I finished my January prompt book (courtroom setting) just in time to pick my February book! It was one of my newest acquisitions that pointed me in this direction, Julia Kelly's The Last Garden in England. But you know how it goes, faced with a stack of potential new reads I have to completely peruse all before making my selection. I was mostly thinking how cool it would be to read something with a maze or labyrinth in it, but there was not much on my shelves.
I have to mention last month's book by Annette Hess, The German House. I first came across it when it was published last year and I checked it out from the library. As is so often the case I did not get around to reading it then but picked it up not long ago when it came out in paperback. I am sort of reluctant to pick up war themed books lately unless there is something different about the storytelling. WWII books especially seem to be everywhere. It is definitely something a little different and has the added attraction of being translated from German.
The story is set some twenty years after the end of the war and revolves around a young woman who is asked to translate from Polish to German at the trial of suspected war criminals. It is a story about identity and guilt and memory as well this is a coming of age tale as Eva discovers the culpability of her own parents during the war. To say they had nothing to do with the crimes is just as damning--the guilt of not having done anything but witnessing the crimes. It is well done and sheds light on a lesser (it seems) written aspect of the post-war years. Eva feels the guilt and looks for absolution or consolation for the sins of her parents. I believe this is Hess's only book, or maybe the only one translated into English, but I hope she publishes more.
Nothing in translation in my next pile, and didn't I say I was going to try for a more diverse lineup of authors? I don't think I did very well on that count either, but it remains in the back of my mind in and my intentions. Despite feeling a little limited in selection, I have a healthy stack of six books to try out.
The Splendour Falls by Susanna Kearsley -- I really love her work and it has been too long since the last book by her I have picked up. This has the added benefit of actually having something to do with a labyrinth! "Emily Braden has stopped believing in fairy tales and happy endings. When her fascinating but unreliable cousin Harry invites her on a holiday to explore the legendary town of Chinon, France and promptly disappears--well, that's Harry for you. As the dangers of the past become disastrously real, Emily is drawn ever more deeply into a labyrinth of mystery as twisted as the streets and tunnels of the ancient town itself."
The White Garden by Stephanie Barron -- For a little mystery . . . "In March 1941, Virginia Woolf filled her pockets with stones and drowned herself in England's River Ouse. Her body was found three weeks later. What seemed like a tragic ending at the time was, in fact, just the beginning of a mystery. . . . Six decades after Virginia Woolf's death, landscape designer Jo Bellamy has come to Sissinghurst Castle for two reasons: to study the celebrated White Garden created by Woolf's lover Vita Sackville-West and to recover from the terrible wound of her grandfather's unexplained suicide. In the shadow of one of England's most famous castles, Jo makes a shocking find: Woolf's last diary, its first entry dated the day after she allegedly killed herself."
The King Must Die by Mary Renault -- I have never read her, but I hear that as historical fiction goes, she is very good. And this one has to do with the minotaur myth. "In this ambitious, ingenious narrative, celebrated historical novelist Mary Renault take legendary hero Theseus and spins his myth into a fast-paced and exciting story. Renault starts with Theseus' early years, showing how the mystery of his father's identity and his small stature breed the insecurities that spur his youthful hijinx. As he moves on to Eleusis, Athens, and Crete, his playfulness and fondness for pranks matures into the courage to attempt singular heroic feats, the gallantry and leadership he was known for on the battlefield, and the bold-hearted ingenuity he shows in navigating the labyrinth and slaying the Minotaur."
The Forbidden Garden by Ellen Herrick -- "Arriving at Kirkwood Hall, ancestral home of Sir Graham Kirkwood and his wife Stella, Sorrel is shocked by the desolate state of the walled garden. Generations have tried--and failed--to bring it back to glory. Sorrel senses heartbreak and betrayal here, perhaps even enchantment. Intrigued by the house's history--especially the haunting tapestries that grace its walls--and increasingly drawn to Stella's enigmatic brother, Sorrel sets to work. And though she knows her true home is across the sea with her sisters, instinct tells her that the English garden's destiny is entwined with her own, if she can only unravel its secrets..."
The Maze at Windermere by Gregory Blake Smith -- Interlinked stories? They move back in time from the contemporary to the American Revolution and all set in Rhode Island. "Gregory Blake Smith weaves these intersecting worlds into a rich, brilliant tapestry. A deftly layered novel of love, ambition, and duplicity, The Maze at Windermere charts a voyage across the ages into the maze of the human heart."
The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly -- "From the author of the international bestseller The Light Over London and The Whispers of War comes a poignant and unforgettable tale of five women living across three different times whose lives are all connected by one very special place. Present day: Emma Lovett, who has dedicated her career to breathing new life into long-neglected gardens, has just been given the opportunity of a lifetime: to restore the gardens of the famed Highbury House estate, designed in 1907 by her hero Venetia Smith. But as Emma dives deeper into the gardens' past, she begins to uncover secrets that have long lain hidden."
Has anyone read any of these?