Despite its size and the fact that some critics have described this book as being a literary masterpiece akin to Harlan Coben, I found it to be a fun, easy read and perfect for taking on holiday or a long plane journey when you want to be entertained but not lose the plot when interrupted by something more important.
Translated from the French by Sam Taylor into 32 languages and having won two major awards, this book has sold more than two million copies across Europe alone with record breaking advances and more than 1.5 million copies sold in total; so what is it about?
Described variously as a ‘love story’, a ‘crime story’, a ‘comedy of manners’ it is all those things but basically a novel within a novel in which nothing is as it seems.
In the summer of 1975, college professor and struggling author Harry Quebert fell in love with 15-year-old Nola Kellergan. Thirty-three years later, her body is dug up from his yard, along with a manuscript of the novel that made him a household name. Quebert is the only suspect.
Marcus Goldman – Quebert’s gifted protégé, but a shallow and vain sort of man, struggling as he fails to repeat the success of his first novel – throws off his writer’s block to clear his mentor’s name. However, whilst solving the case and penning a new bestseller to boot, the plot thickens as the truth begins to emerge about Nola and her life.
This is a definite page-turner which certainly had me riveted from Page 1 for over 600 pages; so if you are looking for an amazingly good thriller with twists and turns to keep you guessing, this might just be the book for you.
l Read it now in paperback
Solo (William Boyd) Vintage, 9780099578970. BD4.500 for Gulf Weekly Book Club members.
Good old James Bond! By chapter four he has found the girl, found the zipper, polished off a bottle of something very passable and driven a Jensen Interceptor. And so, once more we are transported into the enviable life of our favourite British spy as his adventures take him to West Africa and the fictitious country of Zarzarim where he finds himself in the midst of a civil war.
l My favourite read-of-the-week
The Rosie Project (Graeme Simsion) Penguin, 9781405912792. BD4.500 for Gulf Weekly Book Club members.
The Rosie Project had me rooting for its unlikely hero, Don Tillman (a geeky and socially inept geneticist) right from page one. A cross between Adrian Mole and a male Bridget Jones, it will have all women in stitches – you just have to love him as he sets out, determined and armed with a list of desirable qualities, to find the perfect wife (bless!).
