Susanna Clarke's Piranesi (2021) takes the reader to a remarkable fantasy world. The 'House' is a labyrinthine series of magnificent halls lined with marble statues of minotaurs, fauns, and other creatures. The top floor of the house is exposed to the weather, and the bottom floor is subject to tides and flooding.
The main inhabitant is the Beloved Child of the House - Piranesi - a man who spends his days fishing, gathering mussels and collecting seaweed for sustenance. He writes all that he sees in his journal and has begun creating a catalogue of statues and a map of the House's countless vestibules and halls. Twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, Piranesi briefly meets with the only living person he knows - The Other - a peculiar man who is in search of what he calls the 'Great and Secret Knowledge'.
The story is told in the form of Piranesi's journals, as he describes his days and the discoveries he makes along the way. He comes across as naive yet inquisitive, uncertain as to whether what The Other is telling him is true. When Piranesi finds evidence that someone else may also be in the House, he is compelled to learn more about the mysteries of the House and his own history.
Piranesi is a strange and wonderful novel. I must admit that my first attempt at reading this book failed as I could not connect with the writing. But then I read along with Chiwetel Ejiofor's brilliant audiobook narration and found myself absolutely engrossed in this tale. For the first hundred pages I was completely perplexed but also intrigued by the House and the delightful main character, perhaps relating to his isolation as I am currently in lockdown and confined to my own house. In some respects Piranesi reminded me of the works of CS Lewis or Philip Pullman.
Clarke is probably best known for her acclaimed debut novel Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (2005). Piranesi was shortlisted for the 2021 Women's Prize and I must admit I am disappointed that it didn't make the longlist for the Booker. It is a fantastic novel by a gifted writer.
Today the Longlist was announced for the 2021 Booker prize. The thirteen titles nominated include authors from America, Britain, Canada, Sri Lanka and South Africa.
The Booker Prize is always a strange collection of titles, but what I love about the Longlist is that it introduces me to many authors and books I do not know. From last year's Longlist I acquired Diane Cook's The New Wilderness, Hilary Mantel's The Mirror and the Light, and Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain, although admittedly the pandemic changed my reading focus and I have not yet read all of these titles.
I haven't read any of the books on this year's Longlist yet, so let's take a quick look at the nominees:
Anuk Arudpragasam - A Passage North (Sri Lanka) Krishan receives a call advising that his grandmother's caretaker Rani has died. As he travels home to attend Rani's funeral by train from Colombo, he ruminates on love, loss and the thirty-year civil war that has engulfed his homeland. Arudpragasam is the author of The Story of a Brief Marriage (2016) which was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. Sri Lanka has been on my travel wish-list for many years (and it will likely be many years before I can travel again!), so I am interested in this novel.
Rachel Cusk - Second Place (UK)
A woman living in a remote coastal region invites a famous artist to come and stay in her guest house in the hopes that he will use her as a subject in his next piece. M, the narrator, is a middle-aged writer living with her second husband Tony. The arrival of the artist L disrupts the routine of their lives. Cusk is an extraordinary writer, who packs a lot into her short books. She is best known for her Outline trilogy and my review of Cusk's Outline (2014) is also available on this blog.
Damon Galgut - The Promise (South Africa)
On a farm outside Pretoria, a privileged white family gathers for the funeral of matriarch Rachel. Their faithful black maid Salome lives on the property and was promised the deed to her home by Rachel on her deathbed. Despite this promise, and the constant reminders from the youngest daughter Amor, the family does not act to transfer ownership and conflict ensues. Galgut was previously shortlisted for the Booker for his novels The Good Doctor (2003) and In a Strange Room (2010).
Nathan Harris - The Sweetness of Water (USA)
As the American Civil War comes to an end, Prentiss and Landry are brothers freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. They seek refuge in the home of the Walkers who are grieving the loss of their son. In a parallel storyline, two white Confederate soldiers fall in love and have to hide their feelings for one another. This is Harris' debut novel.
Kazuo Ishiguro - Klara and the Sun (UK) Ishiguro has been nominated four times and won the Booker Prize over 30 years ago for his beautiful novel The Remains of the Day (1989). Klara and the Sun is his first novel since he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017. Set in the near future, Klara is a solar-powered, humanoid artificial friend who is purchased as a companion for a teenage girl. The novel explores what it means to be human. I have this book and really look forward to reading it. (Update Aug 2021: read review)
Karen Jennings - An Island (South Africa)
Samuel lives alone on an island, in charge of managing the lighthouse. When a refugee washes up on shore, Samuel recalls his past on the mainland and struggles to adapt to the disruption of his solitude. The novel explores friendship, fear, and the notion of home. Jennings previous works include her debut novel Finding Soutbek and her memoir Travels with My Father (2016).
Mary Lawson - A Town Called Solace(Canada) Set in a small town in Northern Ontario in 1972, the story follows seven year old Clara and her family. Clara's older sister has run away from home. Her mysterious new neighbour Liam unexpectedly inherited the house and has moved in following the breakdown of his marriage. The third main character is Mrs Orchard, an elderly woman who is reliving memories from her past. Mary Lawson is the author of three novels set in Northern Ontario. Having grown up in Ontario myself, I am always on the look out for novels that remind me of home so I may check this one out.
Patricia Lockwood - No One is Talking About This(USA)
A woman famed for her social media posts travels around the world to meet her followers. She shares her insights while travelling, blurring the virtual and real worlds. Suddenly, she is summoned home by her mother due to a family tragedy and finds the real world is demanding more of her attention. American novelist, essayist and poet Patricia Lockwood is perhaps best known for her memoir Priestdaddy (2017). No One is Talking About This is her debut novel, and it was also shortlisted for the 2021 Women's Prize.
Nadifa Mohamed - The Fortune Men (UK)
Set in 1950s Cardiff, Mahmood Mattan is a family man and a petty criminal. When a shopkeeper is killed, Mattan is a suspect but he knows he has an alibi. This novel is a fictionalised account of the story of Mattan who was wrongfully convicted of murder and was the last man hanged in Cardiff prison. Somali-British author Mohamed won the Somerset Maugham Award in 2014 for her second novel The Orchard of Lost Souls. The premise of this story sounds intriguing. I will try and track down a copy of this book.
Richard Powers - Bewilderment(USA) Powers is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of the much-lauded Booker shortlisted The Overstory (2018). In his latest novel he follows widowed astrobiologist Theo Byrne, who is raising his nine-year-old son Robin. The boy has been diagnosed as being 'on the spectrum' and after an incident at school, Theo needs to consider how to best care for his son.
Sunjeev Sahota - China Room(UK)
This novel follows two characters on a quest for freedom. Mehar is a young bride in Punjab in 1929 trying to discover the identity of her new husband. In 1999 a young man who grew up in England arrives in Punjab trying to rid himself of addiction. Sahota was previously shortlisted for the Booker Prize for his novel The Year of the Runaways (2015).
Maggie Shipstead - Great Circle(USA)
In prohibition era Montana, teenage Marian drops out of school and finds a patron who will support her desire to become a pilot. As a daredevil aviatrix, she circumnavigates the world and flies over the poles. A century later, actress Hadley Baxter is set to play Marian in a biopic and becomes immersed in the pilot's disappearance in Antarctica. Shipstead is the author of Astonish Me and Seating Arrangements. I am intrigued by the description of this story and will search out a copy of this book.
Francis Spufford - Light Perpetual(UK)
In 1944 five children are among a crowd outside the Woolworths in South London to see a delivery of saucepans - the first new metal items since the war began. Moments later, a bombing raid incinerates everyone around. In this novel, the author tells the story of these five children and what could have been if they had not been there on that fateful day. Spufford is the author of countless works of non-fiction, and is a Professor of Creative Writing.
So that is the Longlist!
Maya Jasanoff, chair of the judges panel, said:
One thing that unites these books is their power to absorb the reader in an unusual story, and to do so in an artful, distinctive voice. Many of them consider how people grapple with the past - whether personal experiences of grief or dislocation or the historical legacies of enslavement, apartheid and civil war. Many examine intimate relations placed under stress, and through them they meditate on ideas of freedom and obligation, or on what makes us human.
The longlist is previewed in this announcement video:
This is an interesting longlist and I am a bit surprised that there are a few titles not on the list which I thought would have been including Sally Rooney's Beautiful World, Where are You, Pat Barker's The Women of Troy, and Susanna Clarke'swonderful Piranesi. I had also secretly hoped that Australian authors Richard Flanagan (The Living Sea of Waking Dreams) and Tara June Winch (The Yield) would make the cut.
Of all these titles, the ones I am most interested in are the books by Ishiguro, Cusk, Shipstead, Arudpragasam and Mohamed.
The Shortlist will be announced on 14 September 2021, with the Winner of the £50,000 revealed in November. Better get reading!
The winner of the 2021 Miles Franklin Literary Award, Australia's most prestigious literary award, was announced via a live online presentation on 15 July 2021. This year the award and its $60,000 prize went to Tasmanian author, Amanda Lohrey, for her novel, The Labyrinth.
The Labyrinth tells the story of a woman who leaves her life in Sydney and moves to a small coastal town to be closer to the prison where her son is incarcerated. She lives in an oceanside rundown shack, and obsesses over building a stone labyrinth while she processes her feelings of maternal guilt over her son's actions.
The Chair of the judging panel, Richard Neville said 'It is beautifully written reflection on the conflicts between parents and children, men and women, and the value and purpose of creative work.' Amanda Lohrey is the author of seven novels, including the Stella Prize longlister A Short History of Richard Kline (2015), Reading Madame Bovary (2010) and two novels previously nominated for the Miles Franklin Award - Camille's Beard (1995) and The Philosopher's Doll (2004). Lohrey is the recipient of the 2012 Patrick White Award which acknowledges authors which have not been sufficiently recognised for their creativity.
With much of Australia's population in some form of COVID lockdown, the announcement of the winner was live streamed:
Emily Maguire's latest novel, Love Objects (2021), is a touching story of a family with complicated relationships to their past and each other.
Nic is 45 and lives alone in an Inner West Sydney house she inherited from her mother. She has had the same job for decades, loves to paint her nails and feeds all the local stray cats. Unknown to her family and neighbours, Nic also has a hoarding disorder, collecting items that others have discarded: a baby bonnet; signs for lost pets; containers; shoes. Her house is a treasure trove of bags, boxes, furnishings and more, with narrow goat tracks making pathways from room to room. Nic knows where everything is and the story behind each and every item in her home.
Every Sunday Nic meets her twenty year old niece Lena for lunch. Lena is studying at university to become a teacher while working part-time and living hand-to-mouth. When Nic doesn't show, and fails to respond to Lena's messages and calls, Lena goes to her aunt's house and finds Nic collapsed on the floor. Nic is hospitalised with severe injuries and a social worker has been appointed, aware of the state of Nic's home.
Lena has to care for Nic, but also needs to make Nic's home safe to return. She moves into the house, hires a skip, and gets to work. Problem is, Lena sees only rubbish and doesn't know the ties Nic has to all these belongings. It is a huge responsibility for a young woman, especially one who is dealing with a major problem of her own. When Lena's brother Will arrives from Queensland to help, the stage is set for more conflict.
Told in alternating chapters by three characters, Maguire focuses on a relationship not often explored in novels - an aunt and her niece. There is a tight familial bond the two - not quite maternal, but very close. The interwoven story lines explore complex themes of class, gender, loneliness, privilege and poverty.
Maguire is an extraordinary writer who has deep empathy for her characters. Each of the three experience deep shame and are struggling to get by. The poverty they experience is real. Lena regularly walks because she cannot afford to top up her travel card, and often misses meals. Will desperately needs a dentist but cannot afford to see one. The pressure they are under because of their class is amplified by the wealthy around them - Lena's friend Annie and the rich guy who wronged Lena. Maguire's portrayal of Nic's hoarding disorder is also heartfelt and sympathetic.
I really loved Love Objects - a beautiful, insightful family drama with humour and heart.
Chris Hammer's third novel in the Martin Scarsden series - Trust (2020) - picks up a few months after the events in Silver (2019). Martin, his girlfriend Mandalay Blonde, and her infant son Liam, have been living in the coastal hamlet of Port Silver. Martin and Liam are playing on the beach when a phone call shatters the serenity and starts this novel racing.
Suddenly Martin and Mandy are transported back to their past lives in Sydney where the action in Trust takes place. The body of a man is found, and Mandy has to reveal her secret past to Martin, explaining she was once engaged to the dead man. For the past five years Mandy thought he had disappeared after stealing millions from the bank where they worked. Meanwhile, Martin is invited to meet his former editor Max, who has a story he wants Martin's help with. Before Martin can learn what hot story Max was on to, the editor is killed and Martin takes up the investigation, leading him into danger. Detective Morris Montifore, journalist Darcey Defoe and many other characters from the previous novels also appear in Trust.
Beyond Martin and Mandy, the city of Sydney is a leading character in Trust. Hammer accurately describes the harbour city - its glittering wealth and its seedy underbelly. He has also positioned this novel in time, the impact of bushfires and the pandemic never far away. The plot lines are complex and intertwined, and Hammer has a talent for holding all these threads together and keeping the story moving at a cracking pace.
I have been critical of Hammer's earlier novels for his superficial depiction of Mandy. In Trust, he fleshes out this character, giving Mandy an interesting backstory and moving her to the centre of the action. This novel feels very much like Hammer has wrapped up the Martin and Mandy series and perhaps they will return home to Port Silver to live in idyllic peace.
My reviews of Chris Hammer's previous novels, Scrublands (2018) and Silver (2019) are also available on this blog.
