Entertainment

Book reviews: Sarah Winman's Tin Man a short novel that packs an enormous punch

Tin Man by Sarah Winman – a heartbreaking story about love, loss and grief
Tin Man by Sarah Winman – a heartbreaking story about love, loss and grief Tin Man by Sarah Winman – a heartbreaking story about love, loss and grief

BOOK OF THE WEEK

Tin Man by Sarah Winman, published in hardback by Tinder Press

ACTRESS and writer Sarah Winman's third novel Tin Man is a heartbreaking story about love, loss and grief. Ellis and Michael are best friends, both growing up without their mothers in Oxford in the 1970s. The pair share a love of cycling and travel, and on a trip to France, their relationship becomes physical. A few years later, Annie enters the picture, with the trio soon becoming inseparable. But then Michael moves to London and disappears from Ellis and Annie's lives. Years pass, and in 1996 the reader encounters a withdrawn Ellis living on his own and working nights at a car factory. The devastating events of the intervening years slowly come to light as Winman skilfully moves between characters and decades. This book is all emotion, and unashamedly so, exploring themes such as the exuberance of youth and the desperation of unrequited love – and what lingers at the end is an overwhelming sense of sadness. A short novel that packs an enormous punch.

Verena Vogt

Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell, published in hardback by Century

ELLIE Mack, 15, disappears without a trace – a golden girl gone no one knows where. Ten years later, a body is found and her mother, Laurel, has a chance to rebuild her shattered, on-hold life. She meets a charismatic stranger in a cafe and is swept into an affair. But is Floyd all he seems – and why is his daughter, Poppy, almost a carbon copy of Ellie? Jewell builds a gripping novel around a maze of dark secrets, a tautly wound psychological thriller in which the suspense builds slowly. Her storytelling is immaculate, hopping between past and present, and in and out of different characters. It's a tough read at times, but Jewell always keeps everything moving. The intrigue never flags as she pushes towards a redemptive resolution. An astute and emotionally charged read, riddled with creepiness. Fully recommended.

Julian Cole

Friend Request by Laura Marshall, published in hardback by Sphere

THIS psychological thriller grips you right from the tag-line – "Maria Weston wants to be friends on Facebook. But Maria has been dead for 25 years. Hasn't she?" Flipping between the present and high school days in 1989, it tells the story of Louise, a middle-aged, single mum, who is stopped in her tracks when she receives a Facebook friend request from an old school friend who disappeared 25 years ago and is presumed dead. All the adolescent pain of her school days and the dark secrets surrounding Maria's death come flooding back to haunt Louise, who has struggled to move on from the events of 1989 and, more recently, a painful divorce. It is an accomplished debut novel which not only boasts an engrossing storyline, but also perfectly captures teenage angst and the need to be accepted. But even more relevant is the book's insight into social media, its dangers and how much we all leave ourselves open online. Marshall shows real promise to become a firm thriller favourite.

Holly Williams

NON-FICTION

Reading With Patrick: A Teacher, A Student And A Life-changing Friendship by Michelle Kuo, published in hardback by Macmillan

MICHELLE Kuo's impassioned account of life in the Deep South is at once urgent, and mournful of the past. Kuo arrived in Arkansas in 2004 as an idealistic teacher, and struggled to adjust to the vicissitudes of life in the Delta: a place where corporal punishment and racial segregation remained prominent features of an area long-since used to violence and discrimination. Among her students is Patrick Browning, a 15-year-old whose upbringing with a crippled ex-con father and diabetic mother is as typical as any of his peers', but set apart if only due to his quiet studiousness. It is him, who, years later, Kuo returns to teach again in prison; adding structure to his structureless days behind bars for manslaughter. Kuo's triumph is to place Patrick's story within the larger story of the American south: To insist that learning can transcend space and time. Reading With Patrick is a moving and important work at a time when America remains gripped by inner turmoil.

Peter Cary

CHILDREN'S BOOKS

Dread Cat by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Nicola O'Byrne, published by Barrington Stoke

WE'VE all been overdosing on cute cat videos on Youtube for years, so it's probably time we were reminded of the darker side to cats. Dread Cat is pretty cunning. He's so scary that all the mice scarper at the sight of him, which means he's not doing too well on the mouse-catching front. So he comes up with a plan – to tell the mice he's given up chasing them for good. To prove it, he promises each mouse a lump of cheese, and they process past him each night to collect it. But what the mice don't realise is Dread Cat is picking off the last mouse of the pack and gobbling it down. Only when their numbers have dwindled from 50 to 36 do the mice spot something is very wrong and come up with a plan to foil Dread Cat's dastardly plan. Like Tom And Jerry for a younger generation, Rosen's tall tale is a treat for young readers, in short, easy-to-read chapters, simply illustrated by Nicola O'Byrne.

Kate Whiting

There Is No Dragon In This Story by Lou Carter, illustrated by Deborah Allwright, published by Bloomsbury

DRAGONS are having a moment – only a few weeks back, Elys Dolan's Knighthood For Beginners saw Dave the rubbish dragon try his hand at being a knight and now, for younger children, Lou Carter and Deborah Allwright have a dragon (called Dragon) who's fed up of being the baddie and wants to be the hero of any story that will have him. In his search for stardom, he meets a small gingerbread man, Jack, up a beanstalk, a little pig, Goldilocks and... the list goes on. But they all tell him: 'There is no dragon in this story' (you get the picture). But, when the dragon comes face-to-face with the giant who's chasing Jack, everything changes and suddenly, after one very big sneeze, Dragon gets his chance to save the day. With cute illustrations and a healthy lesson in perseverance, this is a charm of a picture book.

Kate Whiting