I read the Whalebone Theatre a while back SueDonim, I certainly enjoyed it, but it didn't quite live up to some of the reviews I read at the time.
4. The Three Graces - Amanda Craig
Set amongst the olive groves of Tuscany, three octogenarian ex- pat women are living out their retirement whilst ruminating about their physical decline that affects them to a greater or lesser extent. . German born Marta a comfortably off concert pianist having sold her Hampstead house for an impossible sum is being visited by her mixed race grandson, where much of their conversations revolve around the difficulties experienced by his generation, saddled by student debt and unaffordable property prices, never to replicate the comfortable lifestyles of those of his grandmother's generation Meanwhile, Ruth a retired doctor, is about to host a wedding for her grandson and his prospective media influencer wife. Completing the trio, is not so well off Diana, Lady Evenlode, who is run ragged, nursing and caring for her irascible, bigot of a husband who is reaching the final stages of his life afflicted by dementia. The book opens with native born Enzo, whose family have lived off the land for generations, believing he is about to be burgled fires into the night to shoot the would be robber, and later fears on finding a blood soaked t shirt that he has actually killed someone. Enzo is a native born Tuscan and exemplifies a parochial regional affiliation, to him his Umbrian born neighbour is a foreigner. To his dismay Italy being in the front line of the migrant crises fears the influx of non native Italians that are bringing increasing crime to his once quiet idyll. The surrounding abandoned farmhouses are being used by traffickers to hide migrants desperately fleeing from harsh regimes. Into this mix, the stunning grand palazzo has been taken over by a paranoid Russian oligarch, and as a critic of Putin fears an assassination attempt possibly by Novichok.
Amanda Craig, imo, is an incredibly underrated writer, whilst I wouldn't say this is her best book it nevertheless tackles themes such as racist attitudes, rural poverty. As with her state of the nation previous books set in rural England, Lie of the Land, The Golden Rule Brexit is often a central theme which she tackles as a multi faceted issue taking into account inequality of opportunity, although always cleverly laced with a certain amount of satirical humour.
5 The New Puritans - Andrew Doyle (non fiction)
Andrew Doyle's illuminating book that draws parallels between the Salem Witch trials of the 17th century and the emergence of identity politics of today. The dogmatic illiberal attitudes espoused by these new puritans and the absurdity of cancel culture relating in particular to written works and more worryingly the ideological capture of institutions. He gives many illustrations of no platforming and the misconstruing of how certain groups perceive periods of history through their own prescribed lens, to give one such example The LGBTQ society of Goldsmiths University in London claimed that the "gulags" of Solzhenitsyn's works were nothing more than rather comfortable camps where people went to be rehabilitated surrounded by books, newspaper articles and performance groups, which I imagine would have come as some surprise to the late Solzhenitsyn and his compatriots who were incarcerated in such places.
Next up Lesson in Chemistry which practically every book loving person has read, except me!
