Category: Reading Challenges

#BookReview Kezia and Rosie by Rebecca Burns

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Kezia and RosieAbout the Book

When sisters Kezia and Rosie arrive at their grandparents’ house in the summer of 1986 they aren’t sure when they’ll see their Mum and Dad again.

While her younger sister Rosie is content playing on the allotment gate and having picnics in the garden, Kezia begins to realise that things aren’t quite what they seem. While embraced in Granddad and Grandma’s loving care, it’s not long before seven-year old Kezia begins to notice strange looks between them, hushed whispers, and secret phone calls. She realises she must step into the frightening adult world if she is to make sense of her parent’s troubled marriage.

Format: Paperback (128 pages)       Publisher: Dahlia Publishing
Publication date: 26th March 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

Although described as a linked short story collection, I would characterise Kezia and Rosie as more like a novella.  There is a narrative thread that runs through the book which means that, in my opinion, the ‘stories’ are best read in sequence rather than dipping in and out in the way you might do with a short story collection.

Narrated from the point of view of seven-year old Kezia, the author really captures the experience of being at an age where you start to understand things you hear whilst not understanding others. In just one of the imaginative metaphors in the book, ‘Words give answers and are windows but sometimes the glass is glazed’. Her mind is full of questions: just why has their mother gone away, and to another country, why do her grandparents need to talk to Roy’s son, and why is their grandmother so antagonistic towards their father? There are also memories of an incident that she tries to push away.

As someone with a younger sister, whom of course I love, I could appreciate Kezia’s occasional frustration with her sister’s maddening antics and the way she is indulged by their grandparents. Sometimes a two year age gap can seem much more and the role of elder sibling can feel like an unwelcome burden especially when her grandfather reminds her ‘there are things that can’t be said around Rosie’. No wonder Kezia comes to think of the adult world as a ‘maze… a lattice of things that can and cannot be said’. Her frustration occasionally comes out in little acts of vandalism, such as the tearing to pieces of a flower.

The girls’ grandfather and grandmother are beautifully drawn characters. Although they find themselves in the unexpected position of looking after the two girls with their established domestic routine disrupted, their love and care for Kezia and Rosie is quite wonderful to witness. And, as we learn, they too have experienced sadness in their lives.

Whilst many scenes in the book are touching and funny, there’s a persistent sense of unease. Something not quite right has occurred in the family but for a long time we don’t know what. Kezia feels she has been thrust into an adult world she can’t understand. ‘The summer has been a mosaic of hints and overheard remarks. They gather around Kezia like stepping stones.’  However, whatever happens, Kezia and Rosie can rest assured they have the love and support of their grandparents. ‘For now, it’s enough to slip underneath Grandma’s arm and wedge into the warm space of her armpit, and elbow Rosie gently to tell her she loves her. And for Grandad to giggle to himself and head over to the allotment to fetch raspberries for tea.’

I really liked how the time period of the 1980s was evoked. Anyone old enough to remember that period will recognise the references to shopping in Fine Fare, or watching television programmes together such as The Generation Game, The Dukes of Hazzard or (Kezia and Rosie’s grandmother’s favourite) Wogan. Those of a certain age will experience a real sense of nostalgia and perhaps give a wry smile at the girls’ excitement at watching the wedding of Prince Andrew and Fergie.

I really enjoyed Kezia and Rosie. It’s a delightful, beautifully written book. My thanks to the author for my digital review copy.

In three words: Tender, insightful, heartwarming

Try something similar: Only May by Carol Lovekin

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Rebecca BurnsAbout the Author

Rebecca Burns is an award-winning writer of short stories. Her story collections, Catching the Barramundi (2012) and The Settling Earth (2014) were both longlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Award. Her debut novel, The Bishop’s Girl, was published by Odyssey Books in September 2016, followed by a third short story collection, Artefacts and Other Stories (2017). Beyond the Bay, a sequel to The Settling Earth, was published in 2018. Her first novella, Quilaq, was published by Next Chapter in 2020. (Photo: Author website)

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#BookReview News of the Dead by James Robertson

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News of the DeadAbout the Book

‘To tell the story of a country or a continent is surely a great and complex undertaking; but the story of a quiet, unnoticed place where there are few people, fewer memories and almost no reliable records – a place such as Glen Conach – may actually be harder to piece together. The hazier everything becomes, the more whatever facts there are become entangled with myth and legend. . .’

Deep in the mountains of north-east Scotland lies Glen Conach, a place of secrets and memories, fable and history. In particular, it holds the stories of three different eras, separated by centuries yet linked by location, by an ancient manuscript and by echoes that travel across time.

In ancient Pictland, the Christian hermit Conach contemplates God and nature, performs miracles and prepares himself for sacrifice. Long after his death, legends about him are set down by an unknown hand in the Book of Conach.

Generations later, in the early nineteenth century, self-promoting antiquarian Charles Kirkliston Gibb is drawn to the Glen, and into the big house at the heart of its fragile community.

In the present day, young Lachie whispers to Maja of a ghost he thinks he has seen. Reflecting on her long life, Maja believes him, for she is haunted by ghosts of her own.

Format: Hardback (384 pages)       Publisher: Hamish Hamilton
Publication date: 5th August 2021 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

News of the Dead is this year’s winner of the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. You can watch its author, James Robertson, talking about the book on the Walter Scott Prize’s YouTube channel, where you’ll also find interviews with all the other shortlisted authors.

Because News of the Dead moves frequently between three different storylines, there is a danger of it feeling like three books squeezed into one.  However, the author manages to create sufficient connections between the three to make it a cohesive whole, although the storyline set in the present day feels the least connected. Having said that, Maja’s story, when it is finally revealed near the end of the book, I found the most compelling and I think in expanded form would have made a fine novel in itself.

For me the character who leapt off the page was Charles Kirkliston Gibb. He’s an unapologetic rogue and chancer, admitting ‘From the age of ten my life has been an unbroken campaign of not being found out’, and happy to describe himself as ‘a kind of intellectual vagabond’. His journal provides an insight into his work of transcribing and translating the Book of Conach, his desire to string this out for as long as possible in order to keep a comfortable roof over his head and details of life in the ‘Big House’, the home of Lord and Lady Glen Conach, and their daughter, Jessie. For Charles, his journal also acts as documentary proof of his existence, even if not everything in it is necessarily true.

Storytelling is a pervading theme of the book, whether that’s individuals’ own personal histories – the stories they tell about themselves – or how they are remembered by others. The book also explores the notion of what is true and what is invention, and how easy (or difficult) it is to tell the difference. Since the Book of Conach was later destroyed in a fire along with Charles Gibb’s transcription, only his translation (which became a joint endeavour with Jessie) remains. But who is to say that translation was faithful? After all, as Jessie asks at one point, ‘Do you think history must always be duller than fiction?’

News of the Dead is certainly far from dull and the author manages to pull off several different styles, including passages in Scots dialect for the stories told by the irrepressible and accommodating Geordie Kemp, who never likes to disappoint a listener.

In the interview mentioned above, the author explains how he sought to make Glen Conach, although an invented location, feel as real as possible. Although from the outside it might appear isolated and remote, its inhabitants have no reason to leave. This is neatly mirrored by the contemporary story being set during the Covid pandemic so Glen Conach’s residents are unable to leave even if they wanted to. Harking back to earlier days, they must rely on the support of their little community for their needs.

News of the Dead is my first experience of the writing of James Robertson but it has made me keen to search out his other books. It’s an example of why I look forward to the announcement of the Walter Scott Prize longlist every year because it invariably introduces me to authors and books I would otherwise never have come across.

In three words: Engrossing, thoughtful, authentic

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James RobertsonAbout the Author

James Robertson is the author of The Fanatic, Joseph Knight, The Testament of Gideon Mack, And the Land Lay Still, The Professor of Truth and To Be Continued.  Joseph Knight won the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year and the Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year;  The Testament of Gideon Mack was longlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize; and And the Land Lay Still won the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award. Robertson is also the author of four short-story collections and numerous children’s books written in Scots. He runs an independent publishing house, and is co-founder and contributing editor of Itchy Coo, which produces books in the Scots language for young readers. (Photo: Goodreads author page)

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