Book of the Week

The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
Recommended by Robert Daniel

The Talented Mr Ripley is a very good book which explores the inner turmoils of a charming, yet tortured murderer set against the backdrop of some of the most beautiful places in Europe (the Amalfi coast, Venice, Paris, Rome and the Cote d'Azur).

The story is gripping as Ripley impersonates Dickie Greenleaf, the young man whom he murdered and whose identity he stole. It is fascinating to see Ripley adapt his speech, looks and lifestyle to become Dickie, but the image soon begins to crumble and Ripley must adapt and improvise to survive. The way by which Highsmith explores this change is masterful and is what the book is really about. Ripley himself blows any other characters out of the water, making them seem boring and forgettable compared to him, and his inner dialogue is brilliant. I especially loved the scene where he plans, with a chilling logic and calm, how he will murder Dickie the following day. Of course, the locations are also incredible, especially as Highsmith uses different writing styles and description to give a sense of the atmosphere of each place, but this is really in the background compared to Ripley's brilliant character.

In conclusion, The Talented Mr Ripley is an excellent crime thriller written from an unusual perspective which I would recommend highly.

Book of the Week

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick, reviewed by Hasan Imam-Sadeque

The Man in the High Castle is set in an alternate dystopian future where the axis powers won the Second World War and took over the world, changing the course of history forever. In it the world is split between the Nazi empire and the Imperial Japanese empire. The Nazis control Europe, Africa, Arabia and small parts of the Americas, eradicating all ethnicities deemed ‘unfit’, manipulating puppet governments, draining the Mediterranean Sea to increase its land mass and even effectively taking over its old ally, the Italian empire. the IJE, on the other hand, controls most of the rest of the world but is not as harsh as its Nazi counterpart and is much more liberal. In between these two hulking empires is the last remnant of free USA, called the Rocky Mountain Buffer. Here, the citizens are told that if the allies had won, communism would have taken over the world, and - not knowing any better - they believe all of the propaganda they are fed.

The novel is written from the perspective of different characters situated in both Japanese and Nazi occupied America, during which the Fuhrer dies and a Nazi power struggle erupts. Many of the characters read from a fictional novel (within the novel) about what would have happened if the Allies had emerged victories in WW2 - the book is outright banned in the Nazi Empire but published in the more liberal IJE, as well as other remaining countries.

Book of the week

Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch, reviewed by Alex Haydn-Williams



Foxglove Summer is the fifth book in Aaronovitch’s bestselling Rivers of London series, which follows Peter Grant, an apprentice in the magical division of the Met Police, The Folly, as he balances his life between learning spells, upholding the rule of law in the worlds of fairies and demi-gods sustaining a less-than-professional relationship with one of the aforementioned gods and trying to understand how this whole “magic” thing works.

What I read this summer ...

by Mr O'Keeffe

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Were it not for a seven hour TGV train journey through France I doubt I would have got round to tackling this. Is there anyone in the world who doesn’t think it’s at least 300 pages too long ? My theory is that editors were clearly too scared to tell Ms Tartt that she needed to cut it and that bits of it don’t work, and that all those who had spent so many hours ploughing through the 900 pages were clearly reluctant to admit that it might not have been time well spent. I blame the TGV.

Book of the Week

Napoleon the Great by Andrew Roberts

Recommended by George Farago

Napoleon the Great is a new, controversial biography of one of history's greatest figures, that goes against the traditional viewpoint taken by historians to put him in a very different light.  Roberts uncovers a side of Napoleon hidden from us by years of propaganda and shows us that Napoleon was more than just a great general, he was a great statesman, politician, activist and a striver whose achievements easily could rival those of Caesar, Alexander the Great, Washington and Genghis Khan.  He wasn't an egomaniac who wanted to take over the world.  He was, without doubt, ambitious, but he was also a great leader who wanted what was best for France, its people and all the other people in his empire.

Book of the Week

The Outsider by Albert Camus
Recommended by William Isotta 

The Outsider by Albert Camus, concerns the life of Meursault, a Bachelor who lives in Algiers, a part of the French Republic.

Meursault is compulsively truthful, even to the point of offending those around him. Indeed the book commences with him receiving the news of the death of his mother, and his response to this is quite shocking to the reader. In the most candid terms he wonders whether his mother died that day or the previous day, as all he has is a telegram from an old people's home. He abandons the thought almost casually as he realises it is only speculation. Indeed this detached and completely truthful attitude extends to admitting to his girlfriend that he does not think he really loves her even when proposing. This attitude soon becomes a liability, however, as a shockingly violent incident calls into question the values of the world as a whole, which seem vastly different to those of Meursault himself.

FIST OF FIVE: FIVE NOVELS WITH 'ROAD' IN THE TITLE ...

Mr Hager

The Road

A father and his son fight for survival in a post-apocalyptic world. This raises plenty of questions about the fragility of human values whilst also being a gripping and tense quest narrative. An excellent novel from one of the greatest modern writers, and it’s probably only his fifth-best book. Read this to see if you like him, and then go and read Blood Meridian and the whole of the Border Trilogy.