ceremony in the underground chapel of an immense cavern that was sacred to prehistoric peoples. Without giving away the plot, the roots of the crime go back to a famous seventeenth century scandal involving the court of Louis XIV.
Rachel Kushner would appear to be a very different kind of writer: an MFA graduate from Columbia University, all four of her novels have been shortlisted for either the National Book Award or the Booker Prize. With Creation Lake, this author of literary fiction has moved in a new direction, melding a philosophical and psychological novel with a page-turner in the roman noir tradition. Unlike Walker’s good-natured and social Bruno, Kushner’s main character is an inscrutable, manipulative loner. Sadie, as she calls herself, works as a spy/ provocateur for whomever will pay her. Her current assignment brings her to the Guyenne, an area south of Walker’s Dordogne. She is to infiltrate the Moulinards, a commune originating in the 1960s Back to the Land movement. Its members oppose government plans to drain aquifers to make giant irrigation basins for industrial farming. As part of her strategy, Sadie uses a soft approach to pick up Pascal, a young movie producer who patterns his life on an actual filmmaker and Marxist theorist who took part in the 1968 uprising in Paris. Believing their meeting was fated, Pascal allows Sadie to stay in his family’s old house near the Moulinards’ commune, easing her entrance to the group. Sadie proudly presents herself as an amoral nihilist who, for unknown reasons, has developed a hard, cynical shell. As the novel progresses, her own vulnerabilities slowly reveal themselves to the reader. Sadie becomes fixated on a local guru (also named Bruno) who lives alone and writes speculative emails to his Moulinard followers. Sadie monitors Bruno’s exchanges with the commune, hoping to find incriminating sabotage plans. Instead, she discovers that he advocates pre-industrial—even pre-historic —modes of living. Even as she dismisses him as a lunatic, Sadie becomes intrigued by Bruno’s rejection of modern life and his decision to retreat underground and live in a network of caverns beneath his farm. Events come to a climax at a demonstration against the water project. Read the novel to discover its surprise ending; read both novels to discover the possibilities of fiction in the hands of talented writers. While both Walker and Kushner exploit the conventions of the mystery, both dig deeper: Walker into the many-layered history of the Dordogne, Kushner into the ideologies of the twentieth century, as they impact the psyche of her troubled heroine.
Horowitz is an inventive writer who often offers a twist. In the Ryland series, he gives us a book within a book. The "book within" is set in the 1950s and features fictional detective Atticus Pünd; the other book is set present day while Ryland tries to solve a second crime that has lots of parallels to the one Pünd is working on. Though it may seem confusing, it works!
The surprising conceit of the Hawthorne and Horowitz series—balm to me in late 2024—is that Horowitz makes himself a character in the stories. Hawthorne is a disgraced detective who the police only call to consult when the case is very complex. Hawthorne approaches Horowitz to write about his cases, grudgingly allowing him to “ride along” on five murder investigations over five books. Horowitz was merciless in portraying himself—a successful mystery writer—as a wanna-be detective who never figures it out. That combined with glimpses into Horowitz’s “real life” were just delightful, while at the same time the plot flew along with major twists and the author developed the character of Hawthorne (a troubled, strange man with many secrets) and the relationship between the two men. For me, it was spectacular storytelling and just what I needed at the time. The Library's books by Anthony Horowitz can be found in our new online catalog and always accessible from our Library’s Find and Check Out Books page. But briefly, here a list:
You’ll find these books in the Mystery/Spy section on the Library’s second level, except those with asterisks, which are new additions that you’ll find on the Recent and Relevant shelves starting today and for the next few months. Enjoy!
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer 128 pages, Top Amazon book in Biology, Botany and Nature Writing, NY Times Best Seller
A followup to Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass, she uses a close look at the ecology of the serviceberry to develop a vision for how to use the natural world to orient ourselves around gratitude and community. On the Recent and Relevant shelf, call number Nature/Environment (Kimm) Winter's Song: A Hymn to the North by T. D. Mischke 186 pages These essays by a Saint Paul author and radio host celebrate the intense relationship that Americans living in the northern Midwest have with winter. It uses humor and engaging storytelling to highlight this wonderful season and its impact. As a Minnesota transplant, I laughed out loud at some of the stories, remembering cold wet experiences with Carolina snowstorms. (Including one memorable December night-time trip into the woods with my brother to cut down a cedar Christmas tree, my loafers covered with plastic bags held on by rubber bands. Why? Because what Carolina girl actually owns snow boots?) On the Recent and Relevant shelf, call number Minnesota/Midwest (Misc) A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers 147 pages, Hugo Winner 2022, one of the first books to represent the “Solarpunk Aesthetic” A gentle heartwarming book composed of philosophical conversations between Dex, a Tea Monk, and Mosscap, a robot. Dex is on a quest to hear the sound of crickets and he is joined by Mosscap on his own quest to find out what humans need. On the Recent and Relevant shelf, call number Fiction (Cham) And one bonus, located not at Coffman but at both Hennepin and Ramsey County Libraries (paper, audio and ebook): 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff 112 pages A beloved classic, one of my all-time favorites, set in post-war London. A story for people who love books, told through a series of letters between a freelance writer living in New York City and a used book dealer in London. Also made into an award winning movie with Anthony Hopkins, Anne Bancroft and Judi Dench. |
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