Tag: ReadersFirst

#BookReview Improvement by Joan Silber @AllenAndUnwinUK @ReadersFirst1

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ImprovementAbout the Book

Reyna knows her relationship with Boyd isn’t perfect, yet she sees him through a three-month stint at Riker’s Island, their bond growing tighter. Kiki, now settled in the East Village after a youth that took her to Turkey and other far off places – and loves – around the world, admires her niece’s spirit but worries that motherhood to four-year old Oliver might complicate a difficult situation.

Little does she know that Boyd is pulling Reyna into a smuggling scheme, across state lines, violating his probation.  When Reyna takes a step back, her small act of resistance sets into motion a tapestry of events that affect the lives of loved ones and strangers around them.

A novel that examines conviction, connection, repayment, and the possibility of generosity in the face of loss, Improvement is as intricately woven together as Kiki’s beloved Turkish rugs, as colourful as the tattoos decorating Reyna’s body, with narrative twists and turns as surprising and unexpected as the lives all around us.

Format: Hardcover (240 pages)           Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Publication date: 7th February 2019 Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Purchase links*
Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | Hive (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

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My Review

Improvement unfolds in a series of interconnected stories focusing on different characters, starting with Reyna whose boyfriend, Boyd, is a prisoner in Rikers Island. When Reyna takes what might be considered a morally correct decision it sets off a chain of unintended consequences whose impact on other people will gradually be revealed.

In some cases, the connections between characters are tangential; the result of a chance moment in time. In others they are more direct – friends, lovers, business contacts. Moving backwards and forwards in time, I found it especially poignant when the reader possesses foreknowledge a character does not. We know why a call is not returned, nor ever likely to be.

Thanks to the skill of the author, all the characters seem totally real. They have flaws, they make poor decisions but they also try to do the correct thing, to right wrongs and make amends. Although, as one character remarks, “How much could ever be fixed?”

My favourite character was Reyna’s aunt, Kiki. Her colourful experiences when younger – “her old and fabled past” – take the reader on an enjoyable detour to Istanbul and the Turkish countryside.

In the book it seems to me ‘improvement’ takes many forms. For some it’s a better economic position or the rekindling of affection within a marriage. For others it’s finding a goal to work toward. As one character puts it, “The point was to ask for strength. Improvement wasn’t coming any other way.” Conversely, as Reyna notes sadly, for Boyd it is “the promise of criminal glory that was giving him his style back”.

Improvement invites us to consider the interconnectedness of the world we inhabit and the consequences of our actions on others. It also demonstrates the acute observational skills and deft touch that has made Joan Silber’s writing so admired.

I received a review copy courtesy of Allen and Unwin UK and Readers First.

In three words: Assured, insightful, intimate

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biophotoAbout the Author

Joan Silber is the author of eight books of fiction. Improvement was the winner of The National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award. It was listed as one of the year’s best books by the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Newsday, the Seattle Times and BBC Culture. In 2018 she also received the PEN/Malamud Award for excellence in the short story. Her previous book, Fools, was longlisted for the National Book Award and a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. Her other works include The Size of the World, finalist for the LA Times Fiction Prize, and Ideas of Heaven, finalist for the National Book Award and the Story Prize.

She lives in New York after college and teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and in the Warren Wilson College MFA Program. (Photo credit: author website)

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#BookReview Stasi Winter (Karin Müller 5) by David Young @ZaffreBooks

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516zEuy13+L._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_About the Book

In 1978 East Germany, nothing is as it seems. The state’s power is absolute, history is rewritten, and the ‘truth’ is whatever the Stasi say it is.

So when a woman’s murder is officially labelled ‘accidental death’, Major Karin Müller of the People’s Police is faced with a dilemma. To solve the crime, she must disregard the official version of events. But defying the Stasi means putting her own life – and the lives of her young family – in danger.

As the worst winter in living memory holds Germany in its freeze, Müller must untangle a web of state secrets and make a choice: between truth and lies, justice and injustice, and, ultimately, life and death.

Format: Paperback (368 pages)         Publisher: Zaffre
Publication date: 9th January 2020 Genre: Historical Fiction, Crime, Thriller

Find Stasi Winter on Goodreads

Purchase links*

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*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

My Review

I seem to make a habit of coming to series part way through.  Such is the case with this series by David Young set in pre-unification Germany. However, although Stasi Winter is the fifth book in the series, I’m happy to say it works perfectly well as a standalone read. Having said that, there are references throughout to events in earlier books which would amount to spoilers. It certainly makes me wish I’d discovered the series earlier so that I could have read all the other books – Stasi Child, Stasi Wolf, Stasi State and Stasi 77 – first .

With events taking place over a few weeks in the ‘catastrophic’ winter of 1978/79, the author cleverly weaves the adverse weather and its impact into the plot. And the grim realities of everyday life for the population of East Germany are vividly depicted. Living in an oppressive state where people are in constant fear of informers and the secret police (the infamous Stasi), it’s no wonder individuals dream of escaping beyond the Anti-Fascist Protection Barrier (what we know as the Berlin Wall) and will go to almost any lengths to reach the West. However, it’s a high-risk venture with long-lasting repercussions for those who are caught – and their families – as will become evident.

I really liked the interesting dynamics the author creates between Müller and her investigation team. There’s clearly history between some of them and the reader may, like Müller herself, wonder just who can trusted at certain points. As well as the return of old sparring partner Jager, a Stasi Colonel who seems to have a finger in every pie, one particular individual from a previous case provides the reader with an unique insight on events.

The author keeps the chapters short and the pace intense as the story moves towards its explosive conclusion. And the end of the book includes a teaser for where the story might go next.  A sign, I hope, now that I’ve discovered the series, that there will be another case for Karin Müller before very long.

Stasi Winter is a skilfully constructed and gripping crime thriller with a real sense of period atmosphere.  I received a review copy courtesy of Zaffre and Readers First.

In three words: Tense, compelling, assured

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CityCrime 2014 DY PhotoAbout the Author

East Yorkshire-born David Young began his East German-set crime series on a creative writing MA at London’s City University when Stasi Child – his debut – won the course prize. The novel went on to win the 2016 CWA Historical Dagger, and both it and the 2017 follow-up, Stasi Wolf, were longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. His novels have been sold in eleven territories round the world.

Before becoming a full-time author, David was a senior journalist with the BBC’s international radio and TV newsrooms for more than 25 years. He divides his time – and his writing – between Twickenham in the UK and the Cyclades islands in Greece. (Photo credit: author website)

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