It’s been a few years now that Exclusive Books has had some fun with their own Boeke Prize Awards, in which they select a bunch of books, give them to selected reviewers to read and then, at the end of it all, celebrate the book that was rewarded and, a few years on, a second book, that was selected by readers as their preferred choice.
It all changed this year, but not that much. The parameters were shifted a tad – only 10 judges were selected, and for eight months, we were sent a book to read. There were some more titles on the list to guide readers through some clever choices, but in the end, again we were asked to judge eight books, to choose a personal winner and list them from best to worst to decide on an overall winner.
This year, my number one book was also the winner, and the book that I pinpointed as my second choice, and it was a close call, was also the popular readers’ choice.
It wasn’t a bad selection of books this year, with from my side only one I really felt I would rather not have read. Here’s my listing starting with my (and the overall winner), followed by the Readers’ Choice (second for me) and working my way down the list:
The Winner
Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan: This was truly an unexpected choice for me, as it’s not really the kind of book I would have selected to read. I’m thrilled someone else pushed me into this glorious world of books and technology – and always the twain shall meet.
The story tackles the conun- drum of books versus digital, the disappearance of everything many book lovers want to hold on to with the exciting new world which stretches into infinity with no boundaries, it seems. Everything isn’t always that simple, but what Sloan has achieved is to create a landscape that’s truly magnificent as we gallop through worlds not always familiar, but huge fun.
It’s the characters that make the journey, it’s the language, it’s the way the world unfolds visually as you read, which all captures not only your mind, but your heart. That’s something that allows you to enter a world that might be unfamiliar, with characters that might not be part of where you normally live – and yet they’re showing you something extraordinary. They’re dabbling in things that are inevitable and making it hugely exciting as we all stretch out our hands across the divide and embrace.
Reader’s Choice
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes: I was determined to read the new Beukes as I hadn’t dipped into her previous ones and her name was being splashed all over the place. Fortunately, this came up and it was great to finally meet up with this sassy writer.
The thing that grabbed me immediately was the premise. Her bad guy was a time-travelling serial killer. How brilliant and perhaps obvious is that? Had no one thought of that before? I certainly have never encountered that. It’s totally believable. She tells a story that grips from beginning to end, especially because of the young narrator’s voice, a woman, Kirby, with attitude and grit. She was one of the victims that got away and she’s the one determined to catch the man who almost ended her life.
She won’t let go and drives everyone around her crazy with her compulsion. She needs support and those that pop up in her life are as good to get to know.
Beukes didn’t want to write another apartheid novel and if she set it in South Africa, politics would have been in the way. So she travelled to Chicago and got the pitch just right. She spent enough time researching to pull this off.
If you haven’t yet tried this phenomenal local voice, this is a must.
Maya’s Notebook by Isabel Allende: She has always been one of my favourite writers, especially her early books. She is passionate about Chile, where she grew up and where her family were part of the political landscape, but much heartache followed and finally she left that country for the US, where she continued her writing.
With this one, her young heroine, who gets into a lot of trouble along the way, is sent back to Chile by her grandmother who wants her out of harm’s way and taken care of by people Gran trusts. There’s a lot of secrecy in this book, which is the story of a young girl, her experiences of life, how she loses her foothold in the world when those she loves let her down.
Allende has always known how to create a universe where readers can lose themselves. It is as if she has returned somewhere that has a hold on her and thus she’s able to capture something that’s colourfully vivid and doesn’t want to let go. Welcome back.
And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini: Most people fell in love with his Kite Runner. The enthusiasm was a little less with A Thousand Splendid Suns and one wondered whether he would capture the magic again.
He pretty much does that with this latest.
It reminds a little of the movie Babel in which people across the universe impact on one another in a way that’s both extraordinary and scary.
It’s about displaced people and the way lives are thrown away and picked up by another in the name of survival in a way most of us are not familiar with. This is when people do horrible things to keep their families alive, where they are forced to make decisions which many of us will never be faced with.
It is written like a thriller and from beginning to end one wants to know what happens to the individuals whose destiny is completely turned upside down by an act that might seem random to some and lifeblood to others.
Perfect by Rachel Joyce: Remember The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry? That was the tale of the old man who wanted to pay homage to an old friend by walking halfway across the country. She’s done it again, only a year later, with this one which again has that kind of happenstance element that seems to put things into motion completely out of people’s control.
It’s as if a life takes on a different meaning because of certain events which could have been ignored, yet now take over lives.
When a young boy is told that at some stage, some time has to be made up, he becomes obsessed with what that means and how it affects his life. The story deals with the lives of others and how we look and judge and feel we have the right in certain instances and yet, in the end, we are all on this path trying to lead the best lives possible. Or so one would hope. The author explores this premise.
Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell: The only reason this one is so low down on the list is that it is a story I have read in different guises. It’s about dysfunction in families (where else?) and even though it is beautifully written and you fall in love with some of the characters, it didn’t seem to bring anything new to the table.
Still, it is a glorious read as three siblings are suddenly given a knock on the head when their reliable father disappears and puts their mother in a place they’ve never seen – sheer panic. He has been such a stable part of her life and so correct in everything he has done, that no one can believe that he cannot be found.
They don’t know where to start looking, but when they decide to come home to help, the secrets start tumbling out as if his transgression opens doors for those who stayed silent all these years.
It has that effect when someone starts spilling the beans, not because they have to, but because they have no choice. You can’t simply walk through life ignoring the difficult things. They will return, until you deal with them.
The Garden of Burning Sand by Corban Addison: This is the only reference to Africa with this American author telling the tale of Zoe Fleming, a US attorney working with an NGO devoted to combating child sexual assault in Zambia’s Lusaka. A disabled child is assaulted and the wheels start spinning.
It’s a book that gripped me from the start because of the African angle and the way the lives of the little people are trampled on without much heed. But then there are just too many distractions that allow the reader to take their eye off the ball.
The attorney has a politicking father who brings all of that baggage into the fray. Africa and all its complexities seems the perfect ground for this kind of unravelling thriller that will get you hooked. But if you have a good story to tell, it shouldn’t quite fall into place that smoothly. Life’s not like that, even in the best of worlds. Some get away.
Two Brothers by Ben Elton: This is one I could happily have lived without and wished that Elton had stuck to the facts rather than turn the story into fiction. This is where he lost ground as he started a story about the horrors of the Nazis and that awful war as if it was being told for the first time.
When a topic has been dealt with as extensively as this one, it doesn’t mean you can’t tell those stories any longer, but you should find a way of sharing it with people in today’s world and for those who have read many accounts, it shouldn’t be told as if the horror of it all is a revelation.