Reading matters

'The Draining Lake' by Arnaldur Indriðason

Fiction - paperback; Harvill Secker; 312  pages; 2007. (Translated from the Icelandic by Bernard Scudder.)

Icelandic journalist turned crime writer Arnaldur Indriðason became a firm favourite of mine when I read his brilliant novel Tainted Blood (also known as Jar City) back in 2006. The book was a refreshing change to the normal formulaic crime books I'd read in the past, and the setting -- the Icelandic capital Reykjavik -- added an "exotic" touch.

Of course there has been somewhat of an explosion in Scandinavian crime fiction since then, but it is Indriðason to whom I feel most loyal. Indeed, I have made a point of buying each new novel as it has been released, and The Draining Lake was no exception, although it did languish in my reading queue for about six months.

This is the fourth Reykjavik murder mystery -- starring the grumpy but troubled detective Erlunder -- to be translated into English. It is typical Indriðason fare but for some reason I didn't find the story as gripping as the others that preceded it.

'Digging Up the Dead: Uncovering the Life and Times of an Extraordinary Surgeon' by Druin Burch

Non-fiction - paperback; Vintage; 276 pages; 2008. Review copy.

I have read some interesting and unusual books in my time, but Druin Burch's Digging Up the Dead must be the most interesting and unusual book I have ever read. Indeed, when I was offered it for review, I had initially been drawn to the dark, Gothic nature of the subject, but hadn't quite clocked the fact it was a non-fiction title. So when it popped through my door I was slightly taken aback to discover that it was actually a biography. But what a biography it turned out to be!

Digging Up the Dead looks at the life and times of arguably the world's first famous surgeon, Astley Cooper (1768-1841), whom Burch -- himself a medical doctor -- describes as vain, egotistical, nepotistic and "rather wonderful".

Astley was born into a highly educated family -- his father was an Oxford-educated vicar, his uncle was senior surgeon at Guy's Hospital in London -- but he showed little interest in books or study but specialised in pranks and adventures. When the family moved to Yarmouth he began training under a local apothecary, who also doubled as a surgeon, in the hope that he might learn enough to follow his older brothers into university and perhaps a physicianship, or his uncle to a hospital and career as a surgeon. He did well and moved on to become an apprentice to a surgeon at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital.

When he was fourteen-and-a-half he witnessed a problematic, but successful, operation to remove a stone from a man's bladder. This was to have a profound influence on him, because it was not long after that he decided to embark on surgical training in London, much to the delight of his family.

'Dracula' by Bram Stoker

Fiction - paperback; Wordsworth Classics; 352 pages; 2003.

The horror genre isn't my normal genre of choice. I spent my teenage years working my way through Stephen King's (then existing) back catalogue, dabbled with some Dean R Koontz and a little James Herbert, before giving Anne Rice a shot. I read Interview with a Vampire, The Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned and that's about the sum total of my exposure to horror/vampire fiction.

But Dracula was always one of those books I intended to read at some point, if only because I wanted to understand how one nineteenth century novel could have such an influence on the popularity of vampires in modern day literature and films. I put it off for years and years, but during a visit to Whitby, on the north east coast of England earlier this year, I finally decided it was time to read the book. I had been to Whitby before, but this time around its connection with Dracula seemed to resonate more, perhaps because I'd seen a BBC TV production and recognised the Abbey and the Yorkshire coastline on the screen. (In truth, during my first visit in 1998, I was more interested in the "Australian connection" -- Whitby is where Captain James Cook embarked on his famous Pacific voyages.)

Whitby is, of course, the fishing village where Bram Stoker sets some parts of the novel -- where one of the main characters, Lucy, meets Dracula for the first time, in fact. But it's also the place where Stoker began taking notes for the book while on holiday in 1890. It is a beautiful village nestled by the River Esk -- and Stoker's description, told through the eyes of Mina Murray, remains unchanged more than a century later:

'Don't I Know You?' by Karen Shepard

Fiction - paperback; Harper Perennial; 230 pages; 2006.

This fascinating murder mystery, which is set in New York in the 1970s, opens with a 12-year-old boy, Stephen, coming home to his Upper Westside apartment to find his mother dead on the floor. Gina has been raped and stabbed multiple times. The TV is still on and all the windows are open.

Outside, it was getting darker. Inside too. He was crying.
Her black hair was still in its ponytail. It was spread out like she was jumping. She was making a face that he didn't like to look at. He thought about touching her, but didn't.
Down the hall, a quiet thud and two creaks.
His feet and hands tingled. Get out, he thought. He stood; his knees cracked, and he headed toward the front door. The sound of something heavy being lifted and put down again. He was still crying. He started down the hall. He couldn't believe he was doing it.
There was blood. Streaky patches of it. And then it stopped. His foot hit something that rolled. Glass beads. He recognised them from the necklace she liked to wear.
Her bedroom door was open a little. Shadows moved behind it.
He ran the last few feet. His head felt like he'd been holding his breath too long. 'Hey,' he called. 'Hey'.
One leg was disappearing out the window onto the fire escape. Jeans. A white sock. Adidas sneaker. White with green stripes.

'Detour' by James Siegel

Fiction - paperback; Time Warner Books; 406  pages; 2005.   

First things first. If you read this book you need to check your brain at the door. Detour is not highbrow literature. Instead it's a fast-paced plot-driven romp that reads like a movie screenplay. It's well written in the sense that it's effortless to read. But if you're expecting something that will rock your world or make you see things in a different light or have you reassessing your life, then give this one a wide berth. It's enjoyable and entertaining. No more, no less.

Like Siegel's previous effort, Derailed (which was turned into a movie starring Jennifer Aniston), Detour is about ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances. In this case, a young New York couple, Joanna and Paul, travel to Colombia to adopt a baby as part of a fast-track scheme set up by their lawyer. Of course Colombia is a dangerous country -- a point which Siegel labours again and again throughout this long novel -- and there's a menace around every corner. Not surprisingly, the couple and their new adorable baby girl, Joelle, are kidnapped by left-wing militia -- and then things really heat up.

Paul enters into a deal to secure their release: he must travel to New York as a drug mule with 30 condoms of cocaine inside him. He has 18 hours to deliver them to an address in Queens and once the drugs are safely handed over, Joanna and Joelle will be free to return to the USA. If he doesn't hand them over, he will never see his wife and daughter again...

Of course -- you guessed it -- things don't go according to plan, but to say any more would spoil the plot...

'Digging to America' by Anne Tyler

Fiction - paperback; Vintage; 336  pages; 2007.

What is it to be an American? And to what lengths will people go to fit in even when they come from far flung places? Is it possible to remain a foreigner even after you have lived in a new country for more than 30 years?

These questions -- and more -- are explored in Anne Tyler's brilliant Digging to America, her 17th novel, which has been critically acclaimed on  both sides of the Atlantic and was recently shortlisted for this year's Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction.

In typical Tyler fashion Digging to America revolves around a range of relatively ordinary characters in Baltimore dealing with extraordinary circumstances.

Two couples, both of whom are unable to have children, decide to adopt Korean babies. When they meet by chance at the airport on the day of their daughters' arrival neither couple could be more different. Bitsy and Brad Donaldson are all-American -- loud, brash and unselfconscious about turning Jin-Ho's arrival into some kind of over-the-top celebration -- while Ziba and Sami Yazdan, two American-Iranians, are quiet, shy and restrained as they wait for Sooki -- later dubbed Susan because it "was a comfortable sound for Iranians to pronounce" -- to be "delivered" into their arms.

'The Devil Wears Prada' by Lauren Weisberger

Fiction - paperback; Harper Collins; 400  pages; 2003.

If you have ever worked for an unreasonable boss or taken a job where you have had to compromise your values, then this book is likely to appeal.

I don't normally "do" chick-lit but I raced through The Devil Wears Prada if only because the plight of the narrator -- Andrea Sachs, who takes a job as an editorial assistant on a fashion magazine -- resonated so strongly with me. I, too, have worked for a tyrant in the form of a successful editor, although the magazine I worked on wasn't quite as glamorous as the one portrayed here.

'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).

'Don't Look Back' by Karin Fossum

Fiction - paperback; Vintage; 252  pages; 2003. (Translated from the Norwegian  by Felicity David.)

A sleepy Norwegian village is rocked by the discovery of a teenage girl's naked body lying on the edge of a local, secluded lake. Did she kill herself? Or was she the victim of a sexual attack?

But there's much more to this crime than meets the eye, as Inspector Sejer soon discovers. The victim, for instance, was an extremely popular girl in the neighbourhood, but she had recently become withdrawn and had quit her school's handball team despite being a top-notch player. She had also stopped her regular babysitting work. Her mother puts this change in behaviour down to puberty; her father thinks there's slightly more going on; Sjer wonders if she might have been raped.

'The Dark' by John McGahern

Fiction - paperback; Faber & Faber; 192 pages; 2000

First published in 1965, this aptly titled book is about one boy's painful adolescence and his confused, ambiguous relationship with his violent widower father.

Set in rural Ireland during the 1950s and 60s, the unnamed protagonist longs to escape his father's abusive shadow. But the only real options open to him are the priesthood or the farm.

When he concentrates on his schoolwork and wins a scholarship to university, it looks like he might have found the escape route he was looking for. But how will he explain his decision to his cantankerous and manipulative father? And if he leaves, how will his younger siblings cope without anyone to defend them?