We had some glimpses of Spring this March but mostly it has been quite a soggy month. At least when it’s raining, we have a good excuse to close the curtains and curl up on the sofa with a good book. Here at Parade’s End Books we have had a busy month of reading and would like to share our picks for March in the hope to inspire your next read.
The House of Fortune – Jessie Burton
1705. In the golden city of Amsterdam Thea Brandt is turning eighteen, and she is ready to welcome adulthood with open arms. At the city’s theatre, the love of her life awaits her, but at home all is not well – her father Otto and Aunt Nella argue endlessly, and the Brandt family are selling their furniture in order to eat. On Thea’s birthday, also the day that her mother died, the secrets of the past begin to overwhelm the present.
Nella is desperate to save the family and maintain appearances, to find Thea a husband who will guarantee her future, and when they receive an invitation to Amsterdam’s most exclusive ball, she is overjoyed – perhaps this will set their fortunes straight.
But, as Thea discovers new miniatures, Nella’s fears are realized. Eighteen years after she first entered the family’s life, the miniaturist may have plans of her own . . .
“I read The House of Fortune because I loved The Miniaturist and hoped this sequel would live up to it but for me it didn’t. I’m a big fan of Jessie Burton’s style but I felt that it was a forced story just to have a sequel that wasn’t necessary. The new characters weren’t strong and the story somehow managed to dilute those original characters I loved so much in The Miniaturist. Still worth a read if you feel you need an ending to Nella, Otto and Cornelia’s stories.” Gaynor – Parade’s End Marketing Manager.
The Year of The Runaways – Sunjeev Sahota
The Year of the Runaways tells of the bold dreams and daily struggles of an unlikely family thrown together by circumstance. Thirteen young men live in a house in Sheffield, each in flight from India and in desperate search of a new life. Tarlochan, a former rickshaw driver, will say nothing about his past in Bihar; and Avtar has a secret that binds him to protect the chaotic Randeep. Randeep, in turn, has a visa-wife in a flat on the other side of town: a clever, devout woman whose cupboards are full of her husband’s clothes, in case the immigration men surprise her with a call.
“I had been avoiding reading this last year’s shortlisted International Booker book due to the subjects tackled in it. However, once I started reading it, I was mesmerized and touched by the story right to the end. It is a beautiful tale about three Indians and one British Indian woman in Sheffield. It brings the touching individual stories of life, love and desperation behind the tabloid headlines of “scam marriages”, “abuse of student visas” and “illegal workers”. The first part of the book is about what brings the three runaways from India to Sheffield and second part is how their lives get entangled in their difficulties in finding work and avoiding the authorities.” Rachel – Parade’s End Books Owner.
The Bandit Queens – Parini Shroff
For Geeta, life as a widow is more peaceful than life as a wife…
Until the other women in her village decide they want to be widows, too.
Geeta is believed to have killed her vanished husband – a rumour she hasn’t bothered trying to correct, because a reputation like that can keep a single woman safe in rural India. But when she’s approached for help in ridding another wife of her abusive drunk of a husband, her reluctant agreement sets in motion a chain of events that will change the lives of all the women in the village….
A darkly irreverent and fresh take on a feminist revenge thriller, perfect for readers of My Sister the Serial Killer, How To Kidnap The Rich and the Sharon Horgan series Bad Sisters.
“Set in India, the plot centres on a woman reluctantly embroiled in a neighbour’s murder plot because of a misapprehension that she has successfully disposed of her own awful husband. It is a gritty, subversive and riveting read, brimful of (gallows) humour.” Sam – Parade’s End Bookseller.
It is 1981. Glasgow is dying and good families must grift to survive. Agnes Bain has always expected more from life, dreaming of greater things. But Agnes is abandoned by her philandering husband, and as she descends deeper into drink, the children try their best to save her, yet one by one they must abandon her to save themselves.
It is her son Shuggie who holds out hope the longest. Shuggie is different, he is clearly no’ right. But Shuggie believes that if he tries his hardest, he can be normal like the other boys and help his mother escape this hopeless place.
“A good but difficult read. Misery upon misery…” Eszter – Parade’s End Bookseller