Hi all,
Multiple links to full-length professional reviews of the following
books released in the US have been added to http://www.reviewsofbooks.com
in the last week:
"The Quiet Girl" by Peter Hoeg - "The Quiet Girl's" protagonist is
Kasper Krone, a famous circus clown with a gambling problem who is
about to be extradited from his native Denmark to Spain because of tax
problems. Kasper also possesses the ability to hear people's acoustic
essence, detecting their mood and spirit in musical form. A group of
nuns offer to negotiate a settlement for him if he helps them with
their special children who are under their care. One of these is a
girl named KlaraMaria, the quiet girl of the novel's title, who also
has the special ability to hear God's symphony through people's
moods. When she is kidnapped by those who want to use her special
abilities to further their own nefarious goals, Kasper must go in
search of her. This new novel from Peter Hoeg ("Smilla's Sense of
Snow") has received mixed reviews with the Chicago Sun-Times saying,
"In the end, 'The Quiet Girl' seems like two different novels -- one a
philosophical treatise, the other an adrenaline-laced thriller -- that
don't easily meet on common ground. It is a story wrapped in enigmas
that build to a screeching pitch and leave you dizzy and stunned. But
it's the melancholy wit of Hoeg's writing that keeps you engaged, and
hoping Kasper finally does come to terms with his place in the world."
All reviews are at:
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/quiet_girl
"Love Falls" by Esther Freud - "Love Falls" is set in the summer of
1981 just before the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. 17-
year-old Lara is invited by her father to go to Italy with him. Her
father, Lambert, is a famous historian who fled Nazi occupation and
changed his name. He's been distant in her life, having never married
Lara's mother, a bohemian woman who traveled by bus across parts of
Asia with her. She and her father stay in Siena with one of her
father's friends, a widow dying of cancer, and she's introduced to the
Willoughbys who live nearby. They are a depraved and promiscuous
aristocratic family and Lara falls for their son Kip. As she
struggles through the challenges of her burgeoning womanhood, she also
finally gets a chance to get to know her father. Esther Freud's novel
has received mixed reviews with the San Francisco Chronicle saying,
"Freud, who, along with Kazuo I****guro, A.L. Kennedy and Jeanette
Winterson, was tapped as one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists
in the early '90s, deftly creates Lara with a perfect mix of
trepidation, physical pride, devil-may-care attitude and buried
longing to be her father's little girl. 'Love Falls' lingers with the
reader like the bittersweet memories of a final summer vacation."
Excerpt and all reviews are at:
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/love_falls
Happy reading!
Bill - administrator of http://www.reviewsofbooks.com
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