Books to look out for in 2014 - We Love This Book feature

It was brilliant to be asked by We Love This Book to briefly write about a new book that I was most looking forward to coming in 2014. 

Despite a very big to-be-read pile indeed and a strong determination this year to read more of the books on said pile and focus on it, (more of that in another post), it is impossible not to notice some of the new books that are due to appear during the coming year, and to want to read one or two of them.

I'm sure there are hundreds that I don't yet know about that I'll discover this year, but the one that sprang to mind immediately, from amongst the ones I had heard about, well, actually there were two, (the other one was the new Sadie Jones novel), but in the end I had to go for this one - Road Ends by Mary Lawson, because her last book The Other Side of the Bridge was a very memorable and cherished read for me and because it has been a bit of a wait for a new novel by this author, so I'm very glad indeed that her new book is now on the way. 


Here's the synopsis:

The new novel from Mary Lawson, set in the frozen north of Canada, and London in the 60s, about a family which is falling apart.

On a perfect August morning in 1967, above a river just outside a small town in the north of Canada, a young man meets his death. And so begins the unravelling of his best friend Tom’s already precarious family…

Eighteen months on, and the town of Struan is in the grip of winter. Still reeling from his friend’s death, Tom has dropped out and spends his days driving a snow plough. His mother has yet another new baby and is nesting upstairs, increasingly lost in her own world. His father, Edward, retreats to his study and his diaries, unable to cope with his growing, unruly family. There are so many brothers in the house that Tom has almost lost count, but Adam, who is only four, somehow can’t be ignored… Their one sister – capable, dependable, formidable Megan – who used to run the show, has escaped to London and is finally living her own life. But then come disturbing letters from home…

In this masterful, enthralling, and tender novel, which takes us from the silver rush in Northern Ontario in the early 1900s to London in the 60s, Mary Lawson gently reveals the intricacies and anguish of family life, the push and pull of responsibility and individual desire, the way we can face tragedy and, in time, hope to start again.

Click here to read the list of other choices highlighted by book bloggers and see if there's anything you might add to your wishlist for 2014.

If you had to pick just one new book that you are looking forward to in 2014, what would it be from those you've heard about so far?

The Best Books of 2013 - We Love This Book - UK Book Bloggers - Top 10

As we come towards the end of 2013 (what, already? I know..!), it's that time when there's many lists of books of the year appearing everywhere.

If you're looking for some thoughts as to top reads from 2013 - whether it is to see if you have read any of them, or to discover something you might have missed - it's definitely worth having a look at the list put together by We Love This Book.

In their words, they 'asked some of the UK's best book bloggers to tell us which books they loved this year', and they have compiled a top 10.

I was really happy to be asked to put forward my best read of 2013 - click the link below to see what my choice was, and to read the full list. 

We Love This Book 

 The best books of 2013 - chosen by UK book bloggers 

There are a couple on there I've read and would agree with the high praise, and several others that I need to investigate further!

Are any of your favourites on this list? 

Do any of the books catch your eye?

Genie and Paul - Natasha Soobramanien

Genie and Paul is the debut novel from Natasha Soobramanien. Taking the French 18^th Century classic ‘Paul et Virginie’ by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre as inspiration, the author has crafted a story about love of people and of places. It is May 2003, and a body is washed up on a beach on Rodrigues, the sister island of Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean. Six weeks earlier, in March 2003, a tropical cyclone hit Rodrigues, and it wrought destruction. On the same night, in London, twenty-six-year-old Genie Lallan wakes up in hospital, having collapsed after a night in a club with her beloved brother Paul, who has now vanished. It seems that her more innocent nature has been tarnished in part by her drug-taking brother.

Through the numerous glimpses into their pasts as the story unfolds, we discover that Paul and Genie moved to Britain from Mauritius, and whilst Genie takes well to her new home, Paul just aches to be back in Mauritius.

The narrative is composed of three sections, relating first to Genie, then Paul, and finally them both. Within these sections, the stories from the present and the past, which recall various episodes in the lives of the two siblings, build to give the reader a fascinating, layered picture of them both, and of some of those around them. 

Often a character is asked by another to tell them their story, and I found this storytelling aspect a wonderful and particularly appealing element of this novel.

Genie and Paul reads like a fresh, original story of love, of shared memories and places that always feel like home to us. Soobramanien offers us a novel where the sense and evocation of place is key, and she writes with great insight as to how our bonds with those we are closest to shape our lives.

Published by Myriad Editions

Originally reviewed for We Love This Book

Thank you to them and to the publisher for providing a copy of this novel to read and review.