Transcription

Transcription / Kate Atkinson read by Fenella Woolgar, 343 p.

Usually when I get a new book early after release, I feel the responsibility of spending time and thinking hard about my blog post because people will be needing this information.  In this case, I'm already number 4 posting about his book because everyone here looks forward to a new book by Atkinson.  So now I'm not going to repeat what Patrick, Kara, and Kathleen have already said.  Instead, I'll tempt you with the small part about the cute little dog Lily who touches many characters' lives and comes back to haunt Juliet.  These little interludes are one reason a book by Atkinson is so much better than most.  Nobody wants to take the dog at first but then it ends up being very popular and well loved.  I can just imagine petting those silky little ears myself.  Then we find out in the authors note that the name is used as a tribute to a real double agent that showed up in the archives. Too cool. But don't take my word for it, read it yourself.

Transcription

Transcription / Kate Atkinson, 343 p.

To paraphrase Patrick, I would rather read a mid-ranking Kate Atkinson novel than the very best of most others'.  True, Transcription is not on a par with the mind-bogglingly good Life after Life and A God in Ruins, but it's terrific stuff.  Juliet Armstrong is just 18 when she's assigned to transcribe recordings of secret meetings of a club of British pro-Nazis in 1940.  I was fascinated by Atkinson's exploration of these slimy Brits from all walks of life, their pettiness, their anti-Semitism, their foolish treachery.  The reader relishes the fact that they wound up on the losing side in 1945 and simultaneously agonizes that they are still among us today.

Great espionage, great history, great characters, a must-read.

Theory of Shadows

Theory of Shadows: a Novel / Paolo Maurensig, 179 p.

An exploration of the very real life of Russian chess master Alexandre Alekhine, who died under exceedingly mysterious circumstances in Portugal in 1946.  Alekhine, who survived the war by playing chess on behalf of the Reich and cozying up to high-ranking Nazis, was found dead in his hotel room, seated before a chess board,  cause of death unclear.  The author uses the form of the novel hoping that fiction will lead him to uncover truths that research does not.  The result is an interesting, creepy story about a brilliant but horribly flawed man.