My Week in Books – 10th December 2023

whatcathyreadnext

MyWeekinBooksOn What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I shared My Five Favourite November 2023 Reads. 

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday was a freebie and I went with Books That Play With Time.   

Wednesday – I published my review of The Binding by Bridget Collins. And as always WWW Wednesday is a weekly opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next… and to take a peek at what others are reading. 

Friday – I shared my review of The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant by Kayte Nunn.

New arrivals

Birds Without WingsBirds Without Wings by Louis de Bernierès (Vintage)

Set against the backdrop of the collapsing Ottoman Empire, the Gallipoli campaign and the subsequent bitter struggle between Greeks and Turks, Birds Without Wings traces the fortunes of one small community in south-west Anatolia – a town in which Christian and Muslim lives and traditions have co-existed peacefully for centuries.

When war is declared and the outside world intrudes, the twin scourges of religion and nationalism lead to forced marches and massacres, and the peaceful fabric of life is destroyed. Birds Without Wings is a novel about the personal and political costs of war, and about love: between men and women; between friends; between those who are driven to be enemies; and between Philothei, a Christian girl of legendary beauty, and Ibrahim the Goatherd, who has courted her since infancy. 

Munich WolfMunich Wolf by Rory Clements (eARC, Zaffre via NetGalley)

Munich in the 1930s is a magnet for young, rich, aristocratic Brits. They come to learn German, but also to go wild, free at last from the suffocating constraints of strait-laced England. They ski in the Alps, swim in the lakes, drink in the beer cellars and fall for the charms of dashing SS officers.

What they don’t see – or choose to ignore – is the cold, brutal, underbelly of the Nazi movement which considers Munich its spiritual home.

But not every German is a Nazi. Murder squad detective Sebastian Wolff is one of those walking a tight line between doing his job and falling foul of the political party he abhors.

When a high-born English girl is murdered, Wolff is ordered to solve the crime. He has a fine record and, importantly, he is fluent in English. But he realises the mission is a poison chalice, for Hitler is taking a personal interest in the case – as is his young English acolyte Miss Unity Mitford.

Wolff is hemmed in on all sides. At work, he is watched closely by the secret police, at home he could be denounced at any moment by his own son, a fervent member of the Hitler Youth.

And when he begins to suspect that the killer might be linked to the highest reaches of the Nazi hierarchy, he fears his task is simply impossible – and that he will become the killer’s next victim.

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Book Review: The Leftover Woman by Jean Kwok
  • Book Review: The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne
  • Extract: Darcy: A Pride and Prejudice Variation by Alice McVeigh

#BookReview The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant by Kayte Nunn

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About the Book

1951 – Esther Durrant, a young mother, is committed to an asylum by her husband. Run by a pioneering psychiatrist, the hospital is at first Esther’s prison – but can captivity lead to freedom?

2018 – When marine scientist Rachel Parker is forced to take shelter on an isolated island off the Cornish Coast during a research posting, she discovers a collection of hidden love letters. Captivated by their passion and tenderness, Rachel is determined to find the intended recipient.

Meanwhile, in London, Eve is helping her grandmother write her memoirs. When she is contacted by Rachel, it sets in motion a chain of events that threatens to reveal secrets kept buried for more than sixty years.

Format: Paperback (384 pages) Publisher: Orion
Publication date: 6th February 2020 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant is an accomplished dual time story in which I was equally engaged by both the past and present day stories, something that doesn’t always happen in such books. I also liked the setting of the Scilly Isles, one I haven’t come across before in a work of fiction.

The chapters that gradually reveal Esther’s story shine a light on the lack of understanding about post-natal depression. Indeed it is regarded as a form of madness. The way in which Esther’s despair manifests itself is treated not with kindness but with crude measures of control, and she is effectively duped into travelling to the island of Little Embers by her husband. Is he doing so to rid himself of a “problem” or because he believes, perhaps misguidedly, it is the best way to help her?

As it happens, Dr Richard Creswell, the psychiatrist in charge of the hospital (which is actually just a large but remote house) is more enlightened than many of his peers. Ahead of his time, he believes in what today we would call talking therapies and the healing power of nature. This enlightened attitude is also apparent in his treatment of the other patients under his care, all of whom are struggling with the after effects – both mental and physical – of their experiences during the war. As one of them confides to Esther, ‘People like us have to find a way to live with our sorrow, for it can never be banished forever’ and touchingly the patients do become a kind of family for one another.

I liked the way the small, remote island of Little Embers initially appears bleak, mirroring Esther’s troubled state of mind when she first arrives, but begins to show its beauty as the process of her recovery begins. ‘The tranche of shifting grey-blue sea lay like a hammered metal sheet… pockmarked with islets and swarming with seabirds hovering on currents of warmer air.’ But what never leaves her is her sadness at being parted from her five-year old son, Teddy. She finds solace in her daily meetings with Dr Creswell that begin as counselling sessions but develop into conversations about a shared love of music and literature.

In the modern day storyline, Rachel’s discovery of a cache of letters, written but never sent, reveal an abiding love of the kind she has never experienced herself. Moving from place to place, she has never formed – or wanted to form – any lasting attachments, unwilling to be tied down to any one person. Like Esther, it’s the Scilly Isles (in this case the main island of St. Mary’s) and its spirit of community – and one particular member of that community – that starts to make her think there is nothing to be feared from setting down roots.

The identity of the writer of the letters and the intended recipient are not hard to guess but I don’t think the author intended it to be so. The different threads come together in a very satisfying way revealing a moving story of two people whose moral principles kept them apart for decades. You may need some tissues handy at the end.

In three words: Emotional, moving, intimate

Try something similar: The Lost Lights of St Kilda by Elisabeth Gifford

About the Author

Kayte Nunn is the internationally bestselling author of seven novels including The Botanist’s Daughter (awarded the 2020 Winston Graham Award), The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant, The Silk House, The Last Reunion and The Only Child. Kayte’s novels are available worldwide in English, and have been translated into ten languages. Born in Singapore, raised in the US and the UK, she now lives in Northern NSW, Australia.

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