Frances and Bobbi, Irish university students, perform spoken word poetry together. They are invited to a journalist’s house, and become caught up in her and her husbands life. Is about relationships in a modern world, how extraordinarily complicated and messy they can be, and how transformative. There’s a meaninglessness that I am thankful not to live with myself, but it is very clever, thought provoking, modern (I am getting so old), philosophical, and piercing.
After a family tragedy Lucie and her mother have to return to Paris to live with her uncle at the beginning of Nazi occupation of the city. It covers the remaining war years through Lucie’s eyes as we see Paris change under occupation, the courage of the resistance, the horror of the Nazis anti-Jewish measures, the survival of the citizens. The war changed everyone. I enjoyed the second half of the book so much more as Lucie understood so much more about the situation, the first half seemed rushed, but a solid read from this debut author.
I read The Surgeon of Crowthorne: a tale of murder, madness & the love of words, by Simon Winchester, many years ago and loved the true story of two of the men behind the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. Pip Williams also read it, and wondered about the women who were involved, and whether women use words differently, and have their own words that were not included. This is a fictional account, with many characters from real life, about Esme, who spent her childhood in the Scriptorium amongst the dictionary work, and grew to love words, and collect the words and meanings specific to women. Set in Oxford from the late 1800s, it’s about women’s suffrage, the power of language, and deep human connection. It is atmospheric and lyrical, romantic and moving.