Category: HF Reading Challenge

#BookReview #BlogTour The Black Crescent by Jane Johnson @HoZ_Books #TheBlackCrescent

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Welcome to the opening day of the blog tour for The Black Crescent by Jane Johnson which will be published on 3rd August and is available for pre-order now. My thanks to Poppy at Ransom PR for inviting me to take part in the tour and to Head of Zeus for my review copy. Do check out the post by my tour buddy for today, Sarah at A Cottage Full of Books.

You can listen to Jane talking about the book here.

About the Book

Hamou Badi is born in a mountain village with the magical signs of the zouhry on his hands. In Morocco, the zouhry is a figure of legend, a child of both humans and djinns, capable of finding all manner of lost objects, hidden water.

But instead, Hamou finds a body.

This unsolved murder instils in Hamou a deep desire for order and he trains as an officer of the law, working for the French in Casablanca. But the city is trapped in the turmoil of the nationalist uprising, and soon he will be forced to choose between all he knows and all he loves…

Format: Hardback (400 pages) Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 3rd August 2023 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find The Black Crescent on Goodreads

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Hive | Amazon UK 
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My Review

In her Author Note, Jane Johnson writes, ‘I love to learn when I write fiction, and I hope readers will enjoy learning alongside me.’ I certainly did. Although I was aware of a French influence in the history of Morocco, I knew nothing about the extent of French control over the country and, in particular, the period of unrest that followed the exile of the Sultan of Morocco in 1953. Nor was I aware of the brutal actions taken by the French authorities to suppress the independence movement, some parts of which (like the fictional Black Crescent of the title) turned to increasingly violent measures.

Hamou Badi is our witness to these events, events he views with increasing horror. ‘Violent deaths became a daily occurrence. Regime collaborators killed by nationalists. Nationalists executed by the authorities. Moroccan activists killed by settlers. Settlers murdered by terrorists.’ He struggles with a growing sense of complicity; he joined the French police force out of a desire to do good but finds his integrity increasingly compromised.

Hamou comes to epitomise a person caught between two worlds and two identities. As he observes, ‘There it was, he was alone again, stranded in that no-man’s land between the rock of the French regime and the hard place inhabited by his own people.’ That there will come a breaking point seems unavoidable and when it does, it has devastating consequences.

Hamou is a solitary, self-effacing person making him an entirely sympathetic character. His innate sense of justice and humanity shines through everything he does. For instance, the kindness he shows towards Didi, a young beggar. And his instinctive desire to help those in trouble will reap rewards at crucial points.

Although there are brutal scenes at some points in the story, there’s also humour particularly towards the end of the book as Hamou takes up a new role and is presented with some tricky problems to solve. There was even a laugh out loud moment, which rarely happens for me.

The author’s love for Morocco, its people and its culture is evident throughout the book. (You can read about her very special – and romantic – connection with the country on her website.) In particular, there are wonderful (and mouth-watering) descriptions of the food of Morocco but also of its landscape, architecture, traditions, social and religious customs and rich history. The strong sense of community in which ties of blood are of particular importance is exemplified by Hamou’s family. But there is also a sense of change in the air, a transition from old ways to more modern ways, with some things lost in the process but others gained.

I’ve enjoyed all the books I’ve read by Jane Johnson – Court of Lions, The Sea Gate and The White Hare – but I think The Black Crescent is her best yet. It had everything I look for in historical fiction: a fascinating period setting, an engaging central character and a compelling story line that transported me to a different time and place. And, for me, it had the perfect ending.

In three words: Immersive, powerful, assured

About the Author

Jane Johnson is a British novelist, historian and publisher. She is the UK publisher of many bestselling authors, including George R.R. Martin. She has written for both adults and children, including the bestselling novels The Tenth Gift and The Salt Road. Jane is married to a Berber chef she met while climbing in Morocco. She divides her time between London, Cornwall and the Anti-Atlas Mountains.

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#BookReview Invitation to a Bonfire by Adrienne Celt #20BooksOfSummer23

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About the Book

Zoya Andropova, a young Russian refugee, finds herself in an elite New Jersey boarding school. Having lost her family, her home and her sense of purpose, Zoya struggles to belong, a task made more difficult by her new country’s paranoia about Soviet spies.

When she meets charismatic fellow Russian émigré Leo Orlov – whose books Zoya has obsessed over for years – everything seems to change. But she soon discovers that Leo is bound by the sinister orchestrations of his brilliant wife, Vera, and that their relationship is far more complex than Zoya could ever have imagined.

Format: Paperback (256 pages) Publisher: Raven Books
Publication date: 27th June 2019 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find Invitation to a Bonfire on Goodreads

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Disclosure: If you buy a book via the above link, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops

Hive | Amazon UK 
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My Review

I received this as part of a Reading Heels book subscription back in 2019. (Reading in Heels is no longer in business.) For me it was a ‘curate’s egg’, i.e. good in parts.

It’s apparently loosely inspired by the marriage of Vladimir and Vera Nabokov and supposedly set in the 1920s and 1930s, although it didn’t feel much like that to me, of which more later. The story is told by way of letters between Leo Orlov (for whom read Nabokov) and his wife Vera, occasional other official documents such as police witness statements but mainly through the journal of Zoya, a young Russian orphan sent to the United States as part of a refugee programme. Yes, that well-worn narrative structure, the journal; written by someone with an amazing memory, who can reproduce conversations verbatim and recall scenes from when they were in the crib.

The author achieves a good variation of styles between the different narrative structures, especially in the letters between Lev and Vera. Other reviewers have commented on how cleverly Celt mimcs Nabokov’s style but since I’ve never read anything by Nabokov this rather passed me by. I think this was one of my problems with the book in that I was missing allusions to Nabokov’s life and work.

For me, the first section of the book was rather slow and, frankly, lacked credibility. I found it difficult to believe that a Russian refugee would be placed in ‘an elite New Jersey boarding school’. If the intention was to contrast Zoya’s situation with that of the girls from privileged families who attend the school then that at least succeeded as Donne School comes across as a sort of toxic Mallory Towers. Zoya is ostracised and bullied mercilessly with the staff seemingly having no duty of care. This section, which accounts for about half the book, feels distinctly anachronistic with references to ‘bobby socks’ and the like which I don’t think were prevalent in the 1920s! Eventually Zoya is put to work in the greenhouse of the school, on the strength of having grown some lilacs from seed brought from her homeland. She’s obviously a horticultural genius because lilac is a shrub which takes at least three years to bloom and doesn’t seem the sort of thing you’d grow on your windowsill.

Over the years Zoya has become obsessed with the books of Leo Orlov so depending on your point of view it’s either convenient, fate or incredible coincidence when he arrives at Donne School. To borrow from the film Casablanca, it’s not so much “Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine” as “Of all the schools, in all the towns, in all the world, he becomes a teacher at mine”. They embark on a passionate affair, their sexual encounters being intensely sensual, erotic but at the same time slightly disturbing.

I can’t say I was a fan of Leo, but then again perhaps I wasn’t intended to be. He’s completely untrustworthy, manipulative and self-centered. I couldn’t buy into the whole ‘I’m a literary genius so I must be allowed to get away with anything’. Zoya is the perfect victim; she’s needy and, apart from John her workmate, friendless. Lev attempts to convince Zoya that Vera is the villain of the piece, a controlling woman who has suppressed an early work of genius. At the same time, he’s professing his undying love to Vera in passionate letters whilst simultaneously plotting to get rid of her. ‘He was a writer. He could come up with the right set of circumstances to forestall any serious suspicion.’ Too right.

The publisher describes the book as ‘a gripping psychological thriller’ and there is a definite change of tone in the final quarter of the book as the Lev-Vera-Zoya triangle plays out in a quite unexpected way. This was the part of the book I enjoyed the most.

Invitation to a Bonfire is the second book from my 20 Books of Summer 2023 reading list.

In three words: Intimate, sensual, slow-moving

About the Author

Adrienne Celt’s debut novel, The Daughters, won the PEN Southwest Book Award for Fiction and was an NPR Best Book of the Year. Her story ‘Temples’ was included in The O. Henry Prize Stories 2016 after originally appearing in Epoch. Celt’s short fiction appears or is forthcoming in Zyzzyva, Ecotone, the Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, Esquire, Electric Literature, and Carve Magazine, among others; her nonfiction has appeared in the Rumpus, Tin House‘s ‘OpenBar’, Lit Hub, the Toast, Catapult, the Millions, and elsewhere.

Adrienne has an MFA in fiction from Arizona State University, draws weekly web comics at loveamongthelampreys.com, and lives in Tucson, Arizona. (Photo: Author website)

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