Ten Books: A New Year, a new author. Read a debut novel.
Ten Books: A New Year is the perfect time to discover and read a new author. Who knows, you may find a new favourite!
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
A brilliant literary debut, inspired by a true
story: the final days of a young woman accused of murder in Iceland in 1829.
Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah
Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal
murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution.
Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted
murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only Tóti, a priest Agnes has
mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. But
as Agnes's death looms, the farmer's wife and their daughters learn there is
another side to the sensational story they've heard.
The Curiosity by Stephen Kiernan
This is a gripping, poignant, and thoroughly original thriller that raises disturbing questions about the very nature of life and humanity—man as a scientific subject, as a tabloid plaything, as a living being, as a curiosity.…
Dr. Kate Philo and her scientific exploration team make a breathtaking discovery in the Arctic: the body of a man buried deep in the ice. Remarkably, the frozen man is brought back to the lab and successfully reanimated. As the man begins to regain his memories, the team learns
that he was—is—a judge, Jeremiah Rice, and the last thing he remembers is falling overboard into the Atlantic Ocean in 1906.
The Glass Ocean by Lori Baker
This is a
story of becoming. Flame haired, six-foot-two in stocking feet, newly orphaned
Carlotta Dell'oro recounts the lives of her parents
- solitary glassmaker Leonardo Dell'oro and beautiful, unreachable Clotilde
Girard - and discovers in their loves and losses, their omissions and
obsessions, the circumstances of her abandonment
and the weight of her inheritance. With a master
artisan's patience and exquisite craft, debut novelist Lori Baker has created a
gemlike Victorian world, a place where mistakes of the past reappear in the
future, art can destroy, and family is not to be trusted.
The execution of Noa P. Singleton: a novel by Elizabeth L.Silver
Noa P. Singleton sits on death row in a maximum security penitentiary, just six months away from her execution date. She is visited by a high-powered Philadelphia attorney who is a heartbroken mother of the victim and now wants to see the death penalty delayed--if only Noa reveals her motive.
In her hey day, ex FBI agent, Brigid Quinn, not
only worked serial killer cases but became their prize. Small and blond, from a
distance she looked vulnerable and slight...the
perfect bait to catch a killer. But as Quinn got older, she realised she needed
to find a protege, a younger field agent to take her place. So Quinn trains a
twenty two year old and lets her loose in the
field. The plan works. Until the Route 66 killer not only takes the bait, but kills the
bait. Years on, Quinn is pulled back into the case when the girls body is discovered. Despite the overwhelming forensic
evidence to hand, Quinn believes that they have the wrong man.
A constellation of vital phenomena by Anthony Marra
Two doctors risk everything to save the life of a hunted child in this majestic debut about love, loss, and the unexpected ties that bind us together. Taking place over four days in 2004- during the second war between Chechnya and Russia, this story is told through a series of flashbacks and flash-forwards. Readers glimpse into the lives of six characters and learn how this conflict fits into the longer scope of Russian history.
House for all seasons by Jenn J.McLeod
Bequeathed a century-old house, four estranged friends return to their home town,
Calingarry Crossing, where each must stay for a
season to fulfil the wishes of their beloved benefactor, Gypsy. Here they
finally face the consequences of the tragic accident that occurred twenty years
ago and changed their lives forever. Sara, a breast cancer survivor afraid to
fall in love; Poppy, an ambitious journo craving her father's approval; Amber, a
spoilt socialite looking for some purpose to life;
Caitlin, a doctor frustrated by a controlling family. At Dandelion House, each will discover something about themselves and
a secret that will bind them forever.
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The Panoptican by Jenni Fagan
The Panopticon is a circular prison with cells so
constructed that the prisoners can be observed at
all times. Anais Hendricks, fifteen, is in the back
of a police car, headed for the Panopticon, a home
for chronic young offenders. She cannot remember the events that led her here, but across town a
policewoman lies in a coma and there is blood on Anais' school uniform. Smart,
funny and fierce, Anais is a counter-culture outlaw. She is also a child who has been let down, or
worse, by just about every adult she has ever met.The residents of the
Panopticon form intense bonds, heightened by their place on the periphery, and Anais finds herself part of an ad hoc
family there. Looking up at the watchtower that looms over the residents, Anais knows her fate: she is part of an
experiment, she always was, it's a given, a liberty - a fact. And the experiment is closing in.
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The twelve tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis
Fifteen
years old and blazing with the hope of a better life, Hattie Shepherd fled the
horror of the American South on a dawn train bound for Philadelphia. Hattie's is a tale of strength, of resilience and heartbreak that spans six
decades. Her American dream is shattered time and again: a husband who lies and
cheats and nine children raised in a cramped little house that was only ever
supposed to be temporary. She keeps the children alive with sheer will and not an ounce of the affection
they crave. She knows they don't think her a kind woman — but how could they
understand that all the love she had was used up in feeding them and clothing
them.
The night guest by Fiona McFarlane
One morning Ruth
wakes thinking a tiger has been in her seaside house. Later that day a
formidable woman called Frida arrives, looking as if she's blown in from the
sea. In fact she's come to care for Ruth. Frida and the tiger: both are here to
stay, and neither is what they seem.
Which of them can
Ruth trust? And as memories of her childhood in Fiji press upon her with
increasing urgency, can she even trust herself?
