BOOK OF THE WEEK
The Blade Artist by Irvine Welsh, published in hardback by Jonathan Cape
FOR fans of Irvine Welsh's fiction, Frank Begbie is a terrifying proposition. Remorseless, humourless and prone to flurries of extreme violence, he is feared (and secretly ridiculed) by his friends and foes. But in his next outing, Welsh shows his hard man character in a new light.
Now a sculptor in America, ex-jailbird Jim Francis, as he's now styling himself, is a doting dad-of-two, a loving husband and clean-living evangelist. But when his son from a previous relationship is killed in mysterious circumstances, Jim returns to Edinburgh where his old crew expect him to fall in with his old, bad ways.
As ever with Welsh's work, The Blade Artist offers biting social commentary and razor-sharp humour. Fans too are rewarded with frequent references to much-loved Trainspotting characters and plots from previous novels. Where it differs to Welsh's previous multi-narrative fiction, though, is that the majority of this novel is told through Jim's eyes, and given that, as a character, he lacks a sense of humour about himself, it can feel unremittingly dark in places.
Still, with Welsh's trademark wit and observation in place, The Blade Artist unpeels a layer of his notorious character and offers an unsettling, but compelling glimpse into Begbie's psyche.
Keeley Bolger
Children’s Children by Jan Carson, published by Liberties Press
HERE is Northern Ireland – both as you know it and as you’ve never seen it before. In her new short story collection, Children’s Children (the follow-up to 2014’s critically acclaimed debut novel Malcolm Orange Disappears), Ballymena-born author Jan Carson proves herself adept at making the familiar marvellously uncanny.
With a healthy dose of irreverence, the writer introduces us to a motley crew of characters: a human statue who has “begun to find movement problematic”, a young boy who’s allergic to other people, a flying child resistant to “magnets and lead weights, Velcro shoes and anchors”.
Fantastical as these scenarios may be, Carson manages to make them seem completely plausible; so rich are her descriptions, so attentive is she to the detail of everyday life.
The collection’s titular final story – an allegorical look at the divisions entrenched in our society – tantalises us with the possibility of a “brave new direction, balanced like a hairline fracture in the centre of everything”. Carson’s writing – bracingly fresh, darkly funny, unwaveringly compassionate – represents such a direction in Northern Irish fiction.
Tara McEvoy
Lunatics, Lovers And Poets: Twelve Stories After Cervantes And Shakespeare, edited by Daniel Hahn and Margarita Valencia, published by &Other Stories
SOME of the brightest lights of contemporary fiction celebrate the timelessness of William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes in a collection of short stories to mark the 400th anniversary of both men's deaths.
Salman Rushdie introduces a dozen fascinating original takes by writers including Nigeria's Ben Okri, Colombia's Juan Gabriel Vasquez and Britain's Deborah Levy, in a book organised by &Other Stories and the Hay Festival.
Writers have been taking inspiration (and sometimes more) from Shakespeare and Don Quixote author Cervantes for centuries but nonetheless these stories still manage to be fresh and exciting. Much of this comes from the diversity of writer backgrounds on show, and their style and traditions add a wealth of interpretation and perspective.
A personal favourite was Mir Aslam of Kolachi, a poignant take on contemporary and historic Islam by Pakistan-born novelist Kamila Shamsie. It's a fitting tribute to two of history's best.
David Wilcock
The Mother by Yvette Edwards, published in hardback by Mantle
IT IS every parent's worst nightmare – their child being murdered – yet for Marcia and husband Lloydie, whose 16-year-old son, Ryan, was stabbed to death, it is the reality that now governs their lives. And the trial of the boy accused of murdering their son is just about to begin.
While Lloydie turns his back on what is happening, Marcia is determined to be there throughout, in the hope of finding some understanding as to why the accused, Tyson Manley, took the life of her beloved son.
Former Man Booker Prize longlisted author Yvette Edwards crafts a wonderfully vivid and arresting portrait of a mother facing up to the ultimate horror and doing so with dignity and bravery. The narrative is insular and tense, and like the trial itself, a crucible of charged emotions.
While the charting of the trial threatens to become formulaic, Edwards keeps the action ticking over with a poignant depiction of Marcia and Lloydie's relationship and a compelling portrait of the girl at the heart of the story, Tyson's girlfriend Sweetie.
Jade Craddock
The Crow Girl by Erik Axl Sund, published in hardback by Harvill Secker
MAKE sure you are not home alone when you tackle this Scandinavian thriller, which records detective Jeanette Kihlberg's attempts to track a deranged killer. Creepy is elevated to an art form in this tale of dysfunctional characters, peppered with paedophilia, guilt, pain, powerlessness, denial and betrayal.
The subject matter makes for harrowing reading at times, but skilfully escalating suspense keeps you hooked all the way through its 760-pages. Erik Axl Sund is the pseudonym for authors Jerker Eriksson and Hakan Axlander Sundquist and their Swedish original, a bestseller in their native land, has been translated into beautifully economic prose by Neil Smith, who also translates for Jo Nesbo.
Ultimately, this novel proves that what frightens us most are not outward acts of violence, but the quiet horrors of the human psyche.
Gill Oliver
NON FICTION
The Tree Climber's Guide: Adventures In The Urban Canopy by Jack Cooke, published in hardback by Harper Collins
STARING out of his central-London office window one lunchtime, across to Regents Park, Jack Cooke has an urge to run outside and climb a tree. Suddenly, he's aware of how risk-averse we've become, how disconnected from the natural world, how grown up. Why, he wonders, don't adults climb trees? Why do we never look up?
Part memoir, part practical guide and part celebration of the natural world, this beautifully written – and beautifully illustrated – book documents Cooke's arboreal odyssey around London.
As he scurries squirrel-like up a Scots pine, teeters precariously over a canal and climbs as high up a horse chestnut as he dares, his joy and wonder as he views the city from his bird's-eye vantage point are infectious. So much so, that on my way home from work, I found myself eyeing up trees and thinking, if only I could get a leg up... An absolute delight.
Catherine Small
CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK
Goodnight Spaceman, written by Michelle Robinson and illustrated by Nick East, published by Puffin
IT'S not every children's book that is introduced by a real live astronaut – and produced in collaboration with the European Space Agency.
Inspired by British spaceman Tim Peake and his sons Oliver and Thomas, who watched their dad launch into space last December, the book follows two young boys on their own rocket-fired adventure to visit their astronaut dad.
As they get ready for bed, they say goodnight to their toy rockets, launchpad and planet mobile before jetting off into space, where they're invited to join the team on board the International Space Station.
My own son was captivated by Nick East's epic pictures showing the stars and Earth from the air – and Michelle Robinson's gentle rhymes are perfect for bedtime. As Peake writes in his introductory letter, we're all spacemen on Planet Earth, and the latest book from the team behind Goodnight Digger and Goodnight Pirate should inspire a new generation of budding astronauts.
Kate Whiting
