How To Be A Good Wife by Emma Chapman

Marta Bjornstat's life looks perfect. A beautiful home, a handsome older husband,  a successful son. Emma Chapman's gripping debut novel shows us how little it takes for this facade of perfection to crumble and expose the huge and disturbing cracks in the Bjornstats' supposedly good marriage.

Marta begins to see a hauntingly frail girl in her home. The girl seems to be beside her, but she can't talk to her, and no one else can see her. Somehow we know she isn't exactly a ghost, and nor do we believe Marta's husband Hector,  who is angry that she has stopped taking her medication.

As this elegant novel progresses we see the cracks deepen. Hector has been keeping some disturbing secrets from Marta, and she has to struggle to find out the truth about her marriage. The world beyond her home, for so long the centre of her life, draws her away from the supposed safety of domestic comfort and into the challenge of working out her own identity.

Emma Chapman's debut novel is a compelling read. It is slim and economical, the spare narration seeming somehow appropriate for the Scandinavian setting. The lands of super stylish homes and lifestyles also seems very apt for a story about the illusion of a perfect marriage.

Chapman also manages the tension in the novel very well too. Marta's slow realisation of the truth is expertly managed and the central revelation,  when it does come,  is suitably shocking.

How To Be A Good Wife is a skilfully written domestic thriller: fans of Sophie Hannah, for example,  will love it. But it's also a chilling glimpse into a marriage, a meditation on how much of our identity we can sacrifice in the pursuit of a domestic ideal. I gulped it down almost whole and would urge you to do the same.

I must thank Emma Bravo of Pan Macmillan who kindly sent me a review copy of this novel.

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How Should A Person Be? by Sheila Heti

Young women are the new young men: fretted over, examined forensically, culturally anatomised. See, for example, Lena Dunham's Girls,  following four mid twenties Brooklynites. In the first episode of this rightly lauded and very modern show, Dunham's Hannah, having been cut off from her parents' previously ever-dripping money tap, rails at her parents, saying "I just need time to find out who the person I'm supposed to be is" (or words to that effect). We laugh at Hannah's naivety, at her self centeredness - but probably also remember painfully clearly that sense that the right mould for you to live in is just out there waiting for you to find.

Sheila Heti's new novel asks exactly that question. In fact, to call it a novel is to underestimate Heti's very original work. Part confessional, part fiction, part very modern self-help book, it follows a young artist named Sheila as she tries to write a play and learn from her friends how to act in the world where all the men she meets,  including her lover Israel, are trying to teach her something - about sex, faith, life, art. Sheila is tired of being someone's project and so she travels into the world to investigate how she really is.

How Should A Person Be? is sharp and strange, like a prickly fruit that blends sweetness and bitterness in its taste. Sheila's quest seemed important to me: I remembered being 24 and watching everyone around me to see what the right thing to do was. My flatmate got bikini waxes: should I? My friend was always on a diet: should I be? My other friend went to church: would that help me?

The book's form is unusual: a blend of narration and taped conversations between Sheila and people she encounters. I presumed these were at least partially "real" conversations Sheila Heti has had with her friends. Sheila and her friend Margaux's emails to one another are also included. This mixture of forms, of fact and fiction, is defiantly original. Heti is saying to us, this is something new and important.

And I agree. I actually found the book moving, particularly in its depiction of Sheila's relationship with Israel. No punches are pulled in the fairly explicit presentation of their relationship; but I found Sheila's initial acquiescence to and later questioning of Israel's dominant treatment of her the most revealing part of these sections. I found myself willing her to learn to be true to herself, to take control of her identity.

Some readers might find this book pretentious. It's concerned with high-minded topics, certainly: how much of the self should an artist use in their art? Is it immoral to write about your friends? What is ugliness? But I'm not sure Heti knows or even thinks she knows the answers - it's the asking that's important.

I finished How Should A Person Be? a few days ago and it's lingered in my mind since. A compelling and unusual read, it's also timely and modern. One to prickle your brain and make you see yourself slightly differently. And isn't that what good literature does?

I must thank Fiona Murphy at Vintage Publicity who kindly provided me with a review copy of this novel.

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Beguiled by book browsing

I'm eagerly anticipating a visit to one of my favourite second-hand bookshops tomorrow after school: My Back Pages in Balham. This little gem is a cavern of books on all topics, overflowing from shelves onto stacks on the floor. The books have that satisfying old-book smell; slightly damp, musty, pungent - oddly lovely. I'm definitely going to buy something, anything that takes my fancy. It's a shop worth saving.

Before I started writing this post I thought, romantically, oh - it's all about the end of the secondhand bookshop. Amazon and e publishing have killed them off. To an extent this must be true; witness the much quoted figures on the decline of bookshops on the high street.

That's not the whole truth though. Some of those bookshops must have been just not very good. I think, for example, of the lovely independent bookshop in Dulwich Village, Village Books. I love that place. The stock is up to date, the shop is beautifully laid out, Radio 4 or Classic Fm is on quietly in the backgrounds, and the assistants are knowledgeable and friendly. I make a point of buying books every time  I go in, and would be truly sad if it were to disappear.

I think, too, of some of the great things about online bookselling. Over the last few months I've bought a large number of books from secondhand sellers on Amazon and have been more than impressed by the service and the price. I've also been introduced to new authors through the Kindle daily deals and the 7 days of Kindle promotion. Don't forget, either, why we fell in love with Amazon - the range it offers is incomparable with a high street bookseller. As an Eng Lit undergraduate it was invaluable to be able to order copies of the obscurer books that were always out of the library.

And even on the high street I enjoy buying books. After a shaky period Waterstones appears to be back on form. I spent a wonderful hour in the Piccadilly branch spending my Christmas voucher - and got a signed copy of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. I left inspired and refreshed.
There's obviously an awful lot of debate around the future of bookselling, and a long way to go before anything is certain. But I have to admit I very much like how things are now: an unprecedented plurality of options for the book buyer. A myriad of ways to be beguiled by a book.

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You Had Me At Hello by Mhairi McFarlane: warm, funny women's fiction

Mhairi McFarlane's debut novel has been causing quite the storm lately, racing up the kindle charts and making a splash in bookshops too. On the strength of various online recommendations I took the plunge into the ebook - currently just 99p on kindle.

The novel follows Rachel Woodford, a 30 something court reporter living in Manchester. As the story starts she breaks up with her fiance Rhys, just as her university best friend Ben relocates to the area. Seems like a straightforward setup - but there are problems: Ben's married, for one thing, to the perfect Olivia, and his relationship with Rachel is complicated to say the least.

Rachel is a really appealing heroine: flawed and funny, Bridget Jones style. Her friends Caroline, Mindy and Ivor are a great supporting cast and Ben is suitably dreamy for us to root for him and Rachel to get together. There's also an interesting subplot revolving around Rachel's work as a journalist which has her questioning how far she'd go ethically for her job.

My favourite parts of the novel were the flashbacks to Ben and Rachel's time at university. Anyone who's been a student will recognise the situations they end up in and take pleasure in MacFarlane's comic yet sympathetic portrait of student life. Lots of fun nostalgia for thirty something readers!

All in all a warmly written, funny and enjoyable read which lots of readers will identify with. I'll definitely be recommending it to my friends.

I must add a recommendation for the "extras" at the end of the digital book. McFarlane has history in women's magazines and as a former mag junkie I found the generic female celeb interview hilarious. She nails the cliches of the genre: celeb apparently wolfing down high fat food, reading highbrow literature and being effortlessly beautiful - all guaranteed to depress the reader! And I enjoyed discussing it with Mhairi on Twitter too!

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A criminal new year: The Fall by Claire McGowan and Tuesday's Gone by Nicci French

Before I begin I'm going to clap myself on the back a bit. Sound the RESOLUTION-ACHIEVED klaxon: both of these novels came from the local library. (someone is actually waiting for The Fall so I had to read it quickly and not renew it!) I feel a warm glow of smugness just typing that!

I've been on a bit of a crime binge to start the year off. First up was Claire McGowan's The Fall, a debut novel much recommended in end of year round-ups. McGowan hails from a small village in Northern Ireland. Here I must declare a slight patriotic interest in a Northern Irish author - as a 'Nornie' myself I love reading books from fellow countrymen and woman!

The Fall follows three characters: Keisha,   a streetwise yet vulnerable young woman whose life is turbulent to say the least; Hegarty, a policeman looking for his big break; and Charlotte, a PR girl feverishly anticipating her dream wedding to Dan, her banker fiance. When Dan is arrested and charged with committing a murder, their worlds collide. The multi-layered narrative switches between the three central characters as the plot progresses, a clever way of following the implications of the crime.

The Fall is not a classic whodunit. It's pretty obvious who the criminal is from the beginning, and the climax of the novel is Dan's court case. Instead McGowan explores contemporary London through the stories of Charlotte and Keisha. In interviews she has said that one of the things that interests her about London is the way that one bus ride can take you from poverty to luxury. Charlotte and Keisha live almost next door to each other, but they live foreign lives. Neither can understand the other at the beginning; by the end they've realised their connections. I found The Fall unusually touching for a crime novel; what gripped me was not just the story of Dan's court case, but also the story of how both Charlotte and Keisha grew during it.

Overall, I'd heartily recommend The Fall. I look forward to reading McGowan's next novel, which I believe is out this year.

I also read Tuesday's Gone by Nicci French this holiday. I have tried previous French novels but never really enjoyed them until I read Blue Monday. (Wow. That's an amazing novel with a powerful ending). I enjoyed Tuesday's Gone, mostly, but I didn't feel it quite lived up to the heights of its predecessor.

Tuesday's Gone takes up the story of Frieda Klein from the end of Blue Monday. Klein is a psychotherapist who has a relationship with the police. Her highly attuned observational skills, honed through her work as a therapist, enable her to spot details police officers miss. Klein is a really appealing heroine: sympathetic without being perfect, clever but modest, kind but troubled. I really felt for her in this novel as she attempted to come to terms with aspects of her past.

In Blue Monday, Klein worked on a case of missing children. In Tuesday's Gone we follow her on a more conventional murder case. A naked corpse is found in the house of Michelle Doyce, a woman suffering from a complex psychiatric problem. The police are cynically determined to charge Doyce with the crime in order to wrap it up. Frieda knows differently and uncovers a web of deceit surrounding the victim, Robert Poole.

It's interesting following Frieda through this case; once again French takes us into the unpleasant side of London in Deptford.  I was a bit disappointed, though, with the continuing story of Blue Monday, which I didn't think we were given enough of! I don't want to ruin either novel for readers so I won't say much more here. However if anyone else felt the same please let me know!

I certainly enjoyed Tuesday's Gone and am already looking forward to the next instalment of Frieda Klein's story - and hopefully some more resolution to the Blue Monday storyline!

Two enjoyable London set crime novels for Christmas - now I'm going to read something completely different: Margaret Atwood's sci-fi After The Flood for my book group. Anyone out there read it?

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New Year's Reading Resolutions

Did you see yesterday that apparently the number 1 resolution in the UK is to read more books? (Buy a tablet computer was number 8. Not sure that reflects brilliantly on the population). That definitely isn't my resolution - I'm thinking yoga and dry January, predictably - but it did get me thinking about reading habits in general and what I might change.

The first thing I should change is using the library more. I always love it when I go and particularly when I request books. The grand sum of £1.20 isn't a lot to read a new hardback. And if you don't enjoy it, you can give up with impunity. Plus, local amenities: use them or lose them.

I'm aware of the irony of writing this next point on a smartphone, but I know I should read more and peck at my phone less. I know I'm more relaxed after work if I read for an hour rather than flip around sites on my phone. So why do it? I guess it's easy distraction and effort free entertainment. A bit like high calorie snack food that leaves you unsatisfied after eating it.

I'd also like to keep a better track of what I've read, which is where the blog comes in. Although it's only new, inspired by my trip to Pan Macmillan in August, I've really enjoyed writing it and hope to continue building it up this year. I could resolve to read more non fiction, or less crime - but I think I know what I enjoy, so any changes should be to habits.

What a self indulgent post! What are your New Year's Reading Resolutions?

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