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Greetings, Ersatzers!

I'm finding it harder than usual to tear myself away from 24/7 streaming news; I imagine I'm not alone. Here are some links to pursue if you need a few minutes of distraction here or there.

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The 2022 Tournament of Books is nigh. Here's a link to this year's shortlist:



Also, did you know there is a Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ group of TOB devotees?

Tournament of Books

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LitHub's The 10 Best Book Covers of February is available here:



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On this day in 1820, John Tenniel was born...



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Feel better soon, Anne. Thinking of you, Anastasia.

Thanks for the intro Lisa.
From the ToB shortlist I've only read one, the Lockwood, which I hated.. but there are a couple on there which I am very keen on, and will read soon.
Get well soon Anne.

Its the International Booker Longlist next week, 10th March. I enjoy this part of the award most of all, as it is so difficult to predict. Its interesting to hear what people think might make it. Later this week, when I get chance, I will make some (what inevitably will be useless) predictions of my own. I've probably read about 10 that would qualify.

Unsurprisingly, this weekend I have been reading from Russia and Ukraine..

I Will Die in a Foreign Land by Kalani Pickhart

Recently published (November), this debut novel of Pickhart, a Ukranian now living in America, takes place during the 2013-14 Ukrainian Revolution amidst a wave of winter protests. Set in Kyiv at the heart of the unrest, the plot alternates the stories of four main characters, Katya, Misha, Slava, and Aleksandr. These interwoven narratives that vaguely form its plot are not the centre of attention here. In themselves, they are of moderate interest, but it is what is happening in the background, the actual facts of this period of very recent history, that fascinate. These fragments of press releases, quotations, and even lists of deceased, are blended with Ukranian folklore, and with a highly informative Introduction, make me wonder if the novel would have worked better in a different format.
This sort of fiction, as a pseudo-documentary, is liable to criticism as to which events actually happened, and which are invented. It needs to be made clearer though, that the quoted journalism is genuine, even if it requires a further note in the appendix.
Sadly for Pickhart, her novel has received a huge boost in its promotion following the Russian invasion and the outbreak of war last week.
For those, like me, who want to be better informed about Ukranian history, that box is certainly ticked.
To read this chiefly for the story of the four characters though, that box remains empty.

Here's a clip..

Before it was Ukraine, before it was Soviet Union, before it was Russian Empire, before it was Kievan Rus, Crimea was a Khanate - mixed descendants of conquerors and exiles. The people indigenous to the peninsula were called Cumans, and later, Crimean Tatars.
Turkic language, Islamic faith.

In 1932, Stalin starved the Ukrainian.
In 1944, he exiled the Crimean Tatar,.
Ukrainians call it Holdomor: Death by Hunger.
Crimean Tatars call it Surgun, Turkish for expulsion.
Jews call it Shoah, Hebrew for Destruction.
Diaspora, Genocide: two words for saying, Erased.

There is power in a name.
Ukraine means Country.
The Mongols named the peninsula, Crimea.
From Qirim, meaning, Strength.

and, There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby: Scary Fairy Tales by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya translated by Anna Summers.

For much of her or much of her professional career, Petrushevskaya was shunned in Russia because "her stories about the lives of Russian women were too dark, too direct, and too forbidding." In the days of the Soviet Union she struggled to find a publisher.
Now, she is acclaimed as one of the best living authors in the country.
How can the description of her from those days, "Even her fairy tales seemed to have an edge of despair to them." not appeal?
These 19 stories all begin "There once lived.."
There is some inconistency in their quality, but the best ones are very enjoyable. Amongst my favourites begins

There once lived a woman who was so fat, she couldn’t fit in a taxi and when going into the subway she took up the whole width of the elevator.

Even amongst the weaker of the stories there are some tremendous sentences,

Nina invited me into her house and there I saw strange things..

or

He removed a chair blocking the way and entered a room filled with broken glass, rubbish, excrement, pages torn out of books, strewn bottles, and headless mice. A little girl with a bright-red bald scalp, just like the young man’s, only redder, lay on the bed. She stared at the young man, and the cat sat beside her on her pillow, also staring attentively at him, with big, round eyes.

In one story, the real terror is that the intruder ‘is not even being careful. Someone isn’t even trying to hide anymore�.
There is a really interesting blend of horror, fantasy and humour here, and I will certainly read more of Petrushevskaya.

Greetings on a sad time for the western world and i'm kinda glued to 24/7 news too

Reading is going well:
The Career of Nicodemus Dyzma - a witty, cynical, satirical Polish novel from 1932, where a nobody becomes a somebody. i'm 65 pages in and so far Dzyma seems to have accessed large sections of influential Polish society almost by accident, well aware this could all fall through quickly

Yugoslavia My Fatherland - didnt expect two great modern novels in two months but this matches the brilliant Latvian novel "18" in read in January

Walks With Walser - superb and rather sad selection of roamings by Carl Seelig who walked the eastern Swiss countryside with the great author in the 1940s and 50s

Aftermath by Harald Jahner - West Germany and the 1945-55 period, well told and paced, translated from the German.

Hi all, sorry not to have posted for so long! It's certainly hard to tear oneself away from the news and the astounding courage of the Ukrainian resistance. Thinking of Anastasia and hoping she is okay, popped along to see and say hallo.
I have been wandering away from fiction into contemporary poetry this year and the last, starting with Carol Ann Duffy as an accessible entrance point and recently finding a lot of pleasure reading Brigit Pegeen Kelly, Jane Burn, and Mary Oliver. I have started ordering "Gutter" the excellent Scottish magazine of new writing, and it's a real feast for the brain.
I've also been wading through American Caesars, a portrait of US presidents starting with Roosevelt. It's a surprisingly addictive read (well, I was surprised).
I've had the enjoyment of discovering two easy, immersive writers who I have been enjoying - Jane Smiley and Jonathan Franzen, who I didn't expect to like but who has broken a reading block this month for me when I discovered Purity in a shelf full of second hand books while waiting for a lift. I've had a good read of Joanne Harris, too, being similarly undemanding a read!
All the best to you all.

Something painfully wrong with the sentence of repeated enjoyment! It got away from me.

Andy wrote: "Thanks for the intro Lisa.
From the ToB shortlist I've only read one, the Lockwood, which I hated."

I abandoned No One Is Talking About This after about 30 pages. Some have said it gets better in the second half, but I didn't have enough strength to plow on. Which is a shame, because I thought Priestdaddy was quite good.

Caroline wrote: "I've had the enjoyment pleasure of discovering two easy, immersive writers who I have been enjoying - Jane Smiley and Jonathan Franzen..."

I'm a big Smiley fan - which have you enjoyed?

Lljones wrote: "Andy wrote: "Thanks for the intro Lisa.
From the ToB shortlist I've only read one, the Lockwood, which I hated."

I abandoned No One Is Talking About This after about 30 pages. Som..."

That makes me feel better.. I’ve seen it get some rave reviews from some I follow�

Lljones wrote: "Andy wrote: "Thanks for the intro Lisa.
From the ToB shortlist I've only read one, the Lockwood, which I hated."

I abandoned No One Is Talking About This after about 30 pages..."

Having glanced at the GR reviews, I don't think it's for me either - Prerna has placed it on these shelves:

Shelves: pretentious-bullshit, contemporary-fiction, shut-the-fuck-up-already

!

Hello folks! I just posted this over in the monthly TLS substitute, but I'm still roaming these halls as well.

Few folks steered my reading as Justine/Interwar did, and the latest (but likely not last) gentle nudge in the direction of literary greatness has been her passionate love for Ismail Kadare. She had celebrated most of his work throughout the last few years in the previous TLS incarnation, and I finally got around to following up her enthusiasm by reading Chronicle In Stone.
The story of an Albanian town, Gjirokaster, as it changes hands constantly during the territorial squabblings of WWII. The town itself is the principal character, its stones cells, its mortar tight junctions, its wells blood vessels, its citadel a thickened cranium. Seen through the eyes of a young Kadare, the constantly changing occupiers grow in menace and brutality. A newly built airfield and the bomber housed there go from being an object of boyish lust to a bringer of War and Conquest. The citizens move to basement cistern bomb shelters, migrate to citadels and eventually abandon the city, moving to the poorer hills to escape the coming of the Nazis. Grandmothers stay at home throughout, having grown into the tissue of the city they are inextricable from the lumbering beast of the city. A great living, Ghibli-like organism, the city shuffles along and shivers off its occupiers, sheds a few cells, takes wounds, loses parts, but it lumbers along indomitable. Seen through the eyes of an ebullient boy, the horrors of war are thankfully only glimpsed and often not well understood. Until the fascist repression becomes evident even to the likes of a distracted 7 year old boy. Both hopeful and sad, horrible and essential, I read it weeks before the madness of Russian aggression. I do hope my friends manage to make it through as well as Kadare and his family did. Stay safe Anastasia. Please.

Utterly brilliant. As good as anything I’ve read in years. Thanks Justine!

Paul wrote: "Utterly brilliant. As good as anything I’ve read in years. Thanks Justine!"

Wow! Thanks, Justine, indeed! I sure do miss her.

@Lljones I read Early Warning (have a real mental block about remembering this particular title for some reason). I loved it and now have a dilemma: I *want* to follow the characters to the next chapter in Golden Age, but I know that I *should* go back to the first one, Some Luck. Probably going to do the first of these, and then read Some Luck as a backwards adieu to the trilogy.

Definitely go back to Some Luck first! I felt like the power of this trilogy dwindled a bit in Golden Age.

Here's the shortlist for the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography prize:

- Annabel Abbs, Windswept: Walking in the Footsteps of Remarkable Women
- Eileen Atkins, Will She Do? Act One of a Life on Stage
- Alex Christofi, Dostoevsky in Love: An Intimate Life
- Ian Collins, John Craxton: A Life of Gifts
- Lea Ypi, Free: Coming of Age at the End of History

I'm reading, as I've said, Windswept and have the Eileen Atkins which I think someone else has read. I think someone has mentioned the Lea Ypi, too

I recently purchased the latest edition of Banipal, The Magazine of Modern Arab Literature, which covers Iraqi Jewish writers in Arabic and Hebrew (all in translation of course)

Its a very well curated collection , with some great essays and short fiction.

I also subscribe to Jewish Quarterly. I'm not Jewish but am interested in the Jewish world. Though i have to say TJQ does veer towards pro-Israeli sentiment on the difficult issues regarding Palestine and the violence attached which i find hard to read. I'm pro both sides and hope for peace, i dislike reading chauvinistic pro-Israeli views and therefore will not be renewing my subscription

scarletnoir wrote: "Lljones wrote: "Andy wrote: "Thanks for the intro Lisa.
From the ToB shortlist I've only read one, the Lockwood, which I hated."

I abandoned No One Is Talking About This after abo..."

scarletnoir wrote: "Lljones wrote: "Andy wrote: "Thanks for the intro Lisa.
From the ToB shortlist I've only read one, the Lockwood, which I hated."

I abandoned No One Is Talking About This after abo..."

That's pretty accurate..

Two books in the last couple of days, could hardly be more different..

Motorman by David Ohle

Ohle's book might have received bad press when it was orginally published in 1972..

The only virtue of this absolutely atrocious book is its brevity (Kirkus)

..but it has since gone on to become something of a cult classic in the sci-fi / dystopian fan community.
It is a type of noir/science-fiction/surreal blend. Moldenke, a man who has been rebuilt (rather like Steve Austin) after an injury in a war, operates on four sheep hearts and is without an eye. He is chasing two men; Burnheart and Eagleman. Eagleman is a mad scientist, responsible for at least one of the many moons that now circle the earth.
The style takes a bit of getting used to.
Occasional sentences stand out, though I am not sure the whole thing holds together. But it could well be that it’s not supposed to..
It is very 1970s, full of the experimentation, typical of Gilliam/Python, with plenty of toilet humour, You can almost visualise a Gilliam style animation.
Here's a clip..

Dear Moldenke,
Whether or not you have feelings for me, or feelings at all, I do have feelings about you. They increased when you compared my nipples to pencil erasers. No one has been so gentle to me.
The clouds are promising rain.
Love,
Cock Roberta.

and

That was the way with Moldenke, a brightly burning candle with a shortened wick, destined to burn low and give off gas.

and Winchelsea by Alex Preston

I listened to a review and discussion of this on Front Row (Radio 4, BBC), and had read a couple of pieces about it also. It did sound good.
But I find the language the author uses almost childlike. It could be that it’s a trait I’ve developed from reading a lot of darker stuff. After just a few chapters I thought that maybe it was written for young adults, by which I mean 12-15 year olds, but there seems no sign of that.
It’s getting a lot of plaudits also, so I’m in the minority with a critical review.
I get a concocted impression from it also, in that it’s gone out of its way to be politically correct. Better writing doesn’t appear so false.
I've said before, using a child narrator requires two things, on the one hand an authenticity in the voice of the child, and on the other the adult world around being as convincing as it would otherwise. This fails on both counts.
Sort all the above, and cut it down by a third, and there might be something interesting here.

Paul wrote: "Hello folks! I just posted this over in the monthly TLS substitute, but I'm still roaming these halls as well.

Few folks steered my reading as Justine/Interwar did, and the latest (but likely not..."

glad you mentioned Justine, Paul, as i think it was exactly a year ago when she passed away. I miss her still and she had great taste in books

I'm a big Kadare fan, he was one of my first commute novel choices and over time i read 3 or 4 on slow, sticky horrible trains. the only catch is i didnt start recording the books i read in detail until 2016 and i cant find if i have read "the file on H" but its calling me, so it may follow Vojnovic as my next modern novel.

i do NOT miss sticky commutes! thank the lord for the books i read, tuning out of that awfulness

I have been thinking of Justine today.

Thinking of you too, Anastasia.

Anne wrote: "I have been thinking of Justine today.

Thinking of you too, Anastasia."

Was about to say, has anyone heard from Anastasia, on private messages? Am sure she is either defending her country or sheltering somewhere but it would be nice to convey our thoughts and best wishes to her. I cant remember if she was in kiev or not? In some ways i hope she is in the far West, close to Poland(living there not evacuating)

Her profile says she isnt accepting messages right now...just checked

AB76 wrote: "Anne wrote: "I have been thinking of Justine today.

Thinking of you too, Anastasia."

Was about to say, has anyone heard from Anastasia, on private messages? Am sure she is either defending her co..."

Yes, recent message informs she is "fine", safe at the moment. No other details to share.

Lljones wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Anne wrote: "I have been thinking of Justine today.

Thinking of you too, Anastasia."

Was about to say, has anyone heard from Anastasia, on private messages? Am sure she is either def..."

ah good, i messaged her just as the war broke but didnt get a reply, which was understandable. i get the impression she didnt think Putin would invade

AB76 wrote: "i get the impression she didnt think Putin would invade"

No, I think she just didn't want to talk about it. Like the Blitz in the UK, Ukrainians are 'staying calm and carrying on'. In that respect the Western media coverage is probably quite frustrating.

Lljones wrote: "Greetings, Ersatzers!

I'm finding it harder than usual to tear myself away from 24/7 streaming news; I imagine I'm not alone. Here are some links to pursue if you need a few minutes of distraction..."

Thank you, Lisa.

I laboured to the end of The LockedRoom by Elly Griffiths - a disappointing read. I usually enjoy this series, the central characters are well drawn but this book is ridiculous, the plot plain silly. Obviously written fairly early in the pandemic it seemed ' rushed to get in print/ make money' and I wasted my time and money.

in the evening I read a little more from The Boundless Sea. I am sailing the Indian Ocean now around the Persian Gulf. There is so much to learn about in this book, I go slowly. I learned that one of the earliest civilisations was the Ubraid centred in southern Iraq 6,000 -4,000 BC. their pottery has been found along coastal regions so they were traders, the pottery a distinctive greenish colour with often stripy patterns. I posted an example on photos and there are many more pictures to be found on wiki.

On then to learning more about the Sumerians, the first ones with a system of writing and we are able to translate, well clever people have done it for us. Two more photos posted about the language and the only word in English used today but dates from the Sumerians in the third millennium BC. I would never have guessed the word!

CCCubbon wrote: "I laboured to the end of The LockedRoom by Elly Griffiths - a disappointing read. I usually enjoy this series, the central characters are well drawn but this book is ridiculous, the plot plain sill..."

Thanks for that - I've been keeping up with this series, but it looks as if the author is running out of puff... it can happen with long series - authors run out of ideas, or lose interest in their own creations, or it all becomes too repetitive.

As posted on the other side, there is this extremely useful website that collates everything we can do, from signing petitions, giving money to reputable and independent Ukrainian media (indeed, even the Guardian wrote about the gofundme fundraising), to welcoming Ukrainian families:

All i can say is Glory to Ukraine!!

....and i will be looking for donation sites

Hushpuppy wrote: "...there is this extremely useful website that collates everything we can do, from signing petitions, giving money to reputable and independent Ukrainian media...

HP - for whatever reason, your link doesn't work on my laptop... in case others have the same problem, I have re-posted the link here:



Edit: Well, it wasn't working in your post 5 minutes ago, but now it is... go figure. I'll leave this 'in case' - very odd.

AB76 wrote: "i have deleted it hush and regretted it after sending!"

That's ok AB! But maybe edit the beginning of your post too, because it still contains the problematic sentence? (Thanks scarlet - odd, but glad the link is working now.)

I've donated to both gofundme endeavours, and signed the Parliamentary petition for waiving visa requirements for Ukrainian refugees - if it passes 100,000, they debate it in parliament (only for UK citizens and residents unfortunately):

scarletnoir wrote: "Well, it wasn't working in your post 5 minutes ago, but now it is... go figure. I'll leave this 'in case' - very odd."

Apparently, it intermittently does not work. Probably something fishy going on there. Just in case, the links to the two legit gofundme directly here: and

Thanks for the lovely introduction, LL. I haven't read any of the longlisted titles, yet. I have ordered Percival Everett's The Trees. The premise sounds absolutely fascinating. But a great premise doesn't automatically make a good book. So I am curious how it has turned out.

Here are two reviews I posted on the other site - and really, let me double down on my recommendation for the Ramuz. English readers will have to be a little patient, but I know there are some German speakers around, and the original is, of course, in French. So without further ado:

I enjoyed Hiromi Kawakami's "The Nakano Thrift Shop" (2005) very much. Dealing with different characters and employees at the shop of Mr. Nakano, it is a light and quiet novel. No big fireworks and conflicts, but a great sense of place. The German translation is embarrassingly titled "Herr Nakano und die Frauen" - "Mr. Nakano and the women", no doubt trying to market the book as a romantic novel, "Frauenliteratur", as it says on the back. For some reason, Japanese literature has been pigeon-holed in this regard in Germany (Of course, there is an oriental bird cage on the cover, as it is the case with about 90 percent of Japanese translations over here. It makes me cringe). While love is a topic, this isn't a romance, but a novel about people trying to find their place in the world, wondering what defines them as they relate to others.

An awesome discovery was "Great Fear on the Mountain" by Charles Ferdinand Ramuz (1926) . A short, modern novel with cinematic scope, boasting some of the finest literary descriptions of the mountainside I have read to date. I inhaled it in one afternoon: After a great catastrophe, the mountain pasture of Sasseneire has not been used by the villagers in 20 years. Now, with little money in the communal chest, a decision is made to bring the lifestock back up to the pasture. Horrifying events unfold, and lives will be lost. Despite Ramuz being on the 200 Swiss Francs note, he is - mystifyingly - little known beyond Switzerland. The English translation, entitled Terror on the Mountain, dating back to 1968, seems to be out of print. English readers can rejoice though, as it seems that a new translation will be published later this year by Archipelago Books. Highly recommended!

I have just started my first short story collection of 2022 and it is the master of the Eastern empire ,Somerset Maugham to whom i turn.

Collected Stories Vol 4 concentrates on his stories set in British Malaya or the Federated States. Its 500 pages long and i started with the haunting tale "The Book Bag" which seemed to start out with a Kipling like phrasing on the different types of reader of books, the quote was:

some people read for instruction, which is praiseworthy and some for pleasure which is innocent but not a few read from habit and i suppose that is neither innocent nor praiseworthy"

Just donated to a gofundme page to help Ukrainian refugees in Poland

AB76 wrote: "I have just started my first short story collection of 2022 and it is the master of the Eastern empire ,Somerset Maugham to whom i turn.

Collected Stories Vol 4 concentrates on his stories set in..."


I love Maugham's novels but the volume of his short stories has always intimidated me. It has got to run to 4000 pages of tiny font what with all of the different volumes. I'm interested to hear how you find them.

Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "I have just started my first short story collection of 2022 and it is the master of the Eastern empire ,Somerset Maugham to whom i turn.

Collected Stories Vol 4 concentrates on his s..."

actually the vintage classics copy i have, is good size font.

Vintage have four volumes on the market. he must be one of the most prolific short story authors though i am not impressed that vintage have scooped out sets of stories into smaller collections. I had to match my "far eastern tales" against this volume and mark a half dozen stories that overlap

AB76 wrote: "Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "I have just started my first short story collection of 2022 ... Somerset Maugham
Collected Stories Vol 4 ..."
"I love Maugham's novels but the volume of his short stories has always intimidated me."

A few days ago, I rearranged some of the books in my sitting room to move some collections of short stories into a more accessible place, wanting to revisit some of them.
Among them are my two volumes of Somerset Maugham's stories: Penguin Collected Short Stories (1st published 1963) Volume 2 & Volume 4. Volume 4 seems to be the same as yours, AB. It's a long while since I read anything by Maugham but I preferred his short stories to his novels.

Hushpuppy wrote: "I've donated to both gofundme endeavours, and signed the Parliamentary petition for waiving visa requirements for Ukrainian refugees - if it passes 100,000, they debate it in parliament (only for UK citizens and residents unfortunately): ....."

The petition is up to nearly 80k already - it should easily pass 100k soon... I have forwarded it to a few people.

Yoshi wrote: "An awesome discovery was "Great Fear on the Mountain" by Charles Ferdinand Ramuz (1926)."

Thanks for that - I have opted for the Kindle edition in French, which didn't break the bank! Will report in due course, but maybe not for a month or two...

AB76 wrote: "...some people read for instruction, which is praiseworthy and some for pleasure which is innocent but not a few read from habit and i suppose that is neither innocent nor praiseworthy"

Good quote from Maugham, there... the ideal is to find books which are both instructive and pleasurable... I learned quite a bit about some of the Nazis' less well known but nastier doings in Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series (instructive), but it would be a lie to pretend that the stories of Bernie sticking it to those bastards were not also 'pleasurable'.

Gpfr wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "I have just started my first short story collection of 2022 ... Somerset Maugham
Collected Stories Vol 4 ..."
"I love Maugham's novels but the volume of his..."

I havent read any of his novels set in europe, just "The Painted Veil" set in China and "The Narrow Corner" set in the Dutch East Indies, which i recommend heartily.

I can sense the style of a master in his later years when reading these stories, a bit like how i found "Victory" by Conrad, where he seemed to have found a perfect style, not too wordy, not too light.

scarletnoir wrote: "Yoshi wrote: "An awesome discovery was "Great Fear on the Mountain" by Charles Ferdinand Ramuz (1926)."

Thanks for that - I have opted for the Kindle edition in French, which didn't break the bank..."

Big Ramuz fan here, always hunting down his slim volumes in translation/.....

CCCubbon wrote: "I laboured to the end of The LockedRoom by Elly Griffiths - a disappointing read. I usually enjoy this series, the central characters are well drawn but this book is ridiculous, the plot plain sill..."

Thanks from me, as well. Time for her to move on - I'm rather tired of Nelson and that plot device.

Instead I found Death of an Old Girl by Elizabeth Lemarchand at my library. Nothing like a police procedural set in the evils of 'an English girls' school'.

And as it seems to have page and a half snippets (I read while waiting for a page to load), I pick up The Getaway Car: A Donald Westlake Nonfiction Miscellany to find that as a 10-year-old, he was already learning to rewrite stories. (His parents believed in the maxim of only sleep in bed, so that's where he started making up stories.)

If anyone here is interested in both comic relief and mysteries, one could do so much worse than pick up one of Donald E. Westlake's Dortmunder series or any of his marvelous standalones. Of course, if you prefer hardboiled, you could pick up one by one of his other author names - Richard Stark where it is best to read in order, beginning with The Hunter.

Yoshi wrote: "Thanks for the lovely introduction, LL. I haven't read any of the longlisted titles, yet. I have ordered Percival Everett's The Trees. The premise sounds absolutely fascinating. But a great premise..."

Yoshi.
I also really enjoyed Ramuz's book.
Did you read it in English? I did, and the title was Terror on the Mountain.
I wonder if you have read a different translation, or translated the title yourself.
The other book of his I have read is Jean-Luc Persecuted, also good, but not quite as good.
I have four others of his on the radar, and must get to them soon..

And a plug for - Jane and the Year Without a Summer which Tom Nolan who reviews mysteries for the Wall Street Journal (weekend edition) called out. It's number 14 in the series. I have numbers 1-4 in mass market paperback which are going to my re-read shelf. I don't know why I was surprised to see this review as he did say that they are well researched.

And if any here want to take a look at the poisoned pen bookstore's videos on You Tube, there are a slew of them. Martin Walker will join the videos there in mid-month as he will be at the bookstore (virtually, I suppose) to talk about Bruno's Challenge & Other Dordogne Tales.

Andy wrote: "Yoshi wrote: "Thanks for the lovely introduction, LL. I haven't read any of the longlisted titles, yet. I have ordered Percival Everett's The Trees. The premise sounds absolutely fascinating. But a..."

i recommend "What If The Sun" by Ramuz

Me, again. Just signed up for this talk on Thursday (3.30 ET)
Here are the speakers -
Ivo H. Daalder
President, Chicago Council on Global Affairs; Former U.S. Ambassador, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (2009-2013)

Fiona Hill
Senior Fellow, Center on the United States and Europe, Brookings Institution; Former Senior Director, European and Russian Affairs, National Security Council (2017-2019)

Mary Elise Sarotte
Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Professor of Historical Studies, Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University

CCCubbon wrote: "I laboured to the end of The LockedRoom by Elly Griffiths - a disappointing read. I usually enjoy this series, the central characters are well drawn but this book is ridiculous, the plot plain sill..."

I think we have both come to the same conclusion that this series has reached its sell by date.

I have just finished reading:



and have to say that for the main I hadn't much idea what was going on! The hero, an avid photographer, is attached to a Special Surveillance Unit based at the time at Harwich. He sees and snaps his boss their at a time when a shooting takes place, but then his boss denies being there. It is difficult to tell the good from the bad for a lot of the time. Will I read the next one? Probably, if if it is only to see if I can understand it more easily.