Reading matters

'First Love' by Ivan Turgenev

Fiction - paperback; Penguin Classics; 102 pages; 2007. (Translated from the Russian by Isaiah Berlin.)

First Love is Russian writer Ivan Turgenev’s most famous novella. First published in 1860, it has been beautifully repackaged and republished as part of Penguin’s Great Love series.

At just over 100 pages, this is a book that can quickly be read in one sitting (I achieved it via two 20-minute train journeys), although its brevity should not be mistaken for shallowness. First Love is exactly what the title suggests: a man looks back on his first love. “I was sixteen at the time,” he writes. “It happened in the summer of 1833.”

'Forever' by Pete Hamill

Fiction - paperback; Back Bay Books; 613 pages; 2004.

Sometimes you pick up a book and get totally swept away by the story that you forgot all sense of time or place. So it was with this critically acclaimed novel by the former editor in chief of the New York Post and the New York Daily News.

At 613 pages I expected this hefty tome to last me a couple of weeks but I was so caught up in the life of Cormac O'Connor, an Irish immigrant who lands in New York in 1740 and remains...forever, that I raced through it in less than a week -- and even then I tried to draw out the last hundred or so pages because I didn't want it to end.

I'm not sure how to describe Forever. It's part swashbuckling adventure, part romance, part historical drama, part fable. It spans more than three centuries and tells the story of a poor rural Irish lad who is granted immortality, as long as he never steps foot off the island of Manhattan. And because part of his deal is to ensure he lives a very full and active life, rather than sitting on the sidelines merely existing, he throws himself into all kinds of situations.

Over the course of some 300 years he witnesses (and sometimes partakes in) many great scenes in history, including the American Revolution and the destruction of the World Trade Centre on 9/11. During this time he also meets and falls in love with several women, learns many different trades, carries out various professions (printer, artist, journalist) and teaches himself a host of languages.

But this is no fairytale. Violence and mayhem follow Cormac throughout the ages, particularly as he is on a quest to avenge his father's brutal murder. According to Celtic code this means he must not only seek out and kill his father's murderer, he must also ensure that all of the murderer's heirs are slain. (I admit that I quietly struggled with this aspect of the storyline, because it seemed too brutal for my liking -- and I wanted Cormac, such a well-rounded and likeable character in so many respects, to learn that revenge does not solve anything. I won't spoil the plot by revealing whether or not he succeeds in achieving his goal.)

'Fall on Your Knees' by Ann-Marie MacDonald

Fiction - paperback; Simon & Schuster New York; 508  pages; 2005.

First published in 1996, this acclaimed debut novel by Ann-Marie MacDonald tells the unforgettable story of four sisters - Kathleen, the beautiful and talented one; Mercedes, the good and morally upstanding one; Frances, the wayward and bad one; and Lily, the much-adored crippled one - growing up on Cape Breton Island in the early 20th century.

'The Final Solution' by Michael Chabon

Fiction - paperback; Harper Perennial; 127  pages; 2005.

The disappearance of a young boy's African grey parrot forms the centrepiece of this intriguingly old-fashioned detective novel by Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Michael Chabon.

Set in 1944 war-time England, the bird, Bruno, speaks German, spouting numbers one to nine in no particular order for hours at a time. Could he be revealing a classified enemy code or the number of a secret Swiss bank account?

'Felicia's Journey' by William Trevor

Fiction - paperback; Penguin; 213 pages; 1994

This is a wonderful, heartbreaking tale of a teenage girl's search for the father of her unborn child. That search takes her from her childhood home in Dublin, Ireland, to the bleak, post-industrial heartland of the British Midlands. Her journey is fraught with difficulty and disaster until she meets the seemingly kindly Mr Hilditch who takes her under his wing. At just 17 years of age, Felicia's stranger-danger radar seems far from tuned and she naively accepts his assistance.

This perfectly written novel (not a sentence, not a word, is out of place) is an enriching read. Felicia's character - her naivety, her grit, her determination - is in stark contrast to Mr Hilditch's smarmy, insidiously creepy, traits.

"Watching" Felicia blindly going on her wild goose chase is difficult enough without having the menacing Mr Hilditch - a catering man in love with food - follow her every move.

Without wishing to spoil the ending for anyone, I can say it is heartbreakingly sad, and some tissues might come in handy.

'The Fourth Queen' by Debbie Taylor

Fiction  - paperback; Penguin; 496 pages; 2004

This is a sanguine, sexy tale set in a harem in Morocco.

It's based on the true story of Helen Gloag, who, fleeing the poverty of Scotland, finds herself on a ship bound for America. When the ship is captured by pirates, the young, inexperienced and prudish teenager is kidnapped and sold into slavery.

In the harem run by the cruel and charismatic Emperor Sidi Mohammed, Helen's world is turned completely upside down. From a naive waif with little sexual experience she becomes the emperor's fourth wife (hence the book's title) and lives a life that must have been totally unimaginable for a western woman in the 18th century.

'Final Demand' by Deborah Moggach

Fiction - paperback; Vintage; pages; 2002

This is a fantastic, page-turning read, with realistic characters and a truly believable, if somewhat surreal, plot.

Natalie is working in a dead-end job and yearns for something more when she hits upon a wonderful, although criminal, idea to make herself rich and hopefully happier. While she is busily defrauding the telecommunications company for which she works and having a great time with her new found wealth, she has no idea how her actions are impinging on the fortunes and lives of innocent people.

This gripping story with its fast-turning plot explores the thin line between morality and greed and how the smallest of actions, however we may try to justify them, can have horrifying consequences. Thoroughly recommended, particularly if you're looking for a wet-weather read or something to take away on holiday.

'Five Quarters of the Orange' by Joanne Harris

Fiction - paperback; Black Swan; 363 pages; 2002

Reading a Joanne Harris book is like catching up with an old friend -- enjoyable and comfortable. Five Quarters of the Orange is no exception.

Building on from her thematic explorations of the world of chocolate in Chocolat and wine-making in Blackberry Wine, this novel serves up more delicious and mouth-watering descriptions of food and baking set in a French creperie by the River Loire.

The narrator, an elderly French woman called Framboise, recalls her childhood growing up under the shadow of Nazi occupation. The experience in which her mother, an ill-tempered woman prone to migraines, is singled out as a collaborator, has forced Framboise to reinvent her past. But now this dark history, so carefully hidden, could be exposed by her nephew and his profiteering journalist wife who have their eye on their grandmother's recipe book, now in Framboise's possession.

Wonderfully written, seamlessly weaving the past with the present, and capturing so vividly wartime life and childhood adventure, this is a highly recommended read.