#6Degrees of Separation From Trust to How to Travel with a Salmon

Posted on by whatcathyreadnext

It’s the first Saturday of the month which means it’s time for 6 Degrees of Separation!

Here’s how it works: a book is chosen as a starting point by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

Kate says: Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal or esoteric ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge. Join in by posting your own six degrees chain on your blog and adding the link in the comments section of each month’s post.   You can also check out links to posts on Twitter using the hashtag #6Degrees.

TrustThis month’s starting book is Trust by Hernan Diaz which was longlisted for the Booker Prize 2022. As is often the case, it’s a book I haven’t read but I know it’s set in 1920s New York.

Also set in New York, but at the end of the 18th century, is historical crime mystery The Devil’s Half-Mile by Paddy Hirsch.

Staying in New York, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith is the story of the Nolans, a family of first-generation immigrants to the United States.

Colm Tóibín, the author of the 2009 novel Brooklyn, also wrote House of Names which is a retelling of the myth of Clytemnestra, wife of Agamemnon and mother of Orestes, Electra and Iphigenia.

The Trojan War is also the setting for The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker which focuses on Briseis, wife of King Mynes, who is captured and awarded to the warrior Achilles as a prize of war.

Achilles is also the name of a character in The Echo Chamber by John Boyne which also features a well-travelled tortoise named after a Ukranian folk hero. The book’s epigraph includes a quote by Umberto Eco, best known for The Name of the Rose but also the author of How to Travel with a Salmon and Other Essays.

My chain has taken me on a journey from New York to a satirical look at modern day living.  Where did your chain take you?

#6Degrees of Separation

9 thoughts on “#6Degrees of Separation From Trust to How to Travel with a Salmon”

  2. My goodness – that’s quite a well-travelled chain, both in time and space. In each case, I know the author, but not that particular book. I aim to change that!

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  4. Smart chain, Cathy. I read very little historical fiction and not much crime but I like the sound of The Devil’s Half-Mile. It’s that eigteenth-century New York setting.

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