Weekly Words about New Books in
Independent Bookstores
August 1, 2021
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Two New Novels Tell Powerful, Personal Stories As They Highlight Environmental Threats and Harrowing Lives of Migrant Workers
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Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson. This epic novel, set in 1977, tells the story of a Pacific Northwest logging town pulled apart by a mystery that threatens to derail its way of life. The stirring of the pot begins when Colleen Gunderson, a mother and midwife, becomes disturbed by an increase in local miscarriages - including her own - and starts to investigate. Her suspicion is that they're caused by the pesticides used by the Sanderson Timber Company, which employs her husband - and most of the rest of the town. For decades, the herbicides the logging company uses were considered harmless, but Colleen is no longer so sure. Unfortunately, her search for answers drives not only a wedge in her marriage but also divides a town that lives and dies on timber.
While comparisons to Richard Power's environmental novel The Overstory are inevitable, Damnation Spring has also been compared to the writings of John Steinbeck and Annie Proulx. Here's what Publishers Weekly had to say: "Davidson's impressive debut chronicles life in a working-class community so thoroughly that the reader feels the characters' anguish as they're divided over environmental concerns that threaten their lives and livelihoods....The depiction of ordinary people trapped by circumstances beyond their control makes for a heart-wrenching modern American tragedy."
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Songbirds by Christy Lefteri. Herself the daughter of Cypriot refugees, Lefteri is best known (for now) for her powerful and harrowing novel of Syrian war refugees, The Beekeeper of Aleppo. Her latest book is inspired by the real-life disappearance of domestic workers in Cyprus and finds Lefteri again giving voice to and spotlighting the humanity of vulnerable migrant populations.
Nisha works on the island of Cyprus as a nanny and maid, having left her native Sri Lanka to try to earn enough to support her daughter, who has been left behind with relatives. But one evening, Nisha sudddenly and mysteriously vanishes. The police write off her disappearance as just another runaway domestic worker, so her employer, Petra, undertakes the investigation, teaming up with Nisha's lover, Yiannis, a poacher who hunts tiny songbirds on their way to Africa. Their exploration of Nisha's last days in Cyprus lead them to Nisha's friends - other maids in the neighborhood - and to the darker side of a migrant's life, where impossible choices leave them vulnerable, captive, and worse. As Publishers Weekly noted in its review of Songbirds, “The novel is beautifully written and moving. Lefteri’s fans won’t be disappointed.”
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Now in Paperback, One of My Favorite New Mysteries
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The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. Well, I have to say, reading this thoroughly original mystery was the most fun I've had in a while. It features an unlikely quartet of crime-solving septuagenarians living in an English retirement center. The four meet weekly to talk about murder - thanks to the Club's two founding members, they have access to police files of unsolved cases. So imagine their delight when the venal developer of their village is killed on the grounds where they live. Even better, another corpse soon follows, giving these intrepid retirees another opportunity to prove that getting old needn't impede sharp wits and intuition.
Osman provides readers with plenty of clues and suspects as his gang of four slowly but surely unravel the mysteries of the murders. But his real gift is in creating likeable characters who prove to be funny and plenty smart as they both partner with and use the police to further their investigation. The Thursday Murder Club fits the "cozy" genre of mysteries - think Miss Marple and Murder She Wrote's Jessica Fletcher - but these amateur detectives have more emotional depth and complexity than many such crime novels offer.
In its starred review, the Library Journal said, "The character-driven mystery, featuring a group of sleuths all too aware of their own mortality, and a likable pair of cops, is suspenseful, funny, and poignant... The delightful, spirited characters from this witty, sometimes bittersweet story deserve a return engagement."
And the good news is, a return engagement is imminent - The Man Who Died Twice: A Thursday Murder Club Mystery publishes September 28 in hardcover.
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WHY THE COLUMN?
Hi, I'm Hut Landon, and I'm a bookseller in an independent bookstore in BerkeIey, CA.
My goal here is to keep readers up to date about new books hitting the shelves, share what indie booksellers are recommending in their stores, and pass on occasional news about the book world.
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