Reading matters

'Gents' by Warwick Collins

Fiction - paperback; Friday Fiction; 172 pages; 2007. REVIEW COPY.

A book set in a public lavatory may not sound terribly salubrious; it may, in fact, sound downright sordid. But Gents is far from the grubby little tale I expected it to be, which is somewhat surprising given that it's a tale about three West Indian janitors working in a central London toilet that is frequented by cottagers.

The story begins with Ezekiel Murphy taking a new job at a subterranean lavatory where the punters must pay to use the facilities. By lunchtime he already realises that some of the customers are using the cubicles for casual sex, a concept which he cannot comprehend. "Why they do it here? Why not somewhere else?" he asks.

His boss, Reynolds, takes a practical view of the situation. "We don't ask why, man. We don't keep their conscience, we only keeping order."

Meanwhile Jason keeps order by putting a big stick under the cubicle door and rattling it about to encourage any "reptiles" to leave.

But while the "reptiles" are harmless in themselves, the attention they attract is not, and before long Reynolds is being ordered by the local council to improve the lavatory's reputation.  However, "cleaning out the swamp", isn't as straightforward as one might think...

'The Well-Tempered Clavier' by William Coles

Fiction - paperback; Legend Press; 224 pages; 2007. REVIEW COPY.

This soon-to-be-released novel from independent book publisher Legend Press is set in Eton College, the world's most famous public school, during the height of the Falklands War.

It's 1982 and Kim, a 17-year-old boarder, dreams of following in his father's footsteps and becoming a soldier when he leaves school. But when he meets his new piano teacher, the beautiful India five years his senior, he falls instantly in love.

For the next few months the besotted school boy practises Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier -- India's favourite piece of music -- as if his life depends on it. His efforts pay off and the two embark on an illicit but passionate love affair. But Kim, who describes himself as an "emotional iceberg", becomes riddled with jealousy to the point that the relationship can no longer survive...

'Theft: A Love Story' by Peter Carey

Fiction - hardcover; Faber and Faber; 274 pages; 2006.

The wonderful and intriguing world of art forgery is explored in Theft: A Love Story, the Booker shortlisted novel by Australian author Peter Carey.

In my experience, reading anything by Peter Carey can be a bit of a hit or miss affair. There are certain books by him that I love (Jack Maggs, Oscar and Lucinda) and certain books I've struggled with and eventually abandoned (The Illywhacker, The True Story of the Kelly Gang). Fortunately, I found Theft: A Love Story to be immediately accessible and highly entertaining. I loved it's balance of humour and melancholy, and the twist at the end was a joy.

'Lost Souls' by Michael Collins

Fiction - paperback; Phoenix; 292 pages; 2003.

Dark, depressing and claustrophobic. These are the words that best describe this unconventional crime novel set in the heartland of industrial America, where "the smell of sulphur made the air taste bitter, a haze of pollution hanging in the wintry light, the chimneystacks breathing fire".

Into this "crouched, grand, sad and burned out landscape" dotted with factories, shopping malls, dilapidated motels and highways, Lawrence, a divorced policeman, discovers the body of a three-year-old girl lying face down in a pile of autumn leaves by the side of a road. It appears as if the toddler, who is dressed as an angel, has been the victim of a hit-and-run accident during the town's busy Halloween night festivities.

But why was she by herself? And why did the driver fail to stop and give assistance?

During the ensuing investigation, the town's star quarterback, a 17-year-old schoolboy called Kyle, emerges as the chief suspect.  But in a soulless town desperate for heroes a cover-up takes place to ensure the teenager's promising football career remains untarnished.

Lawrence, his sense of right and wrong dulled by his own personal and financial problems, becomes an unwitting pawn in the mayor's plan to "fudge" the investigation. When he later finds his own life threatened by an unknown assailant, Lawrence begins to question his role in the power games being played out by those around him. His actions, fuelled by fear, loneliness and paranoia, only serve to turn him into a suspect in the very case he is supposed to be investigating...

'Soldiers of Salamis' by Javier Cercas

Fiction - paperback; Bloomsbury Publishing; 224 pages; 2004. (Translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean.)

Soldiers of Salamis is one of those strange novels which blurs fact and fiction, so that the reader is never quite sure what is true and what is not. Such confusion is compounded by the author placing himself in the story as one of the major characters.

The book revolves around an incident that occurred in 1939 during the Spanish Civil War in which a prominent writer and fascist, Rafael Sanchez Mazas, escaped execution by firing squad. While on the run in the forest, Sanchez Mazas stumbles upon a soldier, who should have killed him but decides to turn and walk away instead. Who was this soldier and why did he make this decision?

Some 60 years later, these questions -- and the botched execution -- haunt a Spanish journalist, Javier Cercas, who decides to find out what really happened.

The first part of Soldiers of Salamis tells of Cercas's investigation of the event; the second is the resultant biography of Rafael Sanchez Mazas based on the anecdotal evidence he has acquired; and the third is the journalist's quest to track down the soldier, so that he can ask him why he chose to spare Sanchez Mazas' life that fateful day.

'The Saffron Kitchen' by Yasmin Crowther

Fiction - paperback; Abacus; 270  pages; 2007.

Set in London and rural Iran The Saffron Kitchen examines how the country of our birth and the culture in which we are born can have long-lasting effects on our values and sense of self. It also looks at how our relationships -- with family, friends and lovers -- can shape our past, present and future lives.

Told from the view point of an Iranian-born mother and her London-born daughter, the novel also reveals how difficult it can be to start a new life in a foreign land when you do not know the language and have no support network to guide you. How does one fit in? And what do you do if you feel you don't truly belong?

'The Colombian Mule' by Massimo Carlotto

Fiction - paperback; Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd ) - New Ed edition; 184  pages; 2004.

"Somehow the Colombian knew he was fucked the moment he met the cop's gaze."

So begins Massimo Carlotto's hardboiled Italian noir novel The Colombian Mule, which opens with Arias Cuevas being detained at Venice airport with a belly full of cocaine. When Cuevas describes his drug-smuggling contact -- "about fifty, medium-height, a bit fat, with light brown hair" -- the Italian police arrest the wrong man. Is it a case of mistaken identity, or are the police bending the law for their own means?

'Death's Dark Abyss' by Massimo Carlotto

Fiction - paperback; Europa Editions; 152  pages; 2007. (Translated from the Italian  by Lawrence Venuti.) REVIEW COPY.

If  you were the victim of a horrendous crime in which your spouse and child were murdered and you were later given the opportunity to dole out your own form of justice, would you do it?

This is the premise behind Massimo Carlotto's dark and disturbing Death's Dark Abyss, which is released in the UK by Europa Editions, an Italian independent publisher, later this week (February 8).

'Grey Souls' by Philippe Claudel

Fiction - paperback; Phoenix; 184  pages; 2006. (Translated from the French  by Adriana Hunter.)

This is a deeply mysterious, brooding novel set in a small French village during the First World War.

The unnamed narrator, a melancholy soul with secrets of his own to keep, reflects on the investigation of a young girl's murder in 1917.

Swinging backwards and forwards in time, the narrator explores the town's leading figures -- the judge, the public prosecutor, the school teacher et al --  and shows how the murder affected them, socially, professionally and emotionally.

At the same time, he examines his own life -- the ups and downs and great pains he has borne -- in order to get at the real truth: was justice delivered when a soldier confessed to the crime?

'Play Little Victims' by Kenneth Cook

Fiction - paperback; Futura; 87 pages; 1978

I first read Play Little Victims as part of my Year 9 English class at school -- way back in the 1980s. It was one of those quirky little books that I much enjoyed at the time and has stayed with me ever since.

Long out of print, I have searched high and low for this book over the years. Recently I found it on Amazon Marketplace for 20 pence (!!) and ordered it straight away.

Re-reading it as an adult, the brilliance of this story has not diminished in any way. If anything, it resonates much stronger now that I am more aware of my own mortality and of mankind's road to self-destruction.