired up by his anti-imperialist hatred of British rule during the opium wars. In 1938, fourteen year-old Pao arrives and is quickly groomed to take over Zhang's gambling and protection rackets but this is compromised when he falls for Gloria, a brothel madam who faces daily battles of her own on account of her gender, ethnicity and ‘profession’. She acts as a trenchant, and much needed, moral yardstick within this volatile landscape. James Walker         

Read an interview with Kerry Young

An Ordinary Dog
Gregory Woods
Carcanet, £9.95
Woods is Professor of Gay and Lesbian Studies at Nottingham Trent University and has been described as “the finest gay poet in the United Kingdom”. He explores many themes through his writing of the gay experience, deftly manipulating complex poetic forms along with our expectations. An Ordinary Dog is both philosophical and unflinchingly erotic in places, challenging intolerance with sharp humour and intelligence. What’s most enjoyable about Woods’ writing is his ability to convey intense and unexpected images and phrases that linger in the mind, his judicious caress of the English language.  It’s high time this talented poet receives the recognition he deserves. Aly Stoneman 

Read an interview with Gregory Woods

Ours Are The Streets
Sunjeev Sahota
Picador, £7.99
This impressive debut from an author who didn’t read his first novel until he was eighteen (Midnight’s Children), is a timely and humane take on a fraught subject: the ‘radicalisation’ of a young British Muslim. Written as a series of letters addressed to his wife and baby daughter, the novel charts Imtiaz Raina’s struggle for identity in the wake of his father’s death, which soon becomes a descent into madness which could cost him everything. Sahota conjures up the streets of Sheffield and Afghanistan with equal authenticity, and displays a keen understanding of human nature which makes Imtiaz’s inner journey believable and compelling. What emerges is part travelogue, part romance and part psychological horror story. Elizabeth Matter  

Read an interview with Sunjeev Sahota

 

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